Among the sixteen divisional charts described in Bṛhat Parāśara Horā Śāstra (BPHS), the D20 or Vimshamsha is the one connected with spiritual life. Many modern writers go much further than that. Some say the D20 shows which of the ten Mahavidyas a person should worship. Others publish neat tables that pair every Mahavidya with a planet. At the other end, some students treat the D20 as just another chart with nothing special in it.
Both views miss what the text actually contains. BPHS gives the D20 a clear purpose, and it gives the twenty parts of every sign a list of rulers unlike that of any other divisional chart. Six of those rulers carry the exact names of Mahavidyas. Yet BPHS never calls them Mahavidyas, and it never tells you to choose a deity from this chart.
This article goes back to the Sanskrit verses, checks them against six printed editions of BPHS, and keeps three things apart that usually get mixed up: what the text says, what can reasonably be inferred from it, and what later writers have added. The verses and the edition details are given in a separate section at the end, so the main discussion stays easy to follow.
What Parashara Rishi Actually Says About the D20
BPHS states the purpose of each divisional chart in its chapter on the use of the vargas (Varga Viveka Adhyāya). In R. Santhanam’s edition the relevant lines are verses 7.3 and 7.4. Verse 7.3 assigns the Navamsha to the spouse, the Dashamsha to great results, the Dvadashamsha to the parents, and then ends with the word ṣoḍaśāṃśake, “in the sixteenth part”. Verse 7.4 then reads:
sukhāsukhasya vijñānaṃ vāhanānāṃ tathaiva ca |
upāsanāyā vijñānaṃ sādhyaṃ viṃśatibhāgake ||
Many websites translate this whole verse as if all of it belonged to the D20: happiness, unhappiness, vehicles and worship. That reading does not fit the grammar. The first line has no chart of its own. It completes the word ṣoḍaśāṃśake at the end of the previous verse. So comforts, discomforts and vehicles are seen from the D16, and only the second line belongs to the D20:
“The knowledge of upāsanā is to be determined from the twentieth division.”
Santhanam’s own English translation and Girish Chand Sharma’s translation both divide the verse in the same way. Two words in this line need care.
- Upāsanā comes from upa + ās, “to sit near”. It covers worship, devotional service and meditative contemplation. It is wider than ritual pūjā, and the verse does not tie it to any one tradition.
- Sādhyam here means “to be determined” or “to be worked out”. It is a word of reasoning, not of mantra siddhi.
So the verse gives the D20 one job: understanding a person’s upāsanā. It says nothing about deities, mantras, initiation, Tantra or siddhi.
How to Calculate the Vimshamsha Chart (D20 Chart)
Each sign of 30° is divided into twenty equal parts of 1°30′ each. BPHS 6.17 tells us where to begin counting:
- For a movable sign (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn), count from Aries.
- For a fixed sign (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius), count from Sagittarius.
- For a dual sign (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces), count from Leo.
Twenty parts are more than twelve signs, so the count goes once round the zodiac and then continues for eight more signs. The degree range of each part is shown in the table in the next section.
Example 1. The Sun is at 17°00′ Aries. 17 ÷ 1.5 = 11.33, so the Sun is in the 12th part. Aries is movable, so we count from Aries, and the 12th sign from Aries is Pisces. The Sun’s Vimshamsha sign is Pisces.
Example 2. The Moon is at 8°10′ Leo. 8.17 ÷ 1.5 = 5.44, so the Moon is in the 6th part. Leo is fixed, so we count from Sagittarius: Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus. The Moon’s Vimshamsha sign is Taurus.
Example 3. The Moon is at 10°00′ Cancer. 10 ÷ 1.5 = 6.67, so this is the 7th part. Cancer is movable, so we count from Aries, and the 7th sign is Libra.
All three starting signs, Aries, Sagittarius and Leo, are fire signs. That is a feature of the scheme. The verse does not give a reason for it, so any explanation of it is an interpretation and should be offered as one.
