Ārūḍha lagna · the image of the self

The ārūḍha lagna is a point in the Jaimini system that reflects how a person is seen. It is found by measuring from the lagna to the sign its lord occupies, then counting that same distance again from the lord. The sign reached is the arudha of the ascendant, the image the first house throws into the world.

The tradition reads it as māyā, the projected appearance, set against the lagna itself, which holds the truth of the self. The two are studied together, and the distance between them is taken as the gap between reality and reputation.

The lagna is who a person is; the ārūḍha lagna is who the world takes them to be.

Every house has its own arudha, its pada, computed the same way; the arudha of the first is the one called the ārūḍha lagna. When the count returns to the lagna itself or lands opposite it, the classical rule moves the point on rather than leaving it on the body, so the image is never simply the self.