Also called: Mutability of lines · Rekha and karma

Where on the hand: A doctrine about the palm as a whole: which lines are stable over a lifetime and which appear, deepen, fade and vanish over months or years.

What it looks like: Detected only by comparison — two prints of the same hand taken 12 to 24 months apart, laid side by side.

Both traditions say lines do change, and this is doctrinally important. Major lines hold their course but alter in quality; the Fate and Sun lines are the most volatile; minor lines come and go on a scale of months. Indian doctrine ties this to karma and remedial action, making it explicitly non-fatalist.

Western reading: 19th-century cheiromancy leaned fatalist; Benham and later writers reframed the lines as tendencies. Cheiro recorded a Sun line appearing suddenly with a change of circumstance.