The Forty Rulers of the Vimshamsha Chart (D20 Chart)
Right after the calculation, BPHS (6.18 to 6.21) names a ruler for each of the twenty parts. It gives two separate lists, one for odd signs and one for even signs. This is unusual. In several other divisional charts BPHS uses one list and simply reverses it for even signs. The D16, for example, runs Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Hara and Sūrya forward in odd signs and backward in even signs. The D20 has two independent lists.
The list to use depends on whether the sign being divided is odd or even. In the examples above, the Sun at 17° Aries is in the 12th part of an odd sign, so its ruler is Bagalāmukhī. The Moon at 8°10′ Leo is in the 6th part of an odd sign, so its ruler is Vimalā. The Moon at 10° Cancer is in the 7th part of an even sign, so its ruler is Bālā.
| Part | Degrees | Odd signs (Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius, Aquarius) | Even signs (Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, Pisces) |
| 1 | 0°00′ to 1°30′ | Kālī | Dayā |
| 2 | 1°30′ to 3°00′ | Gaurī | Medhā |
| 3 | 3°00′ to 4°30′ | Jayā | Chinnaśīrṣā |
| 4 | 4°30′ to 6°00′ | Lakṣmī | Piśācinī |
| 5 | 6°00′ to 7°30′ | Vijayā | Dhūmāvatī |
| 6 | 7°30′ to 9°00′ | Vimalā | Mātaṅgī |
| 7 | 9°00′ to 10°30′ | Satī | Bālā |
| 8 | 10°30′ to 12°00′ | Tārā | Bhadrā |
| 9 | 12°00′ to 13°30′ | Jvālāmukhī | Aruṇā |
| 10 | 13°30′ to 15°00′ | Śvetā | Analā |
| 11 | 15°00′ to 16°30′ | Lalitā | Piṅgalā |
| 12 | 16°30′ to 18°00′ | Bagalāmukhī | Chucchukā |
| 13 | 18°00′ to 19°30′ | Pratyaṅgirā | Ghorā |
| 14 | 19°30′ to 21°00′ | Śacī | Vārāhī |
| 15 | 21°00′ to 22°30′ | Raudrī | Vaiṣṇavī |
| 16 | 22°30′ to 24°00′ | Bhavānī | Sitā |
| 17 | 24°00′ to 25°30′ | Varadā | Bhuvaneśī |
| 18 | 25°30′ to 27°00′ | Jayā | Bhairavī |
| 19 | 27°00′ to 28°30′ | Tripurā | Maṅgalā |
| 20 | 28°30′ to 30°00′ | Sumukhī | Aparājitā |
Two textual points are worth knowing.
First, Jayā appears twice in the odd-sign list, as parts 3 and 18. So the forty places carry thirty-nine different names. Some online Sanskrit texts leave out the first Jayā in verse 6.18. That leaves only nineteen names for odd signs and breaks the metre of the verse. All six printed editions checked for this article include it.
Second, part 2 of even signs is Medhā, meaning intelligence. The form “Megha” seen on many websites comes from Santhanam’s English translation. His own Sanskrit text, and every other edition, reads मेधा (Medhā).
Are All Forty Really Goddesses?
Grammatically, yes. Every one of the forty names is feminine. But the list is not forty goddesses of one kind. Read by meaning, the names fall into several groups. The grouping below is our own, and some names could sit in more than one group.
| Group | Names | Count |
| Forms of the Great Goddess or Pārvatī | Gaurī, Satī, Bhavānī, Lakṣmī, Lalitā, Tripurā, Jvālāmukhī | 7 |
| Mahavidya names (exact) | Kālī, Tārā, Bagalāmukhī, Dhūmāvatī, Mātaṅgī, Bhairavī | 6 |
| Close to a Mahavidya, or a related form | Bhuvaneśī, Chinnaśīrṣā, Bālā, Pratyaṅgirā | 4 |
| Mother goddesses and divine powers | Vārāhī, Vaiṣṇavī, Śacī, Raudrī | 4 |
| Attendant and protective powers | Jayā (twice), Vijayā, Aparājitā, Maṅgalā, Piṅgalā, Bhadrā, Vimalā | 8 |
| Names of qualities or colours | Dayā (compassion), Medhā (intelligence), Varadā (giver of boons), Sumukhī (fair-faced), Śvetā and Sitā (white), Aruṇā (red), Analā (fiery), Ghorā (fearsome) | 9 |
| Semi-divine being | Piśācinī | 1 |
| Not identified | Chucchukā | 1 |
So the safest description is “forty feminine rulers” or “forty Śakti names”. Calling them “the forty goddesses of the D20” is not wrong, but it hides how mixed the list really is. Note also that Sitā, with a short “i”, means white. It is not Sītā, the wife of Rāma, though some websites read it that way.
