It is said that Palmistry has migrated from India to other countries like Greece, Egypt, Persia and Syria in ancient times. Samudra, deity of the Seas has first given this knowledge to the world, hence this is called 'Samudrika'. Sages like Narada, Valmiki, Garga, Bhrigu, Prahlada and Astrologers like Varahamihira have done a lot of work in Palmistry. Palmistry was discussed in the great books like 'Bhavishya Puranam' and 'Hasta Sanjeevani'. But some how Palmistry could not receive proper attention in India in modern times. It is given high regard in Western countries.
Palmistry revives its foundation on the experiments conducted by Desbarrolles and d'Arpentigny in 19th century. They made a life time study of Palmistry by collecting the imprints of Hands of thousands of people, and classifying them according to the nature of people and events which occurred in their lives. Then a hypothesis has been developed and verified with the support of further research.
Nowadays, there are two distinct approaches to palmistry. Cheiromancy embraces the fortune-telling approach and refers to the lines on the palm of the hand. Cheirognomy, also known as hand analysis, concentrates on discerning the strengths and weaknesses of the personality from the shape of the hand. This branch has also come to include the study and meaning of dermatoglyphics (finger prints) and skin ridge patterns. Many readers prefer to blend the two approaches in a mixture of old and new.
My personal approach to palm readings uses the knowledge based the information gathered through the hand features as well as the lines on the palms. There is a great variation in the way the hands, fingers and lines are formed revealing our uniqueness and just what makes this subject so interesting.