Samudrika Shastra

Body marks, with sources

Sāmudrika Śāstra

Palm, face, eyes, moles, body marks and feet - from the Sanskrit texts at chapter and verse, kept strictly apart from the Western tradition of Cheiro and Benham. You mark what you can see; about what you have not looked at, this app says nothing.

Two tiers, never mixed

283

rules from a named Sanskrit text

277 from verse, 6 from a critical edition's diagrams or apparatus. Each states its chapter, verse and edition.

rules from Cheiro and Benham

Western chiromancy of about 1900. From no Sanskrit text - though this is precisely the material the market sells as Indian.

rules with no source located

Current practice for which no text could be found. Kept rather than dropped: a catalogue that quietly omits them looks complete when it is not.

The three tallies stand on their own scales and are not combined. There is no authenticity percentage here: adding tiers together would be an arithmetic no source performs.

Five of the nine palm lines people expect are not Vedic

Each was searched for verse by verse in Bṛhat Saṁhitā chs. 68–70, the Garuḍa Purāṇa (Dutt, LXIII–LXV), Agni Purāṇa 243, the whole Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna Pāṇilekhā, Sāmudrikatilaka 1.143 and 1.152–156, and Hastasañjīvana 3.2.80–82 and 1.3.88–91. They are not there. They are Cheiro's mensal, cerebral, marriage, Apollo and hepatica lines, and they appear on this page under his name, at his tier, with no source chip.

Heart line (hṛdaya-rekhā)Cheiro's Line of Heart, the mensal
Head line (mastiṣka-rekhā)Cheiro's Line of Head, the cerebral
Marriage line (vivāha-rekhā)Cheiro's Line of Marriage
Sun line (sūrya-rekhā)Cheiro's Line of Sun, the Apollo line
Health line (ārogya-rekhā)Cheiro's Line of Health, the hepatica

The same is true of the graha-named mounts. There is no parvata of the palm anywhere in the texts read here, and no graha is assigned to any region of the hand. The mounts are Benham's system, refined from Desbarrolles and d'Arpentigny - and both men disown the astrological reading in their own words, printed further down this page.

Read the Western tier

Nothing here is read from a photograph

None of these sources licenses reading a hand from an image, and the engine takes observations rather than pictures. You look at your own hand, face or foot and give one of three answers: present, absent, or looked-at-and-could-not-tell. A rule you say nothing about stays undetermined - not absent. That distinction is what the whole corpus is built on.

And this is a catalogue you read, not a verdict you receive. Every statement below is phrased as what the chapter says, never as what will happen to you. Strī-lakṣaṇa character, chastity and widowhood phala, sex-of-child correlations and every medical outcome are recorded as covered and never transcribed - a decision, not a gap.

What you have marked

Your marks stay in this browser. Rule ids are sent to have them evaluated - no name, no birth details, no image - and the route stores nothing.

rules you have answered

Present, absent, or looked-at-and-could-not-tell. All three count as an answer.

391

rules undetermined, of 391

Nothing is asserted about these. A mark nobody looked for is not a mark that is absent, and that rule governs the whole corpus.

You have marked nothing yet, so every rule in the corpus stands undetermined. Answer 'What do you see?' on any rule below and it will appear here.

Hasta Sāmudrika - the classical palm

Read out of six Sanskrit texts, at chapter and verse: Bṛhat Saṁhitā chs. 68 and 70, Garuḍa Purāṇa Pūrva-khaṇḍa LXIII–LXV, the Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna's Pāṇilekhā chapter in Zysk's 2025 critical edition, Sāmudrikatilaka, Hastasañjīvana and Agni Purāṇa 243. Note what is NOT here: the corpus has no heart, head, marriage, sun or health line, and no mounts.

It does have a longevity line - the āyu-rekhā - and every early witness puts it at the TOP transverse crease, running from below the little finger toward the base of the forefinger. That is anatomically the crease Cheiro calls the heart line. The curve around the ball of the thumb that modern apps label the life line is a different crease with a different name in this corpus.

Classical tier - cited to chapter and verse1

Every rule in this block comes from a named Sanskrit text at chapter and verse, with the edition stated. Press the Source chip to see the text, the translator and what the licence permits.

Classical versecl-ska-23-finger-proportion

The little finger measured against the first joint of the ring finger. Longevity METHOD C, and the only one in the corpus that uses no line at all - it is encoded in the palm file because it is one of the three longevity methods, not because fingers belong here.

Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna, Pāṇilekhā v. 23 (crit. ed. Zysk 2025)

What the text says

A little finger extending well beyond that joint gives 100 years; the two level with each other give 87. Nothing else in the corpus overlaps this measurement, and it may not be averaged with the line-length or four-band methods.

Says something incompatible with 3

Both readings are shown and neither is declared correct. The texts genuinely differ, and choosing between them would be this app taking a position its sources do not.

cl-bs68-50a-ayu-hundred·Classical verse·Lines that reach the root of the forefinger. Iyer's noun is PLURAL, and so is Sastri & Bhat's, who read it as the three principal lines taken together rather than as one crease [CC-8] - so the observation is the reach of the palm's principal transverse lines, not of a single line. The verse gives the terminus only; the origin, below the little finger, comes from BS 70.13 and from the Garuḍa Purāṇa.Bṛhat Saṁhitā 68.50 (tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer, Part II, 1885)
cl-bs70-13-ayu-women·Classical verse·On a woman's palm, a line issuing from below the little finger and reaching the place between the forefinger and the middle finger. This is the singular, unambiguous statement of the āyu-rekhā's whole topology - origin AND terminus - and its terminus is one finger further along than the men's rule at 68.50.Bṛhat Saṁhitā 70.13 (tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer, Part II, 1885)
cl-ska-5-bands-verse·Classical verse·The same top transverse line, quantised into four bands by how far it reaches. Longevity METHOD B, in the verse's own numbers.Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna, Pāṇilekhā v. 5 (crit. ed. Zysk 2025)

What do you see?

Undetermined

No observation was supplied for this mark, so nothing is asserted either way. A mark nobody looked for is not a mark that is absent.

Cheiro and Benham - Western palmistry

Cheiro (W. J. Warner, d. 1936), William Benham (d. 1938), d'Arpentigny (d. 1865) in Heron-Allen's translation, and Katharine St. Hill (1893). Public domain, quotable - and Victorian European, not Indian. Most of what is sold as 'Hast Samudrika Shastra' is this material under a Sanskrit-sounding name. Nothing in this block carries a source chip, and nothing in it may.

Can the Mount of Venus be read against the planet Venus? Both authors decline it themselves.

It is the obvious question, and the answer does not rest on silence. No Sanskrit text read for this module has a parvata of the palm at all - and the two men who standardised the mounts both disown the astrological link in print.

Modern Western chiromancywest-mount-names-not-astrological

The mounts are found to carry the names of planets - Jupiter, Saturn, Apollo or the Sun, Mercury, Mars, the Moon, Venus.

From the modern Western chiromancy of Cheiro and Benham (c. 1900) — not from any Sanskrit text, despite how it is usually sold.

Edition: William G. Benham, The Laws of Scientific Hand Reading, New York, 1900 (1912 printing)

Passage: The Laws of Scientific Hand Reading (1900), Part First ch. I

What the text says

The man who standardised the system says the names are mnemonics. That single sentence settles the question this module was commissioned to answer: there is no astrological reading of a mount to be recovered, because the system's own author says the names carry none.

“The names which appear on the Mounts are not used in any astrological sense, but because they have been so long in use that the mention of each name instinctively brings to mind certain attributes. I use these names for I have found them a great help to the memory of the student, though any other names would do as well.”

William G. Benham, The Laws of Scientific Hand Reading, New York, 1900 (1912 printing)

Modern Western chiromancywest-mount-cheiro-declines-astrological

A reader proposes to carry the mount names over into astrology - to read the Mount of Venus against the planet Venus.

From the modern Western chiromancy of Cheiro and Benham (c. 1900) — not from any Sanskrit text, despite how it is usually sold.

Edition: Cheiro (W. J. Warner), Language of the Hand, 1st edn., 1897

Passage: Language of the Hand (1897), on the use of the old-time names

What the text says

Cheiro declines the link for his own system, while conceding a connection may exist. Two points follow. It is a second independent Western disclaimer, from the author usually cast as the fusion's villain - and it shows that Astrological Palmistry was a named current in 1890s London, i.e. a Victorian European one, not an Indian inheritance.

“As regards the use by cheiromants of the old-time names, such as the Mount of Venus, Mars, etc., I must here state that I do not use these names in any sense in relation to what is known as Astrological Palmistry. I do not for one moment deny that there may be a connection - and a very great one - between the two; but I do not think it necessary to consider it in conjunction with this study of the hand.”

