Also called: Yav · barley grain · Phoenix Eye · island (in modern Indian usage) · dvīpa

Where on the hand: The classic position is the lower (second) phalanx of the thumb, where the two flexure-creases bow apart and rejoin so the whole phalanx carries an eye. Also found at the start of the Fate line, at the Venus-thumb junction, on the Heart line, on Mars, and on any mount.

What it looks like: A small, closed, symmetrical oval or eye-shape formed where a line splits into two strands and rejoins — pointed at both ends, plump in the middle, exactly like a grain of barley. It has NO tail: that is what separates it from the fish. On the thumb it is large, occupying the whole lower phalanx, formed by the two flexure-creases bowing apart and rejoining.

In its auspicious sense: progeny — especially sons — inherited property, learning, eloquence, fame and easy prosperity. Note the inherent duality: the very same oval is the auspicious yava on the thumb and the inauspicious island on a mount or line. Location alone decides. The thumb yav is the most commonly found auspicious mark in Indian practice.

Western reading: Mrs. Dale, figs. 21, 22, 23, gives the thumb yav as a happy and easy life, the Mars yav as intellectual and wise, and the yav under two fingers as an honourable life with a good partner and many children.

Read with care: The same figure reverses meaning entirely by position: on a mount or a major line it is read as the island, indicating career damage, disease, vision trouble, cowardice or a missed marriage. A broken yav at the Venus-thumb junction is read as miscarriage, and a yav at the start of the Fate line as early loss of a parent. These are traditional readings, recorded but not to be presented as diagnosis. Citation correction: the Garuḍa Purāṇa's grain is WHEAT, not barley. RECONCILED. Two conflicts stood here. (1) Identification: the yava and the island are the same closed oval; what differs is position, not shape. The claim that 'an island is formed by the parent line splitting and the yava is free-standing' was the error. (2) Valence: 'the barleycorn has no negative reading anywhere' is wrong — the same oval is auspicious on the thumb and inauspicious on a mount or line (Jupiter: career damaged by relatives; Saturn: misfortune, disease; Mercury: job instability; Mars: cowardice; Venus: a missed marriage; Moon: weakened imagination). Position decides. On the thumb, sources also disagree on the phalanx — the second (lower) phalanx, where the two flexure creases bow apart and rejoin, is anatomically the position described.

will spend life very happily and go through life easilyMrs. J. B. Dale, Indian Palmistry

very intellectual, respectable and wiseMrs. J. B. Dale, Indian Palmistry (yav on Mars)