Jyotish — Vedic Chart
A sidereal reading of your birth, computed in the Indian tradition. The zodiac is shifted by the Lahiri ayanamsa — about twenty-four degrees relative to the tropical zodiac you may know — so most planets sit one sign back. Houses use the Whole Sign system. The Moon is read through one of twenty-seven nakshatras, and the timeline of your life unfolds through Vimshottari dasha cycles totalling one hundred and twenty years.
Sidereal versus tropical
The tropical zodiac fixes Aries to the spring equinox; the sidereal zodiac fixes it to the actual stars. Because of precession the two have drifted apart by roughly twenty-four degrees. Lahiri ayanamsa is the standard offset used by the Indian government calendar and by most modern Jyotish. Neither system is wrong — they answer different questions, and Jyotish answers the stellar one.
Nakshatras — the lunar mansions
The ecliptic is divided into twenty-seven nakshatras of about thirteen degrees twenty minutes each. Your Moon falls in one of them, and that mansion carries a deity, a symbol, an animal pairing and four pada quarters that refine it further. Read the nakshatra of your Moon before you read your sun sign — in Vedic practice the Moon, not the Sun, holds the texture of the inner life.
Vimshottari dasha — the timeline
Each life is divided into nine planetary periods totalling one hundred and twenty years, beginning with the planet that ruled the nakshatra of your natal Moon. Sun rules six years, Moon ten, Mars seven, Rahu eighteen, Jupiter sixteen, Saturn nineteen, Mercury seventeen, Ketu seven, Venus twenty. Each main period nests sub-periods, then sub-sub-periods. The page shows where you stand today inside that nested clock.
Reading it alongside the tropical chart
You do not have to choose. Most people who hold both find the tropical chart describes the psychological terrain and the sidereal chart describes the longer karmic season. Open this page after the standard natal chart — the planets are the same bodies, just measured against different reference frames, and the dasha clock answers a question the tropical chart does not.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why has my Sun sign changed?
It has not changed; the reference frame has. Subtract roughly twenty-four degrees from a tropical position and you usually land in the previous sign. A late-degree Aries Sun becomes a Pisces Sun in Lahiri sidereal. Both readings are valid in their own grammar.
Which ayanamsa do you use, exactly?
Lahiri (Chitra Paksha), the official Indian government value, configured through Swiss Ephemeris. It defines the sidereal zero point relative to the star Spica. Other ayanamsas (Raman, Krishnamurti, Fagan-Bradley) shift the zodiac by a few minutes; the page does not currently expose them.
Are the dasha results predictive?
They name a tone, not an outcome. A Saturn major period in your Vimshottari does not guarantee hardship; it indicates which planet is the loudest tutor for those years. The page describes the texture and leaves you to live the specifics.
Do I need an exact birth time?
For nakshatra and Moon position, a few minutes of error is usually fine; for the rising sign and dasha boundaries, accuracy matters. A four-minute shift in birth time can move the dasha onset by months. If your time is uncertain, the page flags which results are robust and which are not.