Selecting the Chart Style

There are five popular styles of drawing the Charts the North Indian, the
South Indian, Circular, Bengali and Oriya charts.
The North Indian style is a diamond shaped chart where the houses have a
fixed location, and the signs are represented as numbers in the houses. The Firs
t
house, (also referred to as Lagna or the Ascendant), is always found in the top
middle area of the Chart. From there on, in a counter clockwise direction, the
houses follow in order.
The second, South Indian style is drawn using squares for each house. In this
kind of Chart, the signs have fixed positions. The second square from the left i
n
the top row is always Aries (Mesha), the one on the right of that is Taurus
(Vrisha) and the rest follows in a clockwise order. The Ascendant is indicated
either by a diagonal line or by the symbol As. From the square (house) where
the Ascendant is located, all the other houses follow in clockwise order. Often
there is no sign or house number indicated in the South Indian style chart.