What does make the D20 stand out is a comparison with the other vargas. In the other divisional charts whose rulers were checked for this research (D3, D10, D12, D16, D24, D40 and D45), the rulers are male deities or sages: Nārada, Agastya and Durvāsā in the D3, Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Hara and Sūrya in the D16, Skanda and others in the D24. The D20 is the only one where every ruler is feminine, and it is also the one given the task of upāsanā. The pairing is suggestive. Whether it was intended, the text does not say.
Where the Ten Mahavidyas Fit In
In their most common order, the ten Mahavidyas are Kālī, Tārā, Tripurasundarī (Ṣoḍaśī), Bhuvaneśvarī, Chinnamastā, Bhairavī, Dhūmāvatī, Bagalāmukhī, Mātaṅgī and Kamalā. Set beside the D20 list, the result is clear.
| Mahavidya | Name in the D20 list | Place | Kind of match |
| Kālī | Kālī | Odd 1 | Exact name |
| Tārā | Tārā | Odd 8 | Exact name |
| Tripurasundarī | Lalitā (also Tripurā, Bālā) | Odd 11 (Odd 19, Even 7) | Accepted alternative name; related forms |
| Bhuvaneśvarī | Bhuvaneśī | Even 17 | Same name in a shorter form |
| Chinnamastā | Chinnaśīrṣā | Even 3 | Same meaning, different word |
| Bhairavī | Bhairavī | Even 18 | Exact name |
| Dhūmāvatī | Dhūmāvatī | Even 5 | Exact name |
| Bagalāmukhī | Bagalāmukhī | Odd 12 | Exact name |
| Mātaṅgī | Mātaṅgī | Even 6 | Exact name |
| Kamalā | Lakṣmī | Odd 4 | Same goddess under her general name |
Six Mahavidyas appear by exact name, and all ten can be connected to some name in the list. Three points help in weighing this.
Names that rarely appear outside the Mahavidya group. Kālī, Tārā and Bhairavī are old and widely used names, so their presence alone would prove little. But David Kinsley, in his study of the Mahavidyas, notes that Bagalāmukhī, Chinnamastā, Dhūmāvatī and Mātaṅgī are rarely found outside the Mahavidya group. Three of these four appear in the D20 by exact name, and the fourth appears as Chinnaśīrṣā. That is hard to explain as chance. Whoever framed this list most likely knew the Mahavidya tradition.
Chinnaśīrṣā and Chinnamastā. Śīrṣa and masta both mean head, so Chinnaśīrṣā, “she whose head is cut off”, carries exactly the meaning of Chinnamastā. Her thousand-name hymn, attributed to the Viśvasāra Tantra, calls her Chinnā and Chinnamastakā, but the exact form Chinnaśīrṣā was not found in the name-lists of Chinnamastā consulted for this article. The identification is very likely, but it rests on the meaning of the word, not on a text that states it.
Most of the list is not Mahavidya. Twenty-six of the forty names have no clear Mahavidya link. The order does not follow the Mahavidya order either: the six exact names are split three and three between the odd and the even lists. So the D20 list is not “the ten Mahavidyas with some extras”. It is a wider circle of Śākta deities in which Mahavidya names have a place.
One thing the text does not do should be stated plainly. BPHS does not use the word mahāvidyā in these verses, gives no meditative description (dhyāna) of any of these forms, and never says that its Kālī or its Bagalāmukhī is the Mahavidya of Tantric worship. Making that equation is our reading. It is not Parāśara’s statement.
