What a Vedic birth chart shows
A birth chart (Janma Kundli) records where the planets stood in the zodiac at the moment you were born, seen from the place you were born. Vedic astrology counts nine grahas: the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn, and the two lunar nodes Rahu and Ketu, which are not bodies but the points where the Moon's path crosses the Sun's. The zodiac is split into twelve signs (rasis) of 30° each, from Aries (Mesha) to Pisces (Meena), and every planet falls in one of them.
The lagna, or ascendant, is the point of the zodiac rising on the eastern horizon at birth. The sign that holds it becomes the 1st house, the next sign the 2nd, and so on round to the 12th. Planets, signs, houses and the divisional charts are the four pillars the whole subject stands on: a planet shows what acts, its sign how it acts, and its house where in life it acts.
The chart can be drawn three ways. The South Indian and East Indian styles keep each sign in a fixed box, while the North Indian diamond keeps each house in a fixed place with the lagna always at the top centre. They carry the same information; switch between them with the chart style control above the chart.
Why the exact birth time matters
The Earth turns once a day, so all twelve signs rise in turn and the lagna moves through one sign in about two hours, or one degree in about four minutes. The planets move far more slowly; only the Moon, at around 13° a day, changes noticeably within hours. The lagna and the houses built on it are what the birth time decides.
In the divisional charts the lagna moves even faster. A Navamsa division is 3°20' wide, so the Navamsa lagna changes sign roughly every 13 minutes, and the Dasamsa (D-10) lagna roughly every 12. Two people born a few minutes apart in the same town can share a Rasi chart and still have different Navamsa and Dasamsa charts. If your recorded time is rounded to the nearest half hour, treat the divisional charts with caution and lean on the Rasi chart and the Moon.
The twelve houses
Each house covers a group of life matters. The list below follows the significations given in Parashari texts; a house also takes on meaning from the houses around it, so the 4th, being the 2nd from the 3rd, also shows the wealth of a younger sibling.
- 1st house
- The body, appearance, strength, energy and the self as a whole.
- 2nd house
- Wealth, family, speech, food, the face and the eyes.
- 3rd house
- Younger siblings, courage, communication, short travels, the arms and ears.
- 4th house
- Mother, home, land, vehicles, education, comforts and peace of mind.
- 5th house
- Children, intelligence, learning, devotion, mantras, and the merit of past lives.
- 6th house
- Enemies, disease, debts, service, servants and mental tension.
- 7th house
- Marriage, the life partner, business partners and long journeys.
- 8th house
- Longevity, inheritance, sudden gains and losses, the occult and hidden matters.
- 9th house
- Father, teacher, fortune, dharma, higher learning and faith.
- 10th house
- Career, action in the world, status, honours and reputation.
- 11th house
- Income, gains, elder siblings, friends and fulfilled hopes.
- 12th house
- Losses, expenses, sleep, foreign residence, meditation and liberation (moksha).
Houses are also read in groups. The kendras or quadrants (1st, 4th, 7th, 10th) show sustenance and vital activity. The trikonas or trines (1st, 5th, 9th) bring prosperity and well-being. The upachayas (3rd, 6th, 10th, 11th) show gains and growth. The dusthanas (6th, 8th, 12th) show setbacks and obstacles, and their lords are weighed with care.
Houses can be counted from other points besides the lagna. Counted from the Moon (Chandra lagna) they describe life as the mind sees it, which is why the chart table has a From Moon column next to the houses from the lagna. Counted from the arudha lagna, they describe how the world sees you (see below).
The nine planets
Each planet governs one part of a person: the Sun the soul, the Moon the mind, Mars strength, Mercury speech, Jupiter knowledge and happiness, Venus potency, and Saturn grief. Jupiter and Venus are natural benefics, as are a waxing Moon and a Mercury that is alone or with benefics. The Sun, Mars, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu are natural malefics, as are a waning Moon and a Mercury joined by malefics.
