Leo ascendant (Simha Lagna): the twelve houses, their lords, and what the texts say

The twelve houses from Leo and the lords that rule them

Each house takes the lord of its sign. Rahu and Ketu own no sign in this engine, so seven grahas share twelve houses: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn rule two each, the Sun and the Moon one each. The groups follow BPHS: angles and trines (Ch. 7 Sl. 33-36; the Lagna counts as both, Ch. 34 Sl. 2-7), dusthanas and upachayas.

Four features organise what follows. The Sun rules only the 1st, both an angle and a trine. Mars rules the 4th, an angle, and the 9th, a trine: apart from the Sun it is the only graha holding both. Saturn and Jupiter are split: Saturn rules the 6th, a dusthana, and the 7th, an angle; Jupiter rules the 5th, a trine, and the 8th, a dusthana. The Moon rules only the 12th.

The engine's yoga tests draw on these lists: Raj yoga for the Leo ascendant and Dhana yoga for the Leo ascendant take them lord by lord, and Kendra-Kona Raj Yoga gives the general rule. The same facts colour each period; the Mahadasha pages for this ascendant are Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu.

What the texts say: BPHS Ch. 34 for Simha Lagna

BPHS Ch. 34 is the chapter on yoga karakas. Sl. 29-30 is its verdict for Simh Lagn: Mercury, Venus and Saturn are malefics; Mars, Jupiter and the Sun give auspicious effects; the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus, though they rule a trine and an angle, does not produce auspicious results; and Saturn and the Moon are killers who give effects "according to their associations". Maraka is BPHS's longevity label; this app computes no lifespan. The engine's table holds those three lists, and the Leo rashi page covers the Jupiter and Venus conjunction. The rules behind the verdict are in Sl. 2-14; read against the lordships above, they give this.

Is there a yogakaraka for Leo rising?

Sl. 13 makes a graha that owns an angle and a trine a Yog Karak, and Mars owns the 4th and 9th; Sl. 29-30 lists Mars as auspicious without the word. The engine follows the per-lagna verse, so a Leo-rising chart here shows no yogakaraka. The Leo rashi page sets out how the later books differ.

The Bhrigu Sutras translator's comments on Leo rising

The comments printed after the sutras in this translation are the translator's, not Bhrigu's. At least a dozen name Leo rising; the table shows those on the Sun, Mars and Mercury.

The Mars lines support Sl. 13; the comments call Mars a yoga karaka for Leo twice (pp. 47, 50). The Mercury lines go the other way: Sl. 29-30 puts Mercury among Leo's malefics, yet the comments rate three of its placements highly. The sources disagree, this page does not choose, and the engine follows BPHS.

Saravali has no lordship list like Ch. 34. Its Ch. 3 Sl. 37-38 files Leo among the four signs of long ascension, the signs that take longest to rise.

Exalted and debilitated signs, counted as houses from Leo

BPHS Ch. 3 Sl. 49-50 gives the exaltation signs of the Sun to Saturn as Aries, Taurus, Capricorn, Virgo, Cancer, Pisces and Libra, with debilitation in the seventh sign from each; Saravali Ch. 3 Sl. 35-36 agrees. Counting from Leo turns that into a house map.

Mars and Jupiter, both auspicious for this lagna, have their strongest and weakest signs in dusthanas: Mars is exalted in the 6th and weak in the 12th, Jupiter the reverse. Venus and Mercury swap: the 8th (Pisces) exalts Venus and weakens Mercury, the 2nd (Virgo) the reverse. The Sun's own sign is the 1st house itself, Moolatrikona for the first 20 degrees and own sign for the last 10 (Ch. 3 Sl. 51-54). These are fixed by the sign; the app's "Friendly sign" and "Enemy sign" labels depend on the chart and cannot be tabulated by house. See exaltation and debilitation.

The Sun as lagna lord: BPHS Ch. 12 and Ch. 24

BPHS ties bodily comfort to the lagna lord. Ch. 12 Sl. 1-2 says it lessens when the lagna lord is joined to a malefic or sits in the 6th, 8th or 12th, and holds when it sits in an angle or trine. Ch. 24 Sl. 1-12 reads the lagna lord in each house, which for Leo rising means the Sun: in the 3rd the verse likens valour to a lion's (Sl. 3), in the 10th it names royal honour, fame and self-earned wealth (Sl. 10), and in the 6th and 12th it makes the result depend on a benefic's aspect (Sl. 6, 12). The other verses' clauses on marriage, children and conduct are left out.

