---
type: Concept
bundle: jyotisha-kala
bundle_version: 0.12.0
id: bhava-jyotisha
title: Bhāva (Jyotiṣa)
iast: Bhāva
devanagari: भाव
description: 'The twelve houses of the chart: divisions counted from the lagna, each assigned a domain of life in horā śāstra; NOT the devotional bhāva of bhakti-marga v0.4, NOT a rāśi, NOT rooms of fate.'
school_scope: 'Same word, unrelated referent. bhakti-marga v0.4 treats bhāva as cultivated devotional feeling on the path of bhakti. The Jyotiṣa bhāva is a technical division of the chart counted from the lagna. Cross-linked by name and version, never merged.'
darshana:
- Jyotiṣa
text_source: Bṛhat Jātaka 1
tags:
- bhava
- houses
- hora
- chart
- jyotisha
not:
- term: 'the devotional bhava of bhakti-marga v0.4'
  why: 'bhakti-marga v0.4 ships bhāva as devotional emotion refined toward prema. The horā bhāva is a sky-division with an assigned life-domain. The identical word names two unrelated objects in two disciplines; a translator merging them produces nonsense in both.'
  instead: 'Render the horā bhāva as house, note the bhakti collision, and keep the Sanskrit term.'
- term: 'a rashi'
  why: 'Signs are ecliptic twelfths counted from 0° Meṣa; houses are counted from the lagna and rotate against the signs with the time of day. Whole-sign house practice aligns them one-to-one, but the concepts stay distinct: one grid is celestial, the other local.'
- term: 'rooms of fate'
  why: 'House-domain assignments (wealth, siblings, and the rest) are horā significations, an interpretive layer. The bhāva itself is a division of the local sky; what it “means” is the school’s claim, not the geometry’s.'
related:
- /concepts/lagna.md
- /concepts/rashi.md
- /concepts/hora.md
- /concepts/jataka.md
timestamp: '2026-07-09'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Bhāva -- भाव

**Not:** the devotional bhava of bhakti-marga v0.4, a rashi, rooms of fate

## What It Actually Means

In horā śāstra the twelve bhāvas are the houses of the chart: divisions counted from the lagna, each assigned a domain of life, self, wealth, siblings, and onward through the twelfth. Houses are local: they are anchored to the horizon at the birth moment, so the signs rotate through them daily; whole-sign, equal, and quadrant house systems divide the details differently within the tradition. The word collides head-on with the bhakti-marga v0.4 bhāva, cultivated devotional feeling, with which it shares etymology (bhū, to become) and no technical content. This file is the horā referent only.

## Audience Metaphor

Twelve rooms counted from the front door, the lagna, each room assigned a department of life by the school’s rulebook. The signs are wallpaper patterns rotating through the rooms daily; the rooms stay put, fixed to the horizon. And none of them is the bhāva a devotee cultivates: that word lives in another building.

## Citations

1. Bṛhat Jātaka 1 on the twelve bhāvas from the lagna -- see [references/brihat-jataka.md](../references/brihat-jataka.md)
2. Muhūrta Cintāmaṇi applying house considerations in election -- see [references/muhurta-chintamani.md](../references/muhurta-chintamani.md)