A note on dates. As a defined group, the Mahavidyas are known from roughly the tenth century onwards, according to Kinsley. The Purāṇas that tell the story of their origin from Satī, the Mahābhāgavata and the Bṛhaddharma, are later still. The date of BPHS itself is disputed. J. Gonda placed its earlier portion around 600 to 750 CE, and the text has never had a critical edition. The forty names are certainly present in a printed edition of 1887. If the early dating of BPHS is right, the D20 list may belong to a later layer of the text. This remains an open question, not a finding.
Does the D20 Chart Tell You Which Deity to Worship?
This is the claim made most often about the D20, and the text does not support it.
- Verse 7.4 says that upāsanā is to be understood from the D20. It does not say “which deity”.
- The list of rulers (chapter 6) and the purpose of the D20 (chapter 7) sit in different chapters, and BPHS never links them. It does not say that the ruler of the D20 Lagna, or of the part occupied by any planet, is your deity.
- Nothing in these verses speaks of mantra, initiation or siddhi.
- Jyotiṣa has a separate and well-known method for finding the iṣṭa devatā, based on the Kārakāṃśa in the Jaimini system. That method does not depend on these forty names.
In the living Tantric traditions, the deity a practitioner worships is given by the guru at initiation (dīkṣā). A horoscope may be one of the things a guru looks at, but no classical text hands that decision over to the D20.
What the D20 can fairly be used for, on the text’s own terms, is the study of upāsanā in a chart: the condition and strength of the D20 and its planets, read together with the main chart. The forty rulers are part of Parāśara’s scheme and worth knowing well. Turning them into a rule for choosing a sādhanā is a modern addition.
The Mahavidya and Planet Tables – Where Do They Come From?
Many websites print a table that pairs each Mahavidya with a planet: Kālī with Saturn, Tārā with Jupiter, Bagalāmukhī with Mars, and so on. Three things are worth knowing about these tables.
- No classical source for them could be found, either in BPHS or in the Tantric texts reviewed for this research.
- The tables do not agree with each other. One common version links Chinnamastā with Rāhu and Dhūmāvatī with Ketu, while another reverses the two. Some give Bhairavī to the Lagna instead of to a planet.
- The Todala Tantra, as described in secondary sources, links the Mahavidyas with the avatāras of Viṣṇu, not with planets. BPHS links the avatāras with planets in its second chapter. Joining the two does not produce the modern table: at most one or two pairs match.
None of this means such a table cannot be used as a devotional aid. But it should not be presented as Parāśara’s teaching, and it is not part of the D20. The D20 rulers belong to sections of a sign, not to planets.
Key Takeaways
- BPHS gives the D20 one purpose: understanding upāsanā. Comforts and vehicles in the same verse belong to the D16.
- Each sign has twenty parts of 1°30′, counted from Aries, Sagittarius or Leo for movable, fixed and dual signs.
- There are forty rulers, twenty for odd signs and twenty for even signs. All are feminine, and Jayā appears twice.
- Six rulers carry exact Mahavidya names. The other four Mahavidyas connect through Lalitā, Bhuvaneśī, Chinnaśīrṣā and Lakṣmī.
- The list is wider than the Mahavidyas. Twenty-six of the forty names are other Śakti names.
- BPHS does not tell anyone to choose a deity or a sādhanā from the D20. In tradition that choice belongs to the guru.
- Tables pairing Mahavidyas with planets are modern and do not agree with one another.
Divisional charts, including how to read the D20 together with the main chart, are taught step by step in the Divisional Charts Course at Shatabhisha Astrology.
The Sanskrit Verses and Printed Editions
This section is for readers who want to check the text for themselves. Verse numbers follow R. Santhanam’s edition. Other editions number the same verses differently, as shown in the table at the end of this section.