Cheiro (W. J. Warner), Language of the Hand, 1st edn., 1897

Modern Western tier - no source chip, ever7

From the modern Western chiromancy of Cheiro and Benham (c. 1900) — not from any Sanskrit text, despite how it is usually sold.

Modern Western chiromancywest-thumb-two-phalanges

The thumb is measured in two phalanges - the NAIL phalanx and the MIDDLE phalanx - with the ball at its base counted separately as the Mount of Venus.

From the modern Western chiromancy of Cheiro and Benham (c. 1900) — not from any Sanskrit text, despite how it is usually sold.

Edition: C. S. d'Arpentigny, La Chirognomonie, Paris 1843; tr. Ed. Heron-Allen, The Science of the Hand, London 1886, ¶¶177–193; William G. Benham, The Laws of Scientific Hand Reading, New York, 1900, ch. XVII

Passage: The Science of the Hand (1886), Sub-section IV ¶¶177–193; Benham ch. XVII

What the text says

The nail phalanx carries WILL and the middle phalanx carries LOGIC; the two are read against each other, and the interesting hands are those where they are unequal. Benham treats the Mount of Venus as the thumb's third element, which is why a thumb is never judged apart from the ball it grows out of.

What do you see?

Undetermined

No observation was supplied for this mark, so nothing is asserted either way. A mark nobody looked for is not a mark that is absent.

Modern Western chiromancywest-thumb-ordinal-trap

A Western thumb rule is stated in ordinals - 'the first phalanx', 'the second phalanx'.

From the modern Western chiromancy of Cheiro and Benham (c. 1900) — not from any Sanskrit text, despite how it is usually sold.

Edition: William G. Benham, The Laws of Scientific Hand Reading, New York, 1900, ch. XVII, against C. S. d'Arpentigny tr. Ed. Heron-Allen, The Science of the Hand, London 1886, ¶192

Passage: Benham ch. XVII; The Science of the Hand (1886), ¶192

What the text says

Resolve the ordinal against its author before using the rule. Benham's first phalanx is the NAIL one, of will; d'Arpentigny's first phalanx, in Heron-Allen's own bracketed gloss, is the LOWER one, of logic. Two public-domain authorities, opposite ordinals, the same anatomy - merge them carelessly and the reading comes out exactly backwards.

“This thumb shows strong will, for the first phalanx is good, shows good logical qualities also, for the second phalanx is strong.”

William G. Benham, The Laws of Scientific Hand Reading, New York, 1900, ch. XVII, against C. S. d'Arpentigny tr. Ed. Heron-Allen, The Science of the Hand, London 1886, ¶192

What do you see?

Undetermined

No observation was supplied for this mark, so nothing is asserted either way. A mark nobody looked for is not a mark that is absent.

Modern Western chiromancywest-thumb-small-poor

The thumb is small, mean and poorly formed.

From the modern Western chiromancy of Cheiro and Benham (c. 1900) — not from any Sanskrit text, despite how it is usually sold.

Edition: C. S. d'Arpentigny, La Chirognomonie, Paris 1843; tr. Ed. Heron-Allen, The Science of the Hand, London 1886

Passage: The Science of the Hand (1886), ¶193

What the text says

An irresolute mind and a wavering disposition.

“a thumb which is small, mean, and poorly formed, announces an irresolute mind, and a wavering disposition”

C. S. d'Arpentigny, La Chirognomonie, Paris 1843; tr. Ed. Heron-Allen, The Science of the Hand, London 1886

What do you see?

Undetermined

No observation was supplied for this mark, so nothing is asserted either way. A mark nobody looked for is not a mark that is absent.

Modern Western chiromancywest-thumb-logic-over-will

The middle (logic) phalanx of the thumb is long and well formed while the nail (will) phalanx is thin and short.

From the modern Western chiromancy of Cheiro and Benham (c. 1900) — not from any Sanskrit text, despite how it is usually sold.

Edition: C. S. d'Arpentigny, La Chirognomonie, Paris 1843; tr. Ed. Heron-Allen, The Science of the Hand, London 1886

Passage: The Science of the Hand (1886), ¶192

What the text says

Decided opinions and lasting convictions with a quick mind - and, in the same breath, a poor arguer. The source states the limitation with the gift, and the app should not print one without the other.

