Mulank, bhagyank and namank: how to work out your numbers
The short answer
Your mulank is the day you were born, added down to one digit: born on the 23rd, 2 + 3 = 5. Your bhagyank adds every digit of the full birth date: 23/8/1994 gives 36, then 9. Your namank adds the Chaldean values of the letters in your name. In Ank Jyotish each number from 1 to 9 is ruled by a graha, from 1 for Surya to 9 for Mangala.
Ank Jyotish, Indian numerology, reads three numbers from you: one from the day you were born, one from your full date of birth, and one from your name. Each comes down to a single digit from 1 to 9, and each digit is ruled by one of the nine grahas. The arithmetic is simple enough to do on paper, and the method is what Jyotish, our Vedic astrology app for Android, uses in its Numerology tab.
Mulank: from your birth day
Mulank (root number) comes from the day of the month only. Add its digits until one is left.
| Born on | Working | Mulank |
|---|---|---|
| 5th | 5 | 5 |
| 14th | 1 + 4 | 5 |
| 23rd | 2 + 3 | 5 |
| 29th | 2 + 9 = 11, 1 + 1 | 2 |
| 30th | 3 + 0 | 3 |
So everyone born on the 5th, 14th or 23rd of any month shares mulank 5. It is read as your nature: how you think, decide and react.
Bhagyank: from your full date of birth
Bhagyank (fortune number) uses every digit of the date: day, month and the four-digit year. Write the date as numbers, add all the digits, and keep adding until one is left.
For 23 August 1994, written 23/8/1994:
2 + 3 + 8 + 1 + 9 + 9 + 4 = 36, and 3 + 6 = 9.
Write the month as a number, not a word, and use the full year: 1994, not 94. Bhagyank is read as the direction your life takes, and it often differs from mulank. In this example mulank is 5 and bhagyank is 9.
Namank: from your name
Namank (name number) adds the values of the letters in your name. Indian numerologists use the Chaldean table, the one Cheiro popularised:
| Value | Letters |
|---|---|
| 1 | A, I, J, Q, Y |
| 2 | B, K, R |
| 3 | C, G, L, S |
| 4 | D, M, T |
| 5 | E, H, N, X |
| 6 | U, V, W |
| 7 | O, Z |
| 8 | F, P |
No letter has the value 9, which is held sacred.
For the name Rahul: R 2 + A 1 + H 5 + U 6 + L 3 = 17, and 1 + 7 = 8. Spaces, dots and anything that is not a letter are skipped. Use the name you actually go by, spelled the way you write it, since a change of spelling changes the number.
Which graha rules each number
| Number | Graha |
|---|---|
| 1 | Surya (Sun) |
| 2 | Chandra (Moon) |
| 3 | Guru (Jupiter) |
| 4 | Rahu |
| 5 | Budha (Mercury) |
| 6 | Shukra (Venus) |
| 7 | Ketu |
| 8 | Shani (Saturn) |
| 9 | Mangala (Mars) |
Rahu and Ketu, the Moon’s nodes, rule 4 and 7. This is one of the places Ank Jyotish is not a relabelled Western system: Western numerology has no node planets.
Do your name and birth number agree?
A common question is whether your namank suits your mulank. Jyotish answers it with the grahas’ natural friendships from Parashara. Two numbers agree when their grahas are the same or friends, with Rahu treated like Shani and Ketu like Mangala, the classical rule for the nodes.
In the example, mulank 5 is Budha and namank 8 is Shani. Budha’s natural friends are Surya and Shukra, so the two are not counted as friendly. That is the kind of result that leads people to consider a spelling change. It is a tradition, not a requirement: a name carries far more than its number.
Numbers and your chart together
Numerology needs only a date and a name, so it works when the birth time is unknown, unlike a kundli. For the chart side, see how to read your kundli, and if the time is missing, making a kundli without a birth time.
In Jyotish, the Kundali tab has a Numerology view beside the Vedic and Lal Kitab charts. It shows your mulank, bhagyank and namank, the graha behind each, and whether your name number and birth number agree. You can then ask about them in your own language.
Numerology is for reflection, not prediction. No number decides a career, a marriage or a name on its own.
- Astrology
- Numerology
