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In short
The Akshavedamsa, or D45, is the divisional chart made by cutting each sign into forty-five parts of 40 minutes of arc. BPHS starts the count from Aries for movable signs, Leo for fixed and Sagittarius for dual signs, and reads "all indications" from it together with the Shashtiamsa. This app computes it for every planet and the Ascendant.
What the term means
Akshavedamsa is the forty-fifth division of a sign. It is the varga made by cutting each 30-degree sign into forty-five parts of 40 minutes of arc and assigning each part a sign. Forty-five parts run through the zodiac three and three-quarter times inside a single sign, so the D45 sign changes about every two-thirds of a degree of the planet's motion.
Where the term comes from
BPHS Ch. 6 Sl. 31-32 names "Mesh, Simh and Dhanu" as the signs the distribution starts from for movable, fixed and common signs respectively. Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu preside over the parts in an order that depends on the modality, repeating fifteen times. Ch. 7 Sl. 1-8 gives this chart and the Shashtiamsa a shared subject, "all indications", the broadest assignment in the list. In the sixteen-chart Vimshopak scheme (Ch. 7 Sl. 21-25) the D45 is one of the nine divisions weighted half a point, while the D60 is weighted 4.
How this app computes it
- The part is the degree within the sign divided by 40/60 of a degree, rounded down (parts 1 to 45).
- Movable signs count from Aries, fixed signs from Leo and dual signs from Sagittarius, one sign per part. These are the same starts the Shodashamsa uses.
- The D45 sign is one of the sixteen placements in this app's Vimshopaka bala (weight 0.5 of 20). Same-sign D1 and D45 is flagged vargottama.
A small illustration
For 19 January 1985, 11:14 IST, New Delhi, Mercury is at Sagittarius 16.62. Sagittarius is dual, so the count starts at Sagittarius; 16.62 degrees is the twenty-fifth part, twenty-four signs on, which is exactly two rounds and lands back on Sagittarius. Mercury is therefore vargottama here, and so is Saturn at Scorpio 2.64 (fixed, counted from Leo, fourth part: Scorpio). The Moon at Sagittarius 12.66 lands on Gemini.
Pages that use this term
- Akshavedamsa (D45) calculator - every planet's D45 sign from your birth details.
- Navamsa: the second chart - lists the D45 with the D60 under "all indications".
- Sagittarius (Dhanu Rashi) - a sign page that lists its divisions, the D45 among them.
- Vimshopaka bala calculator - shows the D45 placement in each planet's breakdown.
Related terms
- Shashtiamsa (D60) - the division BPHS pairs it with.
- Khavedamsa (D40) - the division before it.
- Vargottama and Divisional chart - the wider terms.
Akshavedamsa D45 Chart
Forty-five parts of 0°40', started by modality - classically read for paternal legacy.
What it needs
Date, time and place
That is more than this article asks for - it only ever takes a date, and sometimes a time, and never a name or a birth place. So this one runs on its own page, which asks for exactly what it needs and stores none of it.
Run it on its own page