“decided opinions, strong and lasting convictions, a quick mind … at the same time you will probably be a poor arguer”

C. S. d'Arpentigny, La Chirognomonie, Paris 1843; tr. Ed. Heron-Allen, The Science of the Hand, London 1886

What do you see?

Undetermined

No observation was supplied for this mark, so nothing is asserted either way. A mark nobody looked for is not a mark that is absent.

Modern Western chiromancywest-thumb-flexibility

The thumb is tested for flexibility: whether the nail phalanx bends back at the joint, or holds stiff.

From the modern Western chiromancy of Cheiro and Benham (c. 1900) — not from any Sanskrit text, despite how it is usually sold.

Edition: William G. Benham, The Laws of Scientific Hand Reading, New York, 1900 (1912 printing)

Passage: The Laws of Scientific Hand Reading (1900), Part First ch. XVII (the thumb)

What the text says

Benham grades the axis rather than the person. A thumb that bends back reads as pliant, open-handed and adaptable to the moment; a stiff thumb reads as fixed, careful and self-contained. Neither pole is the good one.

What do you see?

Undetermined

No observation was supplied for this mark, so nothing is asserted either way. A mark nobody looked for is not a mark that is absent.

Modern Western chiromancywest-thumb-set

The thumb is judged for its set - how high or low it is joined to the hand, and how wide an angle it opens from the palm.

From the modern Western chiromancy of Cheiro and Benham (c. 1900) — not from any Sanskrit text, despite how it is usually sold.

Edition: William G. Benham, The Laws of Scientific Hand Reading, New York, 1900 (1912 printing)

Passage: The Laws of Scientific Hand Reading (1900), Part First ch. XVII (the thumb)

What the text says

Benham reads a low-set thumb, opening wide from the palm, as the freer and more independent nature, and a high-set thumb held close as the more restrained one. Set is judged before the phalanges, because it conditions how the rest of the thumb is used.

What do you see?

Undetermined

No observation was supplied for this mark, so nothing is asserted either way. A mark nobody looked for is not a mark that is absent.

Modern Western chiromancywest-thumb-newton-epigram

The epigram attributed to Sir Isaac Newton is printed at the head of a Western thumb chapter, as d'Arpentigny prints it.

From the modern Western chiromancy of Cheiro and Benham (c. 1900) — not from any Sanskrit text, despite how it is usually sold.

Edition: Ed. Heron-Allen, The Science of the Hand, London 1886 (translator's footnote 142)

Passage: The Science of the Hand (1886), n.142

What the text says

The translator disowns it in his own edition. Recorded because it is the model this module wants: an edition sceptical of its own author, in print, in the public domain.

“I have very little hesitation in recording that Sir Isaac never said it.”

Ed. Heron-Allen, The Science of the Hand, London 1886 (translator's footnote 142)

What do you see?

Undetermined

No observation was supplied for this mark, so nothing is asserted either way. A mark nobody looked for is not a mark that is absent.

Aṅga Sāmudrika - face, eyes, moles, marks and feet

Face, eyes, moles, marks on the body, and the feet - from Bṛhat Saṁhitā ch. 68 (the twelve heads and the rāja-lakṣaṇa census), Garuḍa Purāṇa LXV, Bṛhat Jātaka V, and two later compendia. This is a catalogue you read, not a verdict you receive: every statement below is phrased as what the chapter says, and none of it is phrased as what will happen to you.

Strī-lakṣaṇa character, chastity and widowhood phala, sex-of-child correlations and every medical outcome are recorded as covered and never transcribed.

Classical tier - cited to chapter and verse14

Every rule in this block comes from a named Sanskrit text at chapter and verse, with the edition stated. Press the Source chip to see the text, the translator and what the licence permits.

Classical versecl-eye-lotus

The eyes are shaped like lotus petals.

Bṛhat Saṁhitā 68.64 (tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer, Part II, 1885)

What the text says

The chapter reads this as a mark of wealth.

What do you see?

Undetermined

No observation was supplied for this mark, so nothing is asserted either way. A mark nobody looked for is not a mark that is absent.

Classical versecl-eye-corners-red

The corners of the eyes are red.

Bṛhat Saṁhitā 68.64 (tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer, Part II, 1885)

What the text says

The chapter reads this as a mark of wealth and prosperity. The same corners are among the seven parts its royal census requires to be red.

What do you see?

Undetermined

No observation was supplied for this mark, so nothing is asserted either way. A mark nobody looked for is not a mark that is absent.

