Also called: Ayu Rekha · Ayushshu rekha (ఆయుష్షు రేఖ) · Line of Life · Vitalis

Where on the hand: Starts on the radial edge in the web between thumb and index finger, roughly midway between the index base and the thumb joint, then sweeps in a curve convex toward the thumb, arcing round the thumb ball and enclosing the Mount of Venus, ending ideally at the base of the palm under Venus, curling toward the wrist near the inner rascette.

What it looks like: The long boundary curve of the Venus mount — at best deep, fine, clear and unbroken along its whole arc. It may instead end early, split, throw a branch across the palm to Luna, or run close in against the thumb enclosing only a small Venus.

Not "length of life" in the naive sense. Both traditions read it as physical vitality, constitutional robustness, prana and stamina; the quality of health across successive life periods; and the texture of the life — its major upheavals, changes of place, of circumstance and of physical condition. Indian sources add ayu (lifespan) as one factor among several, plus immunity, organ vigour and inherited constitutional strength. The line lies over the course of the radial artery and superficial palmar arch, an anatomical coincidence Cheiro made much of.

Western reading: Explicitly *not* a lifespan line: vitality and life-quality only. A short line is read as a life of change, or a shift of the vital current onto the Fate line — never as death. No remedial doctrine; the line is diagnostic. Dated by the quarter/midpoint and finger-drop methods. Benham's formulation: it indicates the health of the subject during the various periods of life, his physical strength in general, and whether he lives on nervous force or muscular robustness.

Read with care: Never predict death from a break — both Cheiro and Benham warned explicitly against it, and Benham noted that a big thumb and a good Head line indicate qualities that often overcome the poorest Life line. Terminations in a star, cross or grille, and the traditional Indian reading of a short line as a short life, are recorded here as tradition only and must not be delivered as forecasts. Chaining, islands and dark spots carry direct illness claims that are correspondences, not diagnoses. This one has been tested. Three cadaver studies have compared life-line length with age at death: Wilson & Mather 1974 (n=51, negative); Newrick et al. 1990 (J R Soc Med, n=100, positive, r=0.43–0.55); and Lucas, Dhugga & Henneberg 2019 (Anthropol Rev 82:155–62, n=60), which repeated Newrick's exact method and found no significant correlation. The single positive result failed replication. The line does not predict lifespan.

the health of the subject during the various periods of life, his physical strength in general, and whether he lives during each period on his nervous force or relies upon muscular robustness.Benham

cold, unsympathetic, lacks sexual desire and attraction for or to the opposite sexBenham

When made up of little pieces or linked like a chain, it is a certain sign of poor health, weak stomach and lack of vitality.Cheiro, Palmistry for All (1916)

greater self-controlCheiro, Palmistry for All (1916)

less control over temper and more quarrelsome natureCheiro, Palmistry for All (1916)

denote life energy and effortCheiro, Palmistry for All (1916)

poverty, deceitMrs J. B. Dale

a big thumb and a good Head line indicate qualities that often overcome the poorest Life line.Benham