How to read a Nepali janma kundali
A janma kundali is a map of the sky at one moment, drawn from one place. Reading it means answering four questions in order: what is the lagna, where are the nine grahas, which bhava does each fall in, and what period is running now. Everything else is refinement on top of those four.
Written and reviewed by the team that builds the Jyotish Sarathi calculation engine.
Key takeaways
- The lagna (ascendant) is the rashi rising on the eastern horizon at birth. It anchors the whole chart.
- The chart has twelve bhava (houses), each covering an area of life, numbered from the lagna.
- Nine grahas are placed: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu, Ketu.
- In the North Indian style the houses are fixed in position and the rashi numbers move; in the South Indian style the rashi are fixed and the houses move.
- Read in this order: lagna → grahas and their bhava → strengths and yogas → dasha for timing.
Step 1 — find the lagna
The lagna is the rashi that was rising on the eastern horizon at the moment and place of birth. It changes roughly every two hours, and it depends on the birth time more sensitively than anything else in the chart. This is why an approximate birth time weakens a reading at the root: get the lagna wrong and every bhava is renumbered.
The lagna is house 1. Counting forward from it gives houses 2 to 12. In a North Indian chart the lagna is always the top-centre diamond; in a South Indian chart it is marked wherever the rising rashi falls.
Step 2 — know what the twelve bhava cover
| Bhava | Traditionally read for |
|---|---|
| 1st (tanu) | The self, body, vitality, general disposition |
| 2nd (dhana) | Wealth, speech, family resources |
| 3rd (sahaja) | Siblings, courage, effort, communication |
| 4th (matru) | Mother, home, land, inner comfort |
| 5th (putra) | Children, intelligence, merit, learning |
| 6th (shatru) | Illness, debt, opposition, daily struggle |
| 7th (kalatra) | Marriage, partnership, the other person |
| 8th (ayu) | Longevity, sudden change, hidden matters |
| 9th (bhagya) | Fortune, dharma, father, teachers |
| 10th (karma) | Occupation, standing, visible action |
| 11th (labha) | Gains, networks, elder siblings |
| 12th (vyaya) | Loss, expenditure, release, foreign places |
Step 3 — place the nine grahas
Vedic astrology reads nine grahas: Surya (Sun), Chandra (Moon), Mangal (Mars), Budha (Mercury), Guru (Jupiter), Shukra (Venus), Shani (Saturn), and the two lunar nodes, Rahu and Ketu. Rahu and Ketu are always exactly opposite each other. The outer planets — Uranus, Neptune, Pluto — are not part of the classical nine; Jyotish Sarathi shows them in Drik Siddhanta mode as additional information.
For each graha, note three things: which rashi it is in, which bhava that rashi is for this chart, and which nakshatra it occupies. The rashi gives its flavour, the bhava gives the area of life it acts on, and the nakshatra is what the dasha and the finer techniques are built from.
Step 4 — the two chart styles
The same calculation is drawn two ways, and confusing them is the most common beginner error:
- North Indian (diamond) — the twelve house positions are fixed on the page. The lagna is always top-centre, house 2 is the next going anticlockwise, and the rashi number written in each box tells you which sign occupies that house.
- South Indian (square) — the twelve rashi positions are fixed on the page, always in the same order. The lagna is marked with a line, and you count houses from wherever it is.
Neither is more correct. Jyotish Sarathi draws both from the same numbers, so you can read in whichever convention you and your clients are used to.
Step 5 — read in the right order
- 1Lagna and its lord. Where is the lagna lord placed, and is it strong or afflicted? This sets the tone.
- 2The Moon. Its rashi and nakshatra matter for the mind, and its exact position determines the dasha balance.
- 3Bhava by question. Read the house that matches the question asked, its lord, and the grahas in it — not the whole chart at once.
- 4Strengths. Shadbala and Ashtakavarga tell you which grahas can actually deliver. See Ashtakavarga.
- 5Yogas. Specific combinations with named results. See yogas in a kundali.
- 6Divisional charts. Go to the varga that matches the subject — D9 for marriage, D10 for career. See D1 to D60.
- 7Dasha and gochar last. These answer when, and they are meaningless until you know what.
What to check before you trust a chart
- The birth time, and how it was recorded. Rounded to the half hour is common and moves the lagna by degrees.
- The birth place, since the coordinates and time zone determine the lagna and the bhava cusps.
- The date, especially if it was converted from Vikram Sambat by hand — see BS to AD conversion.
- The settings — which siddhanta and which ayanamsha produced the chart. Two charts that disagree almost always disagree on one of these. See the methodology.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between lagna and rashi?
Lagna is the rashi rising on the eastern horizon at birth, and it defines house 1. "Rashi" on its own usually refers to the Moon's sign (chandra rashi) in Nepali and Indian usage — the sign people mean when they say "my rashi". They are different things and often different signs.
How accurate does the birth time need to be?
The lagna moves about one degree every four minutes, so a birth time rounded to the nearest half hour can put the lagna several degrees out and, near a sign boundary, in the wrong rashi entirely. The dasha balance is also affected. Ten minutes of accuracy is good; an hour is a real limitation you should state.
Should I read the North Indian or South Indian chart?
Whichever you and your clients read fluently. The underlying calculation is identical — only the drawing convention differs. Jyotish Sarathi renders both.
Do I need to learn all twelve bhava before reading anything?
No. Start with the lagna, the lagna lord and the Moon, then read only the bhava that answers the question in front of you. Reading the whole chart at once is how beginners get lost.
In the app
Related guides
- Divisional charts (varga) — D1 to D60 explainedWhat a varga chart is, how D1 to D60 are derived from one set of longitudes, which chart to read for which question, and why the higher vargas demand accuracy.
- Vimshottari dasha explainedHow the 120-year Vimshottari cycle works: the nine periods and their lengths, how the balance at birth comes from the Moon, and how sub-periods nest.