Divisional chart
D7 Saptamsha: the chart of children and what you pass on
The D7 Saptamsha (also spelled Saptamsa, “the seventh part”) is the chart of children in Vedic astrology: descendants, your bond with your children and, more broadly, everything you pass on: students, projects, works. It enlarges the 5th house of your chart and is read with Jupiter and the Putrakaraka. It cuts each sign into seven parts of about 4°17′ and needs a birth time accurate to about seventeen minutes.
What is the D7 Saptamsha chart?
Saptamsha means “the seventh part” in Sanskrit. It is one of the sixteen charts Parashara lists in the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, and he devotes it to children and grandchildren: descendants in the broad sense. Like every divisional chart, it redistributes the planets of your D1 Rasi, the root chart, into a new chart that enlarges a single area.
The D1 reads that area in the 5th house, the house of children (putra bhava), which is also the house of intelligence, creativity and the merit of past lives. The D7 picks up its nuances: the joy children bring, the relationship you build with them, what you pass on to them, and the creativity that carries on beyond you: students, a body of work, a craft.
The D7 describes tendencies and levers, never a fate in numbers. It does not say how many children you will have, or whether you will have any: it shows the quality of the bond, the periods when this area comes forward and what calls for patience.
How is the D7 chart calculated?
Each sign is divided into seven equal parts of about 4°17′. For an odd sign (Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius, Aquarius), you count from the sign itself: a planet in Leo goes to Leo for its first degrees, then to Virgo, to Libra, and so on. For an even sign (Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, Pisces), you count from its seventh sign, the opposite sign: a planet in Cancer starts from Capricorn.
The degree in the D7 is the degree in the sign multiplied by seven, minus whole rounds of 30°. Example: Jupiter at 10° Cancer. Cancer is even, so you start from Capricorn; 10° falls in the third part (8°34′ to 12°51′), so Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces. And 10 × 7 = 70, which leaves 10° once two rounds are removed: Jupiter sits at 10° Pisces in your D7, in its own sign.
The calculation uses the sidereal zodiac, with the Lahiri ayanamsa: your Vedic degrees are shifted by about 24° from those of your Western chart.
What do you look at in the D7?
The D7 is read as a full chart, with its own houses, counted as whole signs from its Ascendant. Five markers give the essentials, from the broadest to the finest.
- The D7 Ascendant and its ruler: the way you live parenthood and passing things on, your stance as a parent, a guide or a mentor.
- The 5th house of the D7 and its ruler: the children themselves and your bond with them. Benefic planets or a strong ruler speak of an easy bond; Saturn there asks for patience and lets the bond mature.
- Jupiter, the natural karaka (significator) of children: its sign, house and strength in the D7 show the generosity of this area and the wisdom you pass on.
- The ruler of the 5th house of your D1: its placement and condition in the D7 link the promise of the root chart to this chart of detail.
- Jaimini’s Putrakaraka, the planet that carries children and creativity in your chart: its place in the D7 sets the colour of what you pass on.
Jupiter is the significator of children for everyone; the Putrakaraka, on the other hand, changes from person to person, according to how the planets rank by degree. How it is found is explained with the Jaimini karakas.
How to read the D7 chart: an example
Take Jupiter at 10° Pisces in the D7 again, and imagine a D7 Ascendant in Gemini: Pisces is then the 10th house. Jupiter, ruler of that house and of the 7th, is in its own sign: the area of children is carried by a strong planet. The reading: passing things on by example, through work and values (the 10th house), a parenthood lived with generosity.
Add Saturn in the 5th house of the D7, in Libra, its sign of exaltation. Saturn slows things down to make them last: the area of children matures over time, the bond is built for the long run, with responsibilities taken seriously. The lever: patience, consistency, trust in your own timing. Exalted, Saturn gives this bond a strength that lasts.
Finally, the Putrakaraka refines the colour of the whole: if it is Venus, what you pass on goes through gentleness, art, a taste for beauty; if it is Mars, through energy, sport, courage. The D7 never draws up a list of events: it shows how you carry this area and where your support lies.
The D7 with the other charts and the dashas
The D7 confirms or nuances the 5th house of the D1. Read it with the D9 Navamsha, the chart of partnership and inner strength, since the wish for children often goes through the couple; with the D5 Panchamsha, which looks at the merit of past lives, also tied to the 5th house; and with the D12 Dwadashamsha, the chart of parents: what you received, what you pass on in turn.
The Vimshottari dashas give the timing. The period or sub-period of Jupiter, of the 5th house ruler or of a planet strong in the D7 often brings this area to the fore: a family plan, a bond with a child growing closer, a student finding their wings. For the full method, see how to cross the charts.
What birth time accuracy does the D7 need?
A time accurate to about seventeen minutes. The D1 Ascendant changes sign roughly every two hours; in the D7, each sign is cut into seven, so the chart’s Ascendant changes on average every seventeen minutes, faster or slower depending on the rising signs. The twelve houses of the D7 move with it.
The signs of the planets hold up better: a planet must travel a little over 4° to change sign in the D7, which the Moon, the fastest, takes about eight hours to do. In France, the full copy of the birth record (copie intégrale) shows the time; without a time, the site does not open the Vedic view, because the Ascendant and the houses depend on it.
A rounded time (“around 3 pm”) can be put to the test: calculate the chart for the recorded time, then a quarter of an hour before and after. If the D7 Ascendant does not change, rely on it; if it does, read mainly the planets in their signs.
How to open the D7 on the site
The D7 is calculated from your birth chart, with the exact time. Three steps are enough, and the site tells you for each chart how accurate the time needs to be. To place the D7 among the other charts, the Vedic astrology home page presents them all.
- Calculate your chart with your date, time and place of birth.
- At the wheel, switch from “Tropical (Western)” to “Vedic (sidereal)”: the D1 opens.
- In the list of charts, choose the D7: the wheel, the positions and the line that gives the chart’s meaning all change.
In Your chart answers you, a question about children draws on the D7, and the answer says clearly when it is speaking in Vedic terms.
Calculate your chart with the exact time, switch to Vedic and choose the D7: your bond with your children and what you pass on fit into one chart.
Calculate my chart and open the Vedic view