Kundli: Free Vedic Birth Chart

Written by Orbitarot · Sources: our own engine, positions checked against NASA JPL Horizons (method); place data GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); interpretations our own · Updated October 17, 2026

Sidereal zodiac: why your signs may change

Western astrology measures the zodiac from the March equinox (the tropical zodiac). Vedic astrology, Jyotisha, measures it from the fixed stars (the sidereal zodiac). The two coincided about seventeen centuries ago, but the equinox slowly slides backwards against the stars by about 1 degree every 72 years. The gap between the two zodiacs, called the ayanamsa, is now about 24 degrees.

We use the Lahiri ayanamsa (also called Chitrapaksha), the standard adopted by the Government of India's calendar reform in the 1950s and the most common choice in Indian software. In practice: subtract about 24 degrees from a Western position to get the Vedic one. A Sun at 10 degrees Leo in a Western chart is at about 16 degrees Cancer in a kundli. Anyone whose Western Sun, Moon or ascendant lies in the first 24 or so degrees of a sign will find that placement in the previous sign here.

What the kundli shows

• Lagna: the sidereal ascendant, the sign rising at your birth. It is the first house.
• Rashi: your Moon sign. In Indian astrology the Moon sign is used more than the Sun sign, for example in daily horoscopes.
• Nakshatra: the lunar mansion of your Moon, one of 27; see the nakshatra calculator.
• The nine grahas: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu (the Moon's north and south nodes). Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are not part of the classical system; we show them only if you switch them on.
• Houses (bhavas): counted as whole signs from the lagna, the classical method, so each sign is one house.

North Indian and South Indian charts

The same kundli can be drawn two ways. The North Indian chart is a square with diamonds inside: the houses stay in fixed places, with the first house at the top center, and the sign numbers (1 for Aries to 12 for Pisces) move according to your lagna. The South Indian chart is a square of 12 boxes around the edge: the signs stay in fixed places, with Pisces at the top left and Aries next to it, and the lagna is marked with a line. The East Indian style is a third variant. The calculator draws the North Indian chart by default and lets you switch.

Example: with Leo lagna, the North Indian chart shows the number 5 in the top diamond, and the grahas are written in the houses where they fall. In the South Indian chart the Leo box gets the lagna mark instead.

Common kundli mistakes

• Comparing with a Western chart and assuming an error. Different signs are expected; the two zodiacs are about 24 degrees apart.
• A different ayanamsa. Krishnamurti (KP), Raman and other ayanamsas differ from Lahiri by a fraction of a degree to more than a degree, which can move a graha near a sign edge. Check which one another tool uses.
• The birth time. The lagna changes about every two hours and the Moon's nakshatra about every day, so an exact time matters as much here as in Western astrology.
• Time zone history. India has used IST (UTC+5:30) since 1947, but earlier births and births elsewhere need the local rules of the time; the calculator applies them from the place you choose.

Related Vedic tools

From the same chart: Vimshottari dasha periods, the navamsa (D9) chart, a Manglik dosha check and Sade Sati dates. For the Western version of your chart, use the birth chart calculator. Jyotisha is a living tradition with many schools; we present it as a symbolic system and do not make predictions about marriage, health, money or legal matters.

Questions

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