Ramala Shastra is a dice-based future telling method in Hinduism. It is believed to have been developed by Arabs. Many books have been written on Ramala Shastra in Sanskrit. The names of formations (sakals) are both in Sanskrit and Urdu.
The dices used in Ramala Shastra are made using eight metals – gold, iron, silver, lead, copper, zinc and pewter (alloy). Each dice contains four marked cubes, tightened in wire. The dices are thrown at the time of a query (Prashna) and the figures are noted.
A standard horoscope in Ramala Shastra contains 16 figures. The figures are known as Sakals. The sakal chart is known as sthira kundali. For any queries, the answer is obtained by throwing four dices.
The marks on the dices are dots – a single dot is shown by 0 and two dots are shown by line. There are a total of sixteen formations on the four dices. The 16 formations are known as Lahyan, Kabejtul, Dakhil, Kabajtul Kharij, Jamat, Faraha, Ukala, Ankish, Humra, Beyaj, Nufratula, Khanj, Natratula Dakhi, U-Khanj, Naki, U-Dakhil, Ijjal Tama and Tarikh.
The fixed sakal kundali is based on the system of omens for houses occupied by the first to 16th sakal.
Another type of kundali in Ramala Shastra is known as ramal prajna kundali and it is created from dices. The first four houses are created from thrown dices, and then the remaining houses sakals are determined through complex systems. This chart is made to do annual predictions of individuals.
Instead of twelve houses in a regular horoscope, there are sixteen houses in this system of future telling.
The sakals and houses are classified subject wise as good or bad, male or female, strong or weak and so on. Questions are answered by examining particular houses, sakals are classified on the basis of upper and lower dots and lines.
It is believed that, in the case of a theft, the name of the thief can be worked out by the Ramal method.
Distance and timing of fruition are also sought from the method.
In some methods, instead of dices playing cards are used.