The Sun's placement in each house has its own page, from the Sun in the 1st house to the Sun in the 7th house. The Shad Bala calculator shows how strong the Sun is in a given chart.

Worked example: Leo rising at 15.68 degrees, New Delhi, 15 February 1985

This is not a real person's chart. It is a birth moment, 19:05 IST on 15 February 1985 in New Delhi, that the helper found by a deterministic search because it rises in Leo; re-enter it in the Birth Chart calculator. The engine puts the ascendant at 15.68 degrees of Leo. Each nakshatra takes 13 degrees 20 minutes (four padas of 3 degrees 20): Magha fills the first 13.33 degrees of Leo and Purva Phalguni the next 13.33, so 15.68 falls in Purva Phalguni, pada 1 (13.33 to 16.67).

• The lagna lord. The Sun is in the 7th, an angle, in Aquarius, which the engine labels Neutral; Ch. 12 Sl. 1-2 counts an angle in the lagna lord's favour. Mercury, lord of the 2nd and 11th, shares the sign 2.96 degrees away (3.18 minus 0.22), and the engine marks it combust.
• Mars. The lord of the 4th and 9th is in the 8th, in Pisces. The Bhrigu Sutras comments single out Mars in the 4th, 9th or 10th for Leo; none occurs here, so they say nothing about this chart.
• Venus with Mars. Venus, lord of the 3rd and 10th, is exalted in the same sign, 1.47 degrees from Mars (17.46 minus 15.99). The engine lists the pair under Kendra-Kona Raj Yoga because its test follows BPHS Ch. 41 Sl. 28: any link between an angle lord and a trine lord. Ch. 34 Sl. 11-12 is narrower: lords joined together form the yoga in an angle or a trine, and the 8th is neither. The engine's Dharma-Karmadhipati test does not fire, since the 9th and 10th lords must share an angle or a trine. How BPHS weighs this pair is on the Raj yoga for the Leo ascendant page.
• The others. Jupiter, lord of the 5th and 8th, is in Capricorn, its debilitation sign and the 6th house of every Leo-rising chart. Saturn, lord of the 6th and 7th, is in Scorpio, the 4th, an enemy sign. Rahu and Ketu own no sign; Ch. 34 Sl. 16 says they give the effects of the lord they sit with or the house they occupy. The engine lists Sarala Yoga here: the 8th lord in the 6th, one dusthana lord in another.

The app lists no yogakaraka for this chart, for the reason given above, and nothing here is a verdict on a person. Re-entered, the chart also shows dosha rows (Mangal, Kaal Sarp, Kendradhipathya); those are not lordship facts and have their own pages. The questions to carry to your own chart are where the Sun and Mars are, what the three functional malefics are doing, and where Jupiter and Venus sit against their strong and weak signs.

Who is the lagna lord for a Leo ascendant?

The Sun, because Simha is the Sun's sign. BPHS Ch. 12 and Ch. 24 read the lagna lord's house, sign and company, so the Sun is the first graha to check in a Leo-rising chart.

Which graha is the yogakaraka for Leo ascendant?

BPHS Ch. 34 Sl. 29-30 names none, so this app shows none. By the double-lordship rule of Sl. 13 it would be Mars, lord of the 4th and 9th, and the Bhrigu Sutras translator's comments (pp. 47, 50) call Mars a yoga karaka for Leo.

Jupiter rules the 8th house for Leo rising. Does that make it a malefic?

Not by BPHS. Ch. 34 Sl. 2-7 says an 8th lord that also owns a trine gives auspicious effects, and Jupiter owns the 5th; Sl. 29-30 lists Jupiter among the auspicious grahas for Simh. The Bhrigu Sutras translator's comment on Jupiter in the 5th (p. 78) adds that for Leo there is "very little evil effect" from the 8th lordship.

My birth time is only approximate. Is my ascendant still Leo?

It may not be. Compute the chart at both ends of your time range with the Lagna calculator and see whether the sign changes; if it does, read when the birth time is unknown.

Where are the grahas exalted and debilitated in a Leo-rising chart?

Counted from Leo: Mars is exalted in the 6th and debilitated in the 12th, Jupiter the reverse; Venus is exalted in the 8th and debilitated in the 2nd, Mercury the reverse; the Sun is exalted in the 9th and Saturn in the 3rd (BPHS Ch. 3 Sl. 49-50).