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.
94
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.
14
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.
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.
0
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, ever17
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-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)
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-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
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-mount-apollo-sun-naming
The mount at the base of the ring finger is met under two different names, Apollo and the Sun.
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); Cheiro, Language of the Hand, 1897; Katharine St. Hill, The Grammar of Palmistry, London 1893
Passage: The Laws of Scientific Hand Reading (1900), Part First ch. XXI (Mount of Apollo)
What the text says
They are one name, not two systems. Benham licenses the synonym himself; Cheiro's own text overwhelmingly prefers the Sun; St. Hill uses Apollo throughout. So calling it Sūrya or Ravi in Hindi is a plain translation of a name the Western tradition already uses - it is NOT, on its own, evidence of a manufactured Indian pedigree.
What remains refused is the cross-reading of the mount against the graha, which no author licenses.
“This Mount, from its brilliancy, has also been called the Mount of the Sun, and the Line of Apollo … has been called the Line of the Sun, or of Brilliancy.”
William G. Benham, The Laws of Scientific Hand Reading, New York, 1900 (1912 printing); Cheiro, Language of the Hand, 1897; Katharine St. Hill, The Grammar of Palmistry, London 1893
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-mount-jupiter
The cushion of flesh at the base of the first (index) finger is developed.
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. XIX (Mount of Jupiter)
What the text says
Ambition, leadership, religion and self-assertion.
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-mount-saturn
The cushion at the base of the second (middle) finger is developed.
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. XX (Mount of Saturn)
What the text says
Soberness, prudence and gravity. Benham makes this mount the balance of the hand - the check on whatever the other mounts push toward.
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-mount-apollo
The cushion at the base of the third (ring) finger is developed.
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. XXI (Mount of Apollo)
What the text says
Art, brilliance and celebrity - the faculty of being seen doing a thing well.
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-mount-mercury
The cushion at the base of the fourth (little) finger is developed.
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. XXII (Mount of Mercury)
What the text says
Commerce, science, medicine and oratory. Benham presses the type's bad side harder than any other in the book - the same quickness turned to shrewdness and deceit - and a corpus that prints only the flattering half misrepresents him.
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-mount-mars-upper
The percussion of the palm above the head line is full.
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. XXIII (Mount of Mars)
What the text says
Resistance, resignation and passive courage - the power to endure rather than to attack. Mars is three regions in Benham, not one, and this is the first of them.
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-mount-mars-lower
The region under the beginning of the life line and above the Mount of Venus is full.
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. XXIII (Mount of Mars)
What the text says
Aggression - the active side of the Martian nature, as against Upper Mars's endurance.
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-mount-mars-plain
The centre of the palm - the Plain of Mars - is judged for its depth and hardness.
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. XXIII (Mount of Mars)
What the text says
Temper and drive. Benham records that the earlier tradition rated this region above both Mars mounts, which is worth carrying because modern summaries drop the Plain entirely.
“in the earlier history of Palmistry the Plain of Mars was considered to be the principal part of the Martian development”
William G. Benham, The Laws of Scientific Hand Reading, New York, 1900 (1912 printing)
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-mount-moon
The percussion below Upper Mars, judged twice - once by the outward bulge seen from the side, once by the pad felt on the inner face of 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. XXIV (Mount of the Moon)
What the text says
Imagination. The double judgement is Benham's own requirement and it is the part usually dropped: a mount that bulges outward without an inner pad, or the reverse, is not the same mount.
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-mount-venus
The ball at the base of the thumb, enclosed by the line of life.
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. XXV (Mount of Venus)
What the text says
Love, music, the family affections - and, in Benham's frame, the physical vitality that feeds them. It is the largest of the mounts, which is why it is the one where he states the three-state grading in full.
“has the largest prominence shown by any of the Mounts”
William G. Benham, The Laws of Scientific Hand Reading, New York, 1900 (1912 printing)
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-mount-grading
A mount is graded against the rest of the hand: excessive (out of proportion, highly coloured, deeply grilled), normal (in proportion with the rest of the hand), or deficient.
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 chs. XVIII, XXV
What the text says
The grading is three-state and never two. An excessive mount is not a stronger good - Benham reads excess as the type turned against itself, and it is the state most often mis-sold as strength.
“an absence of any development … a flat and flabby appearance”
William G. Benham, The Laws of Scientific Hand Reading, New York, 1900 (1912 printing)
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-mount-apex
The skin ridges on a mount are traced to the small triangle where they meet; its centre is the mount's apex.
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. XVIII (how the Mounts are judged)
What the text says
The apex, not the fleshiest point, is where a mount is located and from which displacement is measured. Benham's own term for the figure is the capillary triangle; 'triradius' is twentieth-century dermatoglyphics and must not be put in his mouth.
“It is the centre of the capillary triangle which is its apex.”
William G. Benham, The Laws of Scientific Hand Reading, New York, 1900 (1912 printing)
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-mount-displacement
A mount's apex is pulled toward a neighbouring mount rather than sitting at its centre.
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. XVIII (how the Mounts are judged)
What the text says
The mount it leans toward is the stronger of the two, and the leaning mount gives up PART of its type to it - part, not most.
The version repeated everywhere else, in which the leaning mount surrenders most of what it is, is not Benham's rule at all: it comes from a 1960 Bombay book that is still in copyright, and it is materially stronger than the source it is credited to.
“If the apex is pulled toward another Mount, it allows that the Mount toward which it leans is the stronger, and it gives up part of its type to the stronger Mount.”
William G. Benham, The Laws of Scientific Hand Reading, New York, 1900 (1912 printing)
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-mount-signs-good
A star, a triangle, a circle, a single vertical line, a square or a trident is found on a mount.
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. XVIII (how the Mounts are judged)
What the text says
These are Benham's strengthening signs. They intensify whatever the mount already is; on an excessive mount that is not a benefit, which is why the sign is read after the grading and never before it.
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-mount-signs-bad
A cross-bar, a cross, an island, a dot or a grille is found on a mount.
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. XVIII (how the Mounts are judged)
What the text says
Benham's signs of defect. Under Cheiro's method rule, a single one of them settles nothing on its own - it must be repeated elsewhere in the hand before it is stated as a finding.
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 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-nails-husk
The nails are like husk.
Bṛhat Saṁhitā 68.41 (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: The verse's term is a slur in both witnesses, and any faithful rendering is a claim about a person's sex characteristics. Recorded, never rendered.
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)
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.