Shape, not lords
Nabhasa (celestial) yogas judge the DISTRIBUTION of the seven classical planets — pure shape. No lordships, no aspects, no exchanges. Parashara catalogues thirty-two across four groups: ashraya, dala, akriti, sankhya. The classical dictum: their results persist through the whole life, independent of the dasha sequence — the tradition's claim, graded here as texture, not timetable.
Two strangers with different lagnas but the same planet-pattern share the same nabhasa yoga — lordship never enters.
Ashraya — the modality sweeps
Ashraya (support) holds three yogas, judged by modality. All seven planets in movable signs: rajju, the rope — restless motion, a life of change. All in fixed: musala, the pestle — stubborn accumulation, rooted power. All in dual: nala, the reed — adaptable, mixed fortunes. Rare by construction: the Moon crosses a sign every two and a quarter days, breaking most clean sweeps.
Six planets in fixed signs and the Moon in Aries: no musala — the sweep must be total.
Dala — the kendra petals
Dala (petal) holds two yogas, and only the kendras vote. Natural benefics alone occupying the kendras: mala, the garland — comfort, plenty, a cushioned life. Natural malefics alone occupying them: sarpa, the serpent — a life of coiled struggles. The same benefic-malefic division you learned in n13 decides who counts on each side.
Jupiter and Venus in the 4th and 10th, every malefic outside the kendras: mala.
Akriti — the picture book opens
Akriti (shape) holds twenty yogas — the chart read as a constellation-picture. Kamala, the lotus: all seven planets in the four kendras — eminence, wide fame. Vapi, the well: all seven in non-kendra houses — wealth that pools quietly. Shringataka, the peak: all planets in trines from the lagna — fortunate, beloved. Each shape reads as a life-texture, never an event.
Kamala and vapi are mirror images: everything at the pillars, or everything pooled away from them.
The cart, the staff, and fifteen more
Shakata, the cart: all planets in the 1st and 7th only — fortunes that rattle up and down like cartwheels. Danda, the staff: planets strung through consecutive houses at the chart's edge — hardship, then discipline. Fifteen more akriti shapes fill the catalogue; learn the logic from these five and the rest read on sight when you meet them.
A cart on two wheels, a staff in a straight line: the names are the diagrams.
Sankhya — your first free yoga
Sankhya (number) counts the DISTINCT signs the seven classical planets occupy — nodes excluded. One sign: gola. Two: yuga. Three: shoola, the spike — sharp, driven, health-tested. Four: kedara, the field — steady provider. Five: pasha, the noose — entangled duties. Six: dama, the garland — broadly capable. Seven: veena, the lute — many-stringed, sociable mastery. Every chart joins exactly one.
Count Meera's signs: seven planets, seven signs — veena, in ten seconds.
The meta rule
Wallpaper, then portraits
Nabhasa yogas are the chart's wallpaper — the texture behind every specific yoga. A sarpa chart delivers its raja yogas with friction; a mala chart delivers them with grace. Never let a shape override lord-and-strength analysis; let it color it. Before the chart says anything specific, it makes a shape. Read the shape once, then hang the real portraits on it.
Shape first, lords second, promise third — the wallpaper never outranks the portrait.