Also called: The pit of the palm · Cupped palm

Where on the hand: Read at the centre of the palm — the Plain of Mars — relative to the surrounding mounts, with the hand at rest and again when cupped.

What it looks like: A full palm shows the Plain level with, or gently bulging toward, the surrounding mounts, so that when the hand is cupped no pit appears. A hollow palm shows a marked pit in the centre even at rest.

One of the most emphasised practical signs in Indian folk palmistry, and read almost entirely for money: a full palm holds wealth, a hollow palm lets it run out. The texts also distinguish a gentle even cup, read positively, from a sharp irregular pit, read negatively.

Read with care: The Brihat Samhita contradicts itself here, praising a round hollow palm as wealth and condemning hollow palms as loss of paternal inheritance within adjacent verses; the reconciliation offered above is a modern interpretation, not something the text says.

hollow palms mean losing paternal inheritanceBrihat Samhita

round, hollow palms indicate wealthBrihat Samhita