A planet is strong in its own sign, its moolatrikona sign or its exaltation sign, and weak in its debilitation sign, which always lies opposite its exaltation. The degree in brackets is the point of deepest exaltation or debilitation.
| Planet | Own signs | Exalted | Debilitated | Moolatrikona |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun | Leo | Aries (10°) | Libra (10°) | Leo |
| Moon | Cancer | Taurus (3°) | Scorpio (3°) | Taurus |
| Mars | Aries, Scorpio | Capricorn (28°) | Cancer (28°) | Aries |
| Mercury | Gemini, Virgo | Virgo (15°) | Pisces (15°) | Virgo |
| Jupiter | Sagittarius, Pisces | Cancer (5°) | Capricorn (5°) | Sagittarius |
| Venus | Taurus, Libra | Pisces (27°) | Virgo (27°) | Libra |
| Saturn | Capricorn, Aquarius | Libra (20°) | Aries (20°) | Aquarius |
Whether a planet helps or harms a particular chart also depends on the houses it rules from that lagna. Lords of the trines are the most helpful, the 9th lord above all; lords of the 3rd, 6th and 11th tend to harm, the 11th lord most. A natural benefic that rules a kendra loses some of its goodness, and a natural malefic that rules one loses some of its harm. So Jupiter can be troublesome for one lagna and Saturn the best planet for another; Saturn, for instance, rules the 9th and 10th for a Taurus lagna.
A planet too close to the Sun is combust, and one placed in the house where it is said to die, such as the Moon in the 8th or Jupiter in the 3rd, is in marana karaka sthana. Check both with the combust calculator and the MKS calculator.
Nakshatras and padas
Alongside the twelve signs the zodiac is divided into 27 nakshatras of 13°20' each, starting from Ashvini at 0° Aries, and every nakshatra into four padas of 3°20'. The chart table gives the nakshatra and pada of every planet and of the lagna. The Moon's nakshatra at birth, the janma nakshatra, is the one most often asked about: it sets the starting point of Vimshottari Dasha and is used in matching charts for marriage and in choosing muhurtas.
The nine planets rule the nakshatras in a repeating order of Ketu, Venus, Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury. Ashvini, Magha and Mula belong to Ketu, Bharani, Purva Phalguni and Purva Ashadha to Venus, and so on through the 27.
Vimshottari Dasha: the timing of events
A dasha system divides life into periods ruled by planets or signs, and during a planet's period the matters it governs in the chart come to the front. Vimshottari, the 120-year cycle, is the most widely used. The first period belongs to the lord of the Moon's nakshatra at birth, and the periods then follow in a fixed order:
| Ketu | Venus | Sun | Moon | Mars | Rahu | Jupiter | Saturn | Mercury |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 yrs | 20 yrs | 6 yrs | 10 yrs | 7 yrs | 18 yrs | 16 yrs | 19 yrs | 17 yrs |
The Moon has usually crossed part of its nakshatra by the time of birth, and that part of the first period has already run out. If the Moon is a quarter of the way through Rohini, a Moon nakshatra, three quarters of the Moon's 10 years, 7½ years, remain at birth, followed by 7 years of Mars, 18 of Rahu and so on. Each mahadasha divides into nine antardashas in the same order, beginning with the mahadasha lord itself, and each antardasha divides again into pratyantardashas.
The periods here are counted in solar years. Some teachers use a 360-day savana year instead, which makes each period a little shorter and moves dates later in life by months. A period's results depend on what its planet rules and occupies in your own chart, not on the planet alone; a Jupiter period for someone whose Jupiter rules the 6th and 11th is not read like one where it rules the 9th.
Divisional charts: Navamsa, Dasamsa and the rest
A divisional chart (varga) cuts each sign into equal parts and maps every part to a sign of its own, giving a new chart that is read like an independent chart for one area of life. You choose the chart by the question: career from the Dasamsa, children from the Saptamsa, marriage from the Navamsa. The charts available on this page cover:
- Rasi (D-1)
- The physical self and the whole of life; the base every other chart is read against.
- Hora (D-2)
- Wealth and money.
- Drekkana (D-3)
- Brothers and sisters.
- Chaturthamsa (D-4)
- Residence, property and fortune.
- Panchamsa (D-5)
- Fame, authority and power.
- Shashthamsa (D-6)
- Health troubles.
- Saptamsa (D-7)
- Children and grandchildren.
- Navamsa (D-9)
- Marriage and the spouse, dharma, basic skills and the inner self.
- Dasamsa (D-10)
- Career, work and achievements in society.
B.V. Raman begins his rules for judging any house with a reminder that the Navamsa must be examined as well as the Rasi chart. A planet that is strong in the Rasi chart but debilitated in the Navamsa promises less than it seems to, and a weak one that is well placed in the Navamsa does better. When a planet occupies the same sign in both charts it is called vargottama and is considered strong.
Chara karakas and the Atmakaraka
Maharishi Jaimini assigns the roles of the people in your life to planets by degree. Rank the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn and Rahu by how far each has advanced in its sign, counting Rahu backwards from the end of its sign. The highest becomes the Atmakaraka (the self), followed by the Amatyakaraka (advisers and career), Bhratrikaraka (siblings), Matrikaraka (mother), Pitrikaraka (father), Putrakaraka (children), Jnatikaraka (rivals) and Darakaraka (the spouse). Because the order depends on degrees, these karakas change from chart to chart, unlike the natural significations of the planets.
