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In short
Odd signs are the 1st, 3rd, 5th and every other sign from Aries; even signs are Taurus, Cancer and every other sign from there. BPHS calls the odd signs male and malefic and the even female and benefic. This app uses the split in the Hora, several divisional-chart counts and the Upa Pad, but the Chara Dasha reads a different split, the Pad.
What the term means
Counting from Aries as 1, the odd signs are Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius and Aquarius, and the even signs Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn and Pisces. They alternate all the way round, so every rashi sits between two of the other kind. The engine numbers signs from 0, so in the code an even index is an odd sign - the comments say so wherever it matters.
Where the term comes from
BPHS Ch. 4 Sl. 5 says the signs are "malefic and benefic, successively", and male and female the same way, starting from Mesh; Saravali Ch. 3 Sl. 20-21 repeats it. Most of the use is in the vargas: BPHS Ch. 6 changes the starting point or order for odd and even signs in the Hora (Sl. 5-6), Saptansh (Sl. 10-11), Dashansh (Sl. 13-14), Trimshansh (Sl. 27-28) and Khavedansh (Sl. 29-30), and Saravali Ch. 3 Sl. 14 gives the same Hora rule. BPHS Ch. 30 Sl. 1-6 picks the Upa Pad by the Lagna's parity. Saravali Ch. 4 Sl. 35 adds that the Moon and Venus gain positional strength in even signs and the other grahas in odd ones; this app's strength code does not apply that rule.
How this app uses it
- Hora (D2): in an odd sign the first 15 degrees are the Sun's Hora (Leo) and the rest the Moon's (Cancer); in an even sign the order reverses.
- Divisional counts: the D7 starts from the sign itself if odd, the 7th if even; the D10 from itself or the 9th; the D24 from Leo or Cancer; the D40 from Aries or Libra. The D30 reverses both its degree bands and its lords in even signs.
- Upa Pad: worked from the 12th house for an odd Lagna and the 2nd for an even one.
- The Pad is not the same split: the Chara Dasha reads odd and even Pad (footedness), which puts Taurus and Scorpio in an odd Pad and Leo and Aquarius in an even Pad, against their parity.
One engine reading
For 19 January 1985, 11:14 IST, New Delhi, the Lagna is Pisces, an even sign, so the Upa Pad is worked from the 2nd house and lands in Sagittarius. The Sun at Capricorn 5.46 - first half of an even sign - falls in the Moon's Hora; the Moon at Sagittarius 12.66 - first half of an odd sign - in the Sun's.
Pages that use this term
- Aries (Mesha Rashi) - the first odd sign.
- Taurus (Vrishabha Rashi) - the first even sign, and one of the four whose Pad differs.
- Sun in the 2nd house - the Hora rule for odd and even signs in a wealth reading.
- Jupiter in Vedic astrology - Jupiter's strength in odd signs, which the engine does not compute.
- Hora (D2) calculator - the varga built most directly on parity.
- Chara Dasha calculator - where the Pad, not parity, sets direction.
Related terms
Varga, Chara Dasha, Chara rashi and Agni tattva.