BPHS 6.17: How the Count Begins
अथ विंशतिभागानामधिपा ब्रह्मणोदिताः ।
क्रियाच्चरे स्थिरे चापान् मृगेन्द्राद् द्विस्वभावके ॥१७॥
atha viṃśatibhāgānām adhipā brahmaṇoditāḥ |
kriyāc care sthire cāpān mṛgendrād dvisvabhāvake ||
“Now the rulers of the twenty parts, as declared by Brahmā. In a movable sign the count begins from Aries (kriya), in a fixed sign from Sagittarius (cāpa), and in a dual sign from Leo (mṛgendra).”
BPHS 6.18 to 6.19: Rulers in Odd Signs
काली गौरी जया लक्ष्मीविजया विमला सती ।
तारा ज्वालामुखी श्वेता ललिता बगलामुखी ॥१८॥
प्रत्यङ्गिरा शची रौद्री भवानी वरदा जया ।
त्रिपुरा सुमुखी चेति विषमे परिचिन्तयेत् ॥१९॥
kālī gaurī jayā lakṣmīvijayā vimalā satī |
tārā jvālāmukhī śvetā lalitā bagalāmukhī ||
pratyaṅgirā śacī raudrī bhavānī varadā jayā |
tripurā sumukhī ceti viṣame paricintayet ||
“Kālī, Gaurī, Jayā, Lakṣmī, Vijayā, Vimalā, Satī, Tārā, Jvālāmukhī, Śvetā, Lalitā, Bagalāmukhī, Pratyaṅgirā, Śacī, Raudrī, Bhavānī, Varadā, Jayā, Tripurā and Sumukhī: these should be reckoned in an odd sign.”
Paricintayet means “one should reckon” or “consider”. In Jyotiṣa texts this verb is used for working something out, so it should not be read as an instruction to meditate on these deities.
BPHS 6.20 to 6.21: Rulers in Even Signs
समराशौ दया मेधा छिन्नशीर्षा पिशाचिनी ।
धूमावती च मातङ्गी बाला भद्राऽरुणाऽनला ॥२०॥
पिङ्गला छुच्छुका घोरा वाराही वैष्णवी सिता ।
भुवनेशी भैरवी च मङ्गला ह्यपराजिता ॥२१॥
samarāśau dayā medhā chinnaśīrṣā piśācinī |
dhūmāvatī ca mātaṅgī bālā bhadrā ‘ruṇā ‘nalā ||
piṅgalā chucchukā ghorā vārāhī vaiṣṇavī sitā |
bhuvaneśī bhairavī ca maṅgalā hy aparājitā ||
“In an even sign: Dayā, Medhā, Chinnaśīrṣā, Piśācinī, Dhūmāvatī, Mātaṅgī, Bālā, Bhadrā, Aruṇā, Analā, Piṅgalā, Chucchukā, Ghorā, Vārāhī, Vaiṣṇavī, Sitā, Bhuvaneśī, Bhairavī, Maṅgalā and Aparājitā.”
BPHS 7.3 to 7.4: The Purpose of the D20
नवमांशे कलत्राणां दशमांशे महत्फलम् ।
द्वादशांशे तथा पित्रोश्चिन्तनं षोडशांशके ॥३॥
सुखासुखस्य विज्ञानं वाहनानां तथैव च ।
उपासनाया विज्ञानं साध्यं विंशतिभागके ॥४॥
navamāṃśe kalatrāṇāṃ daśamāṃśe mahatphalam |
dvādaśāṃśe tathā pitroś cintanaṃ ṣoḍaśāṃśake ||
sukhāsukhasya vijñānaṃ vāhanānāṃ tathaiva ca |
upāsanāyā vijñānaṃ sādhyaṃ viṃśatibhāgake ||
“The spouse is considered from the Navamsha, great results from the Dashamsha, and the parents from the Dvadashamsha. In the Shodashamsha, the knowledge of comforts, discomforts and vehicles. The knowledge of upāsanā is to be determined from the twentieth division.”
The word order matters here. Ṣoḍaśāṃśake closes verse 7.3 but has nothing attached to it in that verse. Its subject is the first line of 7.4. Only the second line of 7.4 refers to the D20.
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