The Atmakaraka is the king of the chart and shows the soul's desire in this life. The sign it occupies in the Navamsa is the karakamsa. Read more with the atmakaraka calculator and the karakamsa calculator.
Arudha lagna: how the world sees you
The lagna shows who you really are, but in material life how others perceive you often counts for more. The arudha pada of a house is found by counting from the house to its lord, then counting the same number of signs again from the lord. If the count lands in the house itself or the 7th from it, the 10th sign from there is taken instead. The arudha of the lagna, marked AL on the chart, shows your image and status in the world; the arudha of the 12th house is the upapada (UL). Planets in the 10th or 11th from the arudha lagna affect standing and gains as they appear to others.
Aspects (drishti)
Every planet casts a full aspect on the 7th sign from itself. Mars also aspects the 4th and 8th in full, Jupiter the 5th and 9th, and Saturn the 3rd and 10th. Other planets cast partial aspects on those same houses: three quarters on the 4th and 8th, half on the 5th and 9th, and a quarter on the 3rd and 10th. No planet aspects the 2nd, 6th, 11th or 12th from itself.
The aspect matrix under the chart gives these as degree-based strengths from 0 to 60 virupas, where 60 is a full aspect, so you can see not only which planets aspect a planet or house but how strongly. A benefic aspect protects what it touches and a malefic one pressures it. Jaimini astrology also uses sign aspects (rasi drishti), where movable signs aspect the fixed signs other than the one next to them, fixed signs the movable ones, and dual signs each other.
How to read a house in your chart
Pick the house that governs your question and work through the factors B.V. Raman sets out in How to Judge a Horoscope:
- The lord of the house: its strength, sign, house, conjunctions and aspects, including whether it is exalted or debilitated. The lord controls the house to a great extent, though a house with good occupants and aspects is not written off because its lord is badly placed.
- The house itself: which planets occupy it and which aspect it, and whether they are benefics or malefics for this lagna.
- The natural significator (karaka) of the matter, such as the Moon for the mother, Venus for the spouse or Jupiter for children.
- The same lord and house in the Navamsa and in the divisional chart for the subject, such as the Dasamsa for career.
- Yogas formed in the chart, which can override the general indications.
- The age, circumstances and sex of the person, which decide how a promise can show up.
A result promised by the chart arrives in the dasha or antardasha of a planet connected to the house, most often its lord. The chart also interacts with the planets' current movement: slow transits such as Saturn's passage through the 12th, 1st and 2nd signs from the natal Moon, known as Sade Sati, and the Moon's monthly passage through the 8th sign from the natal Moon, found with the chandrashtama calculator.
How this birth chart is calculated
Planet positions come from NASA JPL's DE440 ephemeris, the same planetary tables used for spacecraft navigation, computed for the exact latitude and longitude of the birth place. The ephemeris gives positions in the tropical zodiac, measured from the spring equinox, and they are converted to the sidereal zodiac used in Vedic astrology by subtracting the ayanamsa, the slowly growing gap between the two caused by the precession of the equinoxes.
The default ayanamsa is Pushya-Paksha, proposed by P.V.R. Narasimha Rao, which places the star Pushya (Delta Cancri) at 16° Cancer. Lahiri, the Indian government standard followed by most printed almanacs, is about 1.1° away from it. B.V. Raman's and the Krishnamurti (KP) ayanamsas are also available from the Ayanamsa menu. A planet or lagna within about a degree of a sign or nakshatra boundary can shift between them, so compare if yours sits near an edge. The daily panchanga uses Lahiri, because a shared calendar should match the almanacs everyone else follows.
Houses are counted by whole signs, as Parashara counts them and as every divisional chart requires. The Chalit column shows the equal-house alternative, in which the 1st house is the 30° arc centred on the lagna degree, for readers who follow that method. Rahu and Ketu are the true nodes, always exactly opposite each other.
Your chart is saved in this browser so you can come back to it, and the Download PDF button saves a one-page copy to print or share. To find the tithi you were born on, use the birth tithi calculator, and to look up what the classical texts say on a placement, search the Jyotish sources.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Vedic birth chart?
A Vedic birth chart, also called a Janma Kundli or rasi chakra, is a map of the sky at the moment and place of birth. It shows which of the twelve signs (rasis) the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu occupied, and which sign was rising on the eastern horizon, the lagna or ascendant. The sign holding the lagna becomes the 1st house and the following signs the 2nd to 12th houses, each standing for different areas of life. Vedic astrology rests on four pillars: planets, signs, houses and divisional charts.
