Also called: Danda · Rod · Stick · Sannyasi's staff · Tridanda · Rod of authority

Where on the hand: Anywhere on the palm, typically running vertically; named among the marks of the divine hands and feet.

What it looks like: A single straight rod-like line, of even thickness along its whole length and clearly independent of the major lines, sometimes with a small knob or binding at the upper end — the renunciate's staff, not a branch of another line.

The daṇḍa carries two linked meanings in Sanskrit: the ascetic's staff and the rod of authority, the power to punish and to rule. Read on a hand it is taken as strength and command — the capacity to impose order, whether over others or over one's own senses. In the devotional lists it is glossed as the staff of the sannyāsī and as the strength that supports.