Step by step
How to read a Vedic birth chart
The easiest way to learn a Vedic chart is to walk through one from start to finish. These nine steps follow an example chart for March 14, 1991, 4:18 AM, Chicago; then you can cast your own.
Cast your own chart- 1
Find the fixed signs
The twelve outer boxes of a South Indian chart are the signs, and they never move. Pisces always sits in the top-left box, Aries next to it, and the signs run clockwise around the square. Each box holds one 30° sign of the sidereal zodiac.
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Find the lagna
Next, locate the box marked for the lagna, which is the rising sign on the eastern horizon at your exact moment of birth. For March 14, 1991 at 4:18 AM in Chicago, the lagna is at 15°18′ Capricorn, the third box down in the left column. Because the lagna changes signs about every two hours on average, you need a birth time to place it.
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Count the houses
This calculator uses whole-sign houses, so the entire sign containing the lagna becomes the 1st house. With the lagna at 15°18′ Capricorn, Capricorn is the 1st house, Aquarius is the 2nd, Pisces is the 3rd, and Aries is the 4th. Counting clockwise continues through Taurus as the 5th, Gemini 6th, Cancer 7th, Leo 8th, Virgo 9th, Libra 10th, Scorpio 11th and Sagittarius 12th.
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Read each planet's sign, degree and house
Inside each sign box, the degree next to a planet shows where it sits between 0° and 30° of that sign. In the example chart, Capricorn (1st house) holds Saturn at 10°00′, and Aquarius (2nd house) holds the Sun at 29°36′ and Moon at 6°20′. Mercury sits at 11°03′ Pisces in the 3rd house, Venus at 0°50′ Aries in the 4th, and Mars at 26°15′ Taurus in the 5th. Jupiter is at 10°14′ Cancer in the 7th house, while the 6th and the 8th through 12th houses contain no planets.
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Spot retrograde planets and the nodes
In our March 14, 1991 chart, Jupiter at 10°14′ Cancer in the 7th house is retrograde, meaning it appears to move backward from Earth. Rahu at 1°34′ Capricorn in the 1st house and Ketu at 1°34′ Cancer in the 7th house are the two lunar nodes. Because the nodes always move backward through the zodiac, Vedic charts don't mark them as retrograde.
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Find the Moon sign and nakshatra
In a Vedic chart reading, the Moon sign gets close attention alongside the lagna, and here the Moon sits at 6°20′ Aquarius. That degree places the Moon in Dhanishta nakshatra and in pada 4, where a pada is one of the four quarters of a nakshatra.
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Find the atmakaraka and darakaraka
The chara karakas—movable significators ranked by degree within a sign—highlight the highest-degree atmakaraka (soul significator) and lowest-degree darakaraka (partner significator). Here the Sun at 29°36′ Aquarius is the atmakaraka and Venus at 0°50′ Aries is the darakaraka in both seven- and eight-planet schemes. At 2:04 PM that day, the Sun entered sidereal Pisces, making the Sun the darakaraka and Mars (26°15′ Taurus) the seven-planet atmakaraka.
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Compare with your Western chart
This calculator uses the sidereal zodiac with the Lahiri ayanamsa—the gap between the Western and sidereal zodiacs—which was 23°44′ on March 14, 1991. Subtracting 23°44′ shifts the example Sun from Western 23°20′ Pisces to 29°36′ Aquarius, and the Moon from Western 0°04′ Pisces to 6°20′ Aquarius. Both zodiacs are valid systems; in our 4,000-moment test, the Sun sign differed on 79.0% and the Moon sign on 78.4%.
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Look at the navamsa (D9)
Finally, check the navamsa (D9), a nine-part divisional chart that splits each 30° sign into 3°20′ slices and is read alongside the D1 chart. In the example D9, the lagna is Taurus only from 4:12 AM to 4:22 AM, changing about every 13 minutes on average. The atmakaraka Sun lands in Gemini in the D9, making Gemini the karakamsa (the atmakaraka's navamsa sign), while the Moon lands in Scorpio. Venus (Aries), Rahu (Capricorn) and Ketu (Cancer) are vargottama, meaning they occupy the exact same sign in both the D1 and D9 charts.
What the twelve houses stand for
Each whole-sign house in a Vedic birth chart represents a practical area of life, starting with your self and body in the 1st house. Tradition reads any house through the sign occupying it, the planets sitting inside it, and the planet that rules that sign. In our example chart, Venus at 0°50′ Aries sits in the 4th house of home, mother and inner peace. Empty houses, such as the 6th and the 8th through 12th in that chart, still carry full meaning through their signs and ruling planets. Every house theme describes ongoing tendencies and areas of focus rather than fixed predictions.
South Indian or North Indian chart
Vedic astrology uses two main chart layouts: the South Indian square chart and the North Indian diamond chart. The South Indian chart keeps the twelve zodiac signs in fixed boxes around the border and moves the lagna from chart to chart. The North Indian chart keeps the twelve houses in fixed compartments—with the 1st house always at the top—and moves the signs instead. Both layouts show the exact same sidereal placements, degrees and whole-sign houses, and this site draws the South Indian chart.
The twelve houses at a glance
| House | Themes tradition links with it | In the example |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Self and body | Capricorn: Sa, Ra |
| 2 | Family, speech and resources | Aquarius: Su, Mo |
| 3 | Siblings, courage, short trips | Pisces: Me |
| 4 | Home, mother, inner peace | Aries: Ve |
| 5 | Children, creativity, learning | Taurus: Ma |
| 6 | Work routines, health habits, rivals | Gemini |
| 7 | Partners and agreements | Cancer: Ju, Ke |
| 8 | Shared resources, change, hidden matters | Leo |
| 9 | Teachers, beliefs, long journeys | Virgo |
| 10 | Career and public role | Libra |
| 11 | Gains, friends, networks | Scorpio |
| 12 | Rest, retreat, spending, distant places | Sagittarius |
Questions
What do the small numbers next to the planets mean?
The small number is the planet's whole degree inside its 30° sign, from 0° to 29°. In the example chart the Sun at 29°36′ Aquarius sits near the end of its sign, while Venus at 0°50′ Aries has just entered Aries. The result table gives degrees and minutes, and the degree also sets the planet's nakshatra, pada, navamsa and karaka rank.
What does R next to a planet mean?
An R marks a retrograde planet, meaning it appears to move backward through the zodiac from our viewpoint on Earth. In the March 14, 1991 example chart, Jupiter at 10°14′ Cancer in the 7th house is the only planet marked retrograde. The Sun and Moon are never retrograde, while Rahu and Ketu always move backward and are left unmarked.
Why is a Vedic chart square?
South Indian and North Indian charts are drawn as straight-lined grids of twelve compartments rather than split wheels. With whole-sign houses, each of the twelve outer boxes in the South Indian square neatly holds one complete 30° sign and one house. That grid makes it easy to count houses clockwise and spot sign relationships at a glance.
Do I need my birth time to read the chart?
You need a birth time for your lagna, whole-sign houses and D9 lagna, since the lagna changes signs about every two hours on average. Without a birth time, this site omits the lagna and houses and shows which placements stay the same all day. When a planet, Moon nakshatra or karaka shifts during that date, the calculator lists the time of the change.