Classical versecl-eye-honey

The eyes are of the colour of honey.

Bṛhat Saṁhitā 68.64 (tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer, Part II, 1885)

What the text says

The chapter reads this as a mark of exceeding wealth.

What do you see?

Undetermined

No observation was supplied for this mark, so nothing is asserted either way. A mark nobody looked for is not a mark that is absent.

Classical versecl-eye-cat

The eyes are like a cat's.

Bṛhat Saṁhitā 68.64 (tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer, Part II, 1885)

What the text says

The chapter reads this as a mark of a wicked disposition.

What do you see?

Undetermined

No observation was supplied for this mark, so nothing is asserted either way. A mark nobody looked for is not a mark that is absent.

Classical versecl-eye-deer-round-squint

The eyes are like a deer's, or round, or squint.

Bṛhat Saṁhitā 68.65 (tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer, Part II, 1885)

What the text says

The chapter reads this as the mark of a thief.

What do you see?

Undetermined

No observation was supplied for this mark, so nothing is asserted either way. A mark nobody looked for is not a mark that is absent.

Classical versecl-eye-oblique

The eyes see obliquely.

Bṛhat Saṁhitā 68.65 (tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer, Part II, 1885)

What the text says

The chapter reads this as a mark of a wicked disposition.

What do you see?

Undetermined

No observation was supplied for this mark, so nothing is asserted either way. A mark nobody looked for is not a mark that is absent.

Classical versecl-eye-elephant

The eyes are like an elephant's.

Bṛhat Saṁhitā 68.65 (tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer, Part II, 1885)

What the text says

The chapter reads this as a royal mark.

What do you see?

Undetermined

No observation was supplied for this mark, so nothing is asserted either way. A mark nobody looked for is not a mark that is absent.

Classical versecl-eye-courage

The eyes indicate courage.

Bṛhat Saṁhitā 68.66 (tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer, Part II, 1885)

What the text says

The chapter reads this as a mark of wealth.

What do you see?

Undetermined

No observation was supplied for this mark, so nothing is asserted either way. A mark nobody looked for is not a mark that is absent.

Classical versecl-eye-blue-lotus

The eyes are of the colour of the blue lotus.

Bṛhat Saṁhitā 68.66 (tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer, Part II, 1885)

What the text says

The chapter reads this as the mark of a learned person.

What do you see?

Undetermined

No observation was supplied for this mark, so nothing is asserted either way. A mark nobody looked for is not a mark that is absent.

Classical versecl-eye-very-black

The eyes are exceedingly black.

Bṛhat Saṁhitā 68.66 (tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer, Part II, 1885)

Recorded, not transcribed

The text has something to say here, and this app does not print it. That is a decision, not a gap: what is observed stays above, and what the text says follows it appears nowhere in this app.

Editor's note: A medical outcome. FEATURES.md and the samudrika type contract both exclude medical claims outright; recording the locus is the whole of what may be done with it.

Classical versecl-eye-large

The eyes are large.

Bṛhat Saṁhitā 68.67 (tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer, Part II, 1885)

What the text says

The chapter reads this as the mark of one who becomes a minister.

What do you see?

Undetermined

No observation was supplied for this mark, so nothing is asserted either way. A mark nobody looked for is not a mark that is absent.

Classical versecl-eye-red-black

The eyes are red-black.

Bṛhat Saṁhitā 68.67 (tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer, Part II, 1885)

What the text says

The chapter reads this as a mark of wealth.

What do you see?

Undetermined

No observation was supplied for this mark, so nothing is asserted either way. A mark nobody looked for is not a mark that is absent.

Classical versecl-eye-imploring

The eyes are meek and imploring.

Bṛhat Saṁhitā 68.67 (tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer, Part II, 1885)

What the text says

The chapter reads this as a mark of poverty.

What do you see?

Undetermined

No observation was supplied for this mark, so nothing is asserted either way. A mark nobody looked for is not a mark that is absent.

Classical versecl-eye-glossy

The eyes are glossy.

Bṛhat Saṁhitā 68.67 (tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer, Part II, 1885)

What the text says

The chapter reads this as a mark of great wealth and of a comfortable life.

What do you see?

Undetermined

No observation was supplied for this mark, so nothing is asserted either way. A mark nobody looked for is not a mark that is absent.

No source located1

No text is cited for this — it is recorded as tradition, not as doctrine.