What details do I need to make my birth chart?
Your date of birth, the time of birth as exactly as you know it, and the place of birth. The place gives the latitude, longitude and time zone, which fix the rising sign and convert the local clock time to universal time. Check the time zone shown after you choose the place, especially for births during daylight saving or war time, and correct it if it is wrong.
Can I download my birth chart as a PDF?
Yes, free and without an account. Once your chart is drawn, the Download PDF button saves a one-page PDF with your Rasi (D-1) and Navamsa (D-9) charts, a table of every planet's sign, degree, nakshatra, pada, house and Navamsa sign, the special lagnas, your Vimshottari dasha periods and the tithi, weekday, nakshatra and hora of your birth. It uses the ayanamsa you chose, so you can print it or share it with your astrologer.
Why does the exact birth time matter?
The lagna moves through one sign in about two hours, or one degree in about four minutes. In the divisional charts it changes much faster: the Navamsa lagna changes roughly every 13 minutes and the Dasamsa lagna roughly every 12. A few minutes of error can therefore change the Navamsa or Dasamsa entirely, even when the Rasi chart looks the same. The planets move slowly, so their signs are rarely affected, except for the Moon, which moves about 13 degrees a day.
What is the difference between the Rasi chart and the Navamsa?
The Rasi chart (D-1) places each planet in one of the twelve 30-degree signs and describes life at the physical level. The Navamsa (D-9) splits each sign into nine parts of 3°20', one for each nakshatra pada, and maps each part to a sign again. It is read for marriage and the spouse, dharma and the inner strength of the planets. Classical practice judges every house in the Rasi and again in the Navamsa before giving a result.
How is Vimshottari Dasha calculated?
Vimshottari Dasha divides a 120-year life into periods ruled by the nine planets: Ketu 7 years, Venus 20, Sun 6, Moon 10, Mars 7, Rahu 18, Jupiter 16, Saturn 19 and Mercury 17, always in that order. The first period belongs to the lord of the nakshatra the Moon occupies at birth. Only the part of that nakshatra the Moon has yet to cross is left of the first period; the rest was used up before birth. Each period is then divided into nine sub-periods (antardashas) in the same order.
What is the Atmakaraka?
In the Jaimini system the eight planets from the Sun to Saturn plus Rahu are ranked by how far each has advanced within its own sign, with Rahu counted backwards from the end of its sign. The one furthest advanced is the Atmakaraka, the significator of the soul; the others become the Amatyakaraka, Bhratrikaraka, Matrikaraka, Pitrikaraka, Putrakaraka, Jnatikaraka and Darakaraka, which stand for advisers, siblings, mother, father, children, rivals and the spouse. The chart table on this page marks each one.
How is a Vedic chart different from a Western chart?
Western astrology usually measures positions in the tropical zodiac, which starts from the spring equinox and slides slowly against the stars because of the precession of the equinoxes. Vedic astrology uses the sidereal zodiac, fixed to the stars. The gap between the two, the ayanamsa, is now about 24 degrees, so most planets fall one sign earlier in a Vedic chart than in a Western one. Vedic astrology also relies on nakshatras, divisional charts and dasha periods, which Western astrology does not use.
Which ayanamsa does this birth chart use?
Pushya-Paksha by default. It fixes the sidereal zodiac by placing the star Pushya (Delta Cancri) at 16° Cancer, and was proposed by P.V.R. Narasimha Rao. Lahiri, the Indian government standard that most printed almanacs use, B.V. Raman's ayanamsa and the Krishnamurti (KP) ayanamsa are also offered. Pushya-Paksha and Lahiri differ by about 1.1 degrees, enough to move a planet near a sign or nakshatra boundary.
What does the Chalit column mean?
The House column counts whole signs: the sign holding the lagna is the 1st house and every planet in it is in the 1st house. The Chalit column uses the equal-house method, in which the 1st house is the 30-degree arc centred on the lagna's exact degree, so a planet early in a sign can fall back into the previous house. Parashara counts houses by whole signs, and the same counting is used in every divisional chart, so the House column is the one the rest of this page follows.
Should I use the North Indian or the South Indian chart?
Both show the same chart. The South Indian style fixes each sign in the same box, so Aries is always in the same place and the lagna is marked where it falls. The North Indian diamond fixes the houses instead: the top centre is always the 1st house, and the sign numbers change from chart to chart. The East Indian style, like the South Indian, fixes the signs. Pick whichever you read most easily with the chart style switch.