Vedic astrology, or Jyotish, reads a birth chart built from four sets of building blocks: the 12 rashis (signs), the 27 nakshatras (lunar mansions), the 9 grahas (planets) and the 12 bhavas (houses). This library explains each of them in plain language, in English and Hindi, so you can understand your own kundli rather than take it on trust.
What Jyotish is
Jyotish is the astrological tradition of India. Its core texts, above all Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra, describe how the positions of the Sun, the Moon and the planets at the moment of birth can be read as a map of temperament, tendencies and the timing of life's chapters. Most astrologers working today follow this Parashari method, and it is the method this library uses. Where later schools, such as Jaimini's, or regional customs say something different, the pages say so.
A kundli is simply a picture of the sky from the place and moment you were born. Everything else in Jyotish is a way of reading that picture.
The four building blocks
Rashis: the twelve signs
The rashis divide the zodiac into twelve signs of 30 degrees each, from Mesha (Aries) to Meena (Pisces). A sign is the style or colour in which something expresses itself. Each has an element, a quality (movable, fixed or dual) and a ruling planet. In everyday Indian usage, "your rashi" means the sign your Moon was in at birth.
Nakshatras: the 27 lunar mansions
The nakshatras divide the same circle more finely, into 27 parts of 13°20′, each named after a star or group of stars along the Moon's path. They carry the oldest layer of Indian sky-lore, with a deity, a symbol and a ruling planet for each. Your Moon's nakshatra sets the order of your planetary periods, gives the syllable traditionally used for naming, and is the basis of marriage matching.
Grahas: the nine planets
The grahas are the actors: the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn, plus Rahu and Ketu, the two points where the Moon's path crosses the Sun's. Each graha signifies certain people and areas of life. Venus, for example, is linked with love, art and comfort, Saturn with work, endurance and time.
Bhavas: the twelve houses
The bhavas are twelve fields of life, counted from the rising sign, the lagna. The first house is the self, the fourth home and mother, the seventh marriage and partnership, the tenth career and standing in the world. Because the lagna changes roughly every two hours, the houses are what make a chart personal to the minute.
How they combine
Every sentence in chart reading takes the same shape: a graha, in a rashi and nakshatra, in a bhava. Take Jupiter in Cancer, in Pushya nakshatra, in the tenth house. Jupiter tells you what is acting (wisdom, teaching, growth). Cancer, where Jupiter is exalted, tells you how it acts (with care and generosity). Pushya refines that further, and the tenth house tells you where in life it shows up: work and reputation. Add the houses Jupiter rules for that lagna, the aspects it receives and the period it runs, and a reading takes shape.
This is also why no single factor decides anything. A placement that sounds difficult on its own can be balanced by the lord of the house, by a strong aspect, or simply by the dasha never activating it. The whole kundli is read together.
The sidereal zodiac and Lahiri ayanamsa
Jyotish uses the sidereal zodiac, which measures the signs against the fixed stars. Most Western astrology uses the tropical zodiac, which starts from the spring equinox. Because the equinox drifts slowly against the stars, the two zodiacs are now about 24 degrees apart. That gap is called the ayanamsa. We use the Lahiri value, the one adopted for India's national calendar, which is why your Vedic Sun sign is often one sign earlier than your Western one. The guide on Vedic vs Western signs explains this in detail.
How to use this library
The quickest way in is through your own chart. Make a free kundli with your date, time and place of birth, and note three things: your Moon sign, your Moon nakshatra and your lagna. Read those three pages first. Then look up where your planets sit, and read about the houses they occupy. If you are new to reading charts, how to read your kundli walks through the steps in order.
When you meet an unfamiliar word, such as dasha, drishti, uchcha or gandanta, the glossary gives a short definition and points to the page that goes deeper. For relationships, the kundli matching tool and the pages on gana, yoni and nadi explain what the 36-point score measures. For choosing a time, the panchang shows the day's tithi, nakshatra and yoga.
Numbers from code, not from an AI
Everything numeric on this site, from planetary longitudes and nakshatra padas to dasha dates, Rahu kaal and panchang timings, is calculated by our own astronomical code from your birth details and location. We never ask an AI model to do astronomy or arithmetic, because those are exactly the things a language model can get quietly wrong. Where AI helps write a reading, it works from those computed facts and is never asked to produce them. The facts on these library pages come from the classical texts named at the foot of each page, and where the texts disagree, we tell you.
A note on how to read astrology
Astrology is best used as a mirror for reflection, not as a verdict. The tradition itself speaks of tendencies and timing, and of effort shaping how a chart plays out. Read these pages to understand the language of your chart and to think about your own choices more clearly. Decisions about health, money, law or relationships deserve the advice of people qualified in those fields, and your own judgement.