No source locatedun-eye-lashes

The eyelashes (pakṣma) - long, thick, curled, sparse, or their opposites.

No text is cited for this — it is recorded as tradition, not as doctrine.

What the text says

No reading is recorded here, because none was located. Bṛhat Saṁhitā 68 has no eyelash rule at all - the pakṣma-lakṣaṇa section appears only in the late compendia, and there only under strī-lakṣaṇa, which this module withholds. The eyelash readings in circulation are not classical, whatever they are sold as.

What do you see?

Undetermined

No observation was supplied for this mark, so nothing is asserted either way. A mark nobody looked for is not a mark that is absent.

Bṛhat Jātaka V.24 - the drekkāṇa body map

Bṛhat Jātaka V.24 (tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer, 1885)

Take the drekkāṇa of the lagna (its longitude mod 30° - 0–10, 10–20 or 20–30) and read that column; the rows are whole-sign houses from the lagna. The table is mirror-symmetric about the 1st/7th axis: 2↔12, 3↔11, 4↔10, 5↔9 and 6↔8 are the same organ, right and left. This app does not compute it from anybody's chart - it is the table the verse reads against, printed so you can.

Body parts by house and rising drekkāṇa
House	1st drekkāṇa	2nd drekkāṇa	3rd drekkāṇa
1	Head	Neck	Lower abdomen
2	Right eye	Right arm	Generative organ
3	Right ear	Right hand	Right testicle
4	Right nostril	Right side	Right thigh
5	Right temple	Right breast	Right knee
6	Right cheek	Right side of the belly	Right ankle
7	Mouth	The navel	The feet
8	Left cheek	Left side of the belly	Left ankle
9	Left temple	Left breast	Left knee
10	Left nostril	Left side	Left thigh
11	Left ear	Left hand	Left testicle
12	Left eye	Left arm	Anus

Bṛhat Saṁhitā 70.24 - ten twelve-year bands, and their limbs

Bṛhat Saṁhitā 70.24 (tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer, Part II, 1885)

The arithmetic is Iyer's own note: a hundred and twenty years at most, twelve years to a band. All ten limbs sit in stanza 24 alone - the widely-quoted '70.24–26' is another edition's numbering, and there is no 70.25 or 70.26 in this print.

Ten bands, their ages and their limbs
Band	Ages	Limb
1	0–12	The feet and ankles
2	12–24	The shanks and knees
3	24–36	The thighs and the generative organ
4	36–48	The loins and the navel
5	48–60	The belly
6	60–72	The breast and bosoms
7	72–84	The shoulders
8	84–96	The neck and lips
9	96–108	The eyes and brows
10	108–120	The forehead and the head

The Pañca-mahāpuruṣa bridge - Bṛhat Saṁhitā ch. 69

This is the only place in the corpus where the chart and the body meet. The five Mahāpuruṣa yogas are computed from a chart; ch. 69 gives those same five types a set of hand-and-sole line figures. They are two independent descriptions, and they are put side by side for one purpose: so you can check one against the other yourself.

One figure, more than one type - which is why a hand cannot be read back to a chart

Ch. 69 gives hand-and-sole figures to four of the five types. Those lists name 27 distinct figures between them, and 6 of those appear under more than one type. A figure therefore cannot identify a type: the chapter never made the sets disjoint. The table below is computed from the figure lists, not asserted.

Figures claimed by more than one Mahāpuruṣa type
Figure	Claimed by
club	Bhadra (Mercury) · Rucaka (Mars)
conch-shell	Bhadra (Mercury) · Haṁsa (Jupiter)
garland	Śaśa (Saturn) · Haṁsa (Jupiter)
lotus	Bhadra (Mercury) · Haṁsa (Jupiter)
lyre	Śaśa (Saturn) · Rucaka (Mars)
trident	Śaśa (Saturn) · Rucaka (Mars)

And if the sets were disjoint, the text still would not license the inference. The chapter attributes figures to a type; it nowhere reads the type back from the figures. The overlap only adds that here the mistake is not even available.

Birth details

The Pañca-mahāpuruṣa yogas are computed from a chart. Add birth details and they appear here, beside the ch. 69 marks you can hold up against your own hand.

Mālavya has no line-figure verse, and the one next to it does not stand in

Bṛhat Saṁhitā ch. 69 gives palm-and-sole line figures to four of the five Mahāpuruṣa types. Mālavya is not one of them: his verses, 69.10–12, describe a face, arms, a country and a lifespan, and no lines at all. Nothing has been substituted for the missing verse.

