Birth Chart Calculator
Your janam kundli is the sky as it stood at the minute you were born, drawn as one diagram. This page computes the whole of it — the rising sign that fixes your houses, the Moon sign every rashifal is written for, and the exact position of each graha with its nakshatra and degree.
What this calculator works out
- The ascendant and house frame
- The sign rising on the eastern horizon at your birth minute, which fixes where every house begins. It moves a whole sign roughly every two hours.
- All nine grahas
- Each planet's sidereal longitude, the rashi it falls in, its nakshatra and pada, and whether it is retrograde or combust.
- The three signs people confuse
- Ascendant, Moon sign and Sun sign computed separately — they are three different measurements and are usually three different signs.
- Active yogas
- Named planetary combinations the classical texts single out, listed only when the geometry for them is actually present in your chart.
How it works
The chart is cast sidereally using the Lahiri ayanamsa, which is the standard Indian convention and the reason your Sun sign here is usually one sign earlier than the Western one. Birth time matters more than anything else on this page: the ascendant moves a full sign roughly every two hours, so an hour of error rewrites every house.
Step by step
- Your local birth time is converted to Universal Time using the timezone of the birth city, not your current location.
- That instant becomes a Julian Day — the continuous count astronomy uses, so no calendar reform or leap year can distort the arithmetic.
- The Swiss Ephemeris computes tropical longitudes for every graha and for the ascendant at your latitude and longitude.
- The Lahiri ayanamsa for that date is subtracted from each, converting tropical positions into sidereal ones.
- Each longitude is divided by 30 for the rashi and by 13°20' for the nakshatra; the house frame is then counted from the ascendant.
A worked example
Input: 14 July 1993, 09:25, Delhi
- Local 09:25 IST → 03:55 UTC
- Sidereal ascendant falls in Leo → Leo lagna, houses counted from there
- Moon's sidereal longitude falls in Aries → Aries is the janma rashi
- Sun sits one sign earlier than its tropical position, as sidereal always does
Result: Leo ascendant, Aries Moon — and a rashifal written for Aries, not for the Sun sign most people quote.
How to read your result
- The ascendant is the frame, not a personality label
- Its real job is to decide which sign governs which house. Change the ascendant and every house changes with it, which is why birth time matters more here than anywhere else on the site.
- The Moon sign is your rashi
- When an Indian astrologer asks your rashi, this is what they mean, and it is what every rashifal is written for. It is not the sign you were told by a newspaper column.
- Retrograde and combust are conditions, not verdicts
- A retrograde graha is read as working on themes already begun; a combust one as overshadowed by the Sun it sits too close to. Neither is automatically bad.
What changes the answer
- Birth time is the single largest source of error. An hour of uncertainty can move the ascendant a full sign and rewrite every house.
- Without a birth time we compute for noon — sign positions stay broadly right, the house layout does not.
- Sidereal and tropical are both internally consistent; they measure from different reference points and have drifted about 24° apart.
- The birth city sets the timezone used, so a chart cast with your current city instead of your birth city can be wrong by hours.
Frequently asked questions
What do I get that a rashifal does not give me?
A rashifal is written for one of twelve Moon signs, so roughly one in twelve readers gets the same text. A birth chart is specific to your date, time and place, and no two people born more than a few minutes apart share one.
I do not know my exact birth time. Is the chart still useful?
Partly. Without a time we compute for noon, which keeps the Moon sign, nakshatra and most planetary positions broadly right, but the ascendant and therefore the house layout become unreliable. Treat the sign positions as usable and the houses as provisional.
Why is my Sun sign different from the one I have always used?
Because this chart is sidereal and the popular one is tropical. The two systems have drifted about 24 degrees apart, so sidereal placements usually fall one sign earlier. Neither is a mistake; they measure from different reference points.
What are the yogas listed at the bottom?
Named planetary combinations that classical texts single out. They are shown when the geometry for them is actually present in your chart, with a note on what each is traditionally read for.
Is this the same chart the Astroly app produces?
Yes — the same engine, the same ayanamsa, the same calculations. The app adds saved charts, readings and questions on top of it.
Related astrology concepts
- Rising sign calculator — the ascendant on its own
- Planetary positions — the graha table in detail
- Free kundli in the app — save the chart and ask questions of it
Related calculators
Free kundli in the app · Astrology calculators · More kundli & birth chart calculators