Bṛhat Saṁhitā 69.10–12 (tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer, Part II, 1885)

Below is the verse it is tempting to fill it with. 69.33 makes the Jaghanya an attendant of the Mālavya puruṣa and 69.34 gives him line figures - but the Jaghanya is a Saṅkīrṇa attendant, not one of the five. It is printed as catalogue only: no observation is asked for it, because the app computes nothing that would identify an attendant type.

Classical versecl-bs-69-34-jaghanya-figures

On the hands, the feet and the breast, lines forming the figures of a sword, a spear, a string or an axe.

Bṛhat Saṁhitā 69.34 (tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer, Part II, 1885)

What the text says

These are the figures of the Jaghanya, one of the five Saṅkīrṇa attendant types of 69.31 - said at 69.33 to serve under the Mālavya puruṣa. It is NOT one of the five Mahāpuruṣas, the app computes nothing that would identify it, and it is recorded only to keep it out of the Mālavya slot it sits next to.

Note also that it is the chapter's only figure rule to read the breast as well as the hands and feet.

“the lines in his hand, feet and breast will be of the shape of a sword, a spear, a string or an axe.”

tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer, 1885

One verse, read twice - and that is not a disagreement

4 verses are encoded twice in this corpus, from opposite directions: once conditioned on the CHART ("the chart produces the Bhadra type, so these figures follow") and once conditioned on the OBSERVATION ("these are the figures you look for"). Both are the same verse in the same edition, so presenting them as a disagreement between sources would be false. They are listed here so that meeting both readings in different parts of this page is not confusing.

Bṛhat Saṁhitā 69.17 (tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer, Part II, 1885)
cl-mahapurusha-bhadra-marks · cl-bs-69-17-bhadra-figures
Bṛhat Saṁhitā 69.22 (tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer, Part II, 1885)
cl-mahapurusha-shasha-marks · cl-bs-69-22-sasa-figures
Bṛhat Saṁhitā 69.29 (tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer, Part II, 1885)
cl-mahapurusha-rucaka-marks · cl-bs-69-29-ruchaka-figures
Bṛhat Saṁhitā 70.10 (tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer, Part II, 1885)
cl-bs70-10-figures-queen · cl-foot-figures-bs70

About the sources: where the source's own words appear, they are from a public-domain edition and the translator is named on screen - N. Chidambaram Iyer for the Bṛhat Saṁhitā and Bṛhat Jātaka, M. N. Dutt for the Garuḍa Purāṇa, and the authors' own editions on the Western side. Where an edition may not be quoted, the wording here is the app's own prose instead. For educational purposes; nothing on this page is a medical claim of any kind.

Read from the same corpus, without a birth chart

Classical versecl-ska-23-finger-proportion

Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna, Pāṇilekhā v. 23 (crit. ed. Zysk 2025)

What the text says

Says something incompatible with 3

Both readings are shown and neither is declared correct. The texts genuinely differ, and choosing between them would be this app taking a position its sources do not.

cl-bs68-50a-ayu-hundred·Classical verse·Lines that reach the root of the forefinger. Iyer's noun is PLURAL, and so is Sastri & Bhat's, who read it as the three principal lines taken together rather than as one crease [CC-8] - so the observation is the reach of the palm's principal transverse lines, not of a single line. The verse gives the terminus only; the origin, below the little finger, comes from BS 70.13 and from the Garuḍa Purāṇa.Bṛhat Saṁhitā 68.50 (tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer, Part II, 1885)
cl-bs70-13-ayu-women·Classical verse·On a woman's palm, a line issuing from below the little finger and reaching the place between the forefinger and the middle finger. This is the singular, unambiguous statement of the āyu-rekhā's whole topology - origin AND terminus - and its terminus is one finger further along than the men's rule at 68.50.Bṛhat Saṁhitā 70.13 (tr. N. Chidambaram Iyer, Part II, 1885)
cl-ska-5-bands-verse·Classical verse·The same top transverse line, quantised into four bands by how far it reaches. Longevity METHOD B, in the verse's own numbers.Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna, Pāṇilekhā v. 5 (crit. ed. Zysk 2025)

What do you see?

Undetermined

No observation was supplied for this mark, so nothing is asserted either way. A mark nobody looked for is not a mark that is absent.