Kundli कुंडली
The birth chart: the twelve houses counted from the lagna, with the nine planets placed in them, drawn in the North or South Indian style. Also called janma kuṇḍalī or janmapatrī.
Not a verse — a word of useGlossary
The words of Vedic astrology, from the texts
In short: Vedic astrology (jyotiṣa) reads a life from the birth chart: the lagna and the twelve houses (bhāva), the nine planets (graha) in the signs (rāśi), their strength, the combinations they make (yoga), and the periods (daśā) in which results come. Each word below is defined from the verse of Bṛhat Parāśara Horā Śāstra, or another classical book, that defines it.
The chart
Lagna (ascendant) लग्न
The sign rising in the east at the moment of birth. It becomes the 1st house, and the other eleven follow it. Parāśara asks that it be computed exactly, from the rising times of the signs for the place of birth.
BPHS 3.9Rāśi (sign) राशि
One of the twelve signs of the zodiac, Aries to Pisces, each of 30°. Parāśara calls them the limbs of Time, from the head (Aries) to the feet (Pisces); each sign is movable, fixed or dual, male or female.
BPHS 4.2–5Bhāva (house) भाव
One of the twelve houses of the chart, counted from the lagna, each read for its own matters — the 2nd for wealth and family, the 7th for the wife, journeys and trade, the 10th for livelihood and honour.
BPHS 11.2–13Graha (planet) ग्रह
The nine planets of Jyotiṣa: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rāhu and Ketu. The bodies of the sky that move are the planets; those of fixed position are the nakṣatras.
BPHS 3.10, 3.3Nakṣatra (lunar mansion) नक्षत्र
One of the 27 star-divisions of the zodiac, 13°20′ each. The nakṣatra the Moon is in at birth is the birth star, from which the Viṃśottarī daśā begins.
BPHS 3.3, 46.13Ayanāṃśa अयनांश
The gap between the tropical zodiac and the sidereal zodiac of the stars that Jyotiṣa uses. horoAstro uses the Lahiri (Chitrapaksha) ayanāṃśa. It is not a word that Bṛhat Parāśara Horā Śāstra defines.
Not a verse — a word of useKinds of house
Kendra (angle) केन्द्र
The angular houses: the 1st (lagna), 4th, 7th and 10th.
BPHS 7.33Trikoṇa (trine) त्रिकोण
The 5th and 9th houses from the lagna. The lagna, being both a kendra and a trikoṇa, is especially good.
BPHS 7.35, 34.3Trika (dusthāna) त्रिक
The evil houses, also named duḥ: the 6th, 8th and 12th from the lagna.
BPHS 7.35Upacaya (houses of growth) उपचय
The 3rd, 6th, 10th and 11th houses, where things grow.
BPHS 7.36Paṇaphara and āpoklima पणफर, आपोक्लिम
The 2nd, 5th, 8th and 11th houses are paṇaphara (succedent); the 3rd, 6th, 9th and 12th are āpoklima (cadent).
BPHS 7.34The planets’ state and strength
Benefic and malefic शुभ, पाप
The Sun, Saturn, Mars, the waning Moon, Rāhu and Ketu are malefics; the other planets are benefics. Mercury joined with a malefic is a malefic.
BPHS 3.11Exaltation and debilitation उच्च, नीच
Each planet’s sign of exaltation — Sun Aries, Moon Taurus, Mars Capricorn, Mercury Virgo, Jupiter Cancer, Venus Pisces, Saturn Libra — highest at 10°, 3°, 28°, 15°, 5°, 27° and 20°. The seventh sign from it is its debilitation. A planet gives its full good result in exaltation and none in debilitation.
BPHS 3.49–50, 3.59–60Mūlatrikoṇa मूलत्रिकोण
A part of a planet’s own sign where it is next in strength to exaltation — the Sun in the first 20° of Leo, Mars in the first 12° of Aries, Jupiter in the first 10° of Sagittarius, and so on. There a planet gives three-quarters of its good result.
BPHS 3.51–54, 3.59Ṣaḍbala (six-fold strength) षड्बल
A planet’s strength from six sources: position, direction, time, aspect, motion and nature, added up in virūpas. A result comes in proportion to the strength of the planet that gives it: full strength, full result; half, half.
BPHS 27.25, 24.147Iṣṭa and kaṣṭa इष्ट, कष्ट
A planet’s auspicious and inauspicious strength. When its iṣṭa is greater, its daśā and its house give good results; when its kaṣṭa is greater, bad.
BPHS 28.1, 28.12Ātmakāraka आत्मकारक
The planet with the most degrees in its sign, among the Sun to Saturn (or up to Rāhu): the significator of the self. The next below it is the amātyakāraka (minister), then the brother, mother and other kārakas.
BPHS 32.1–3, 32.13Divisions and points
Varga (divisional chart) वर्ग
A chart made by dividing each sign into parts — half (horā), third (drekkāṇa), ninth (navāṃśa) and others. Parāśara gives sixteen, each read for its own part of life.
BPHS 6.2–4Navāṃśa नवांश
The ninth-part chart: each sign divided into nine parts of 3°20′. The parts are counted from the sign itself in a movable sign, from its 9th in a fixed sign and from its 5th in a dual sign.
BPHS 6.12Ārūḍha (pada) and upapada आरूढ़, उपपद
The image of a house: count from the house to its lord, and the same number of signs on from the lord is the house’s pada. The pada of the lagna is the chief one; the upapada, read for marriage, is the pada of the 12th house.
BPHS 29.2–3, ch. 30Aṣṭakavarga अष्टकवर्ग
The eight-fold scheme: for each of the seven planets and the lagna, the good and bad places it gives in every house. Parāśara gives it so that mixed results can be read without contradiction.
BPHS 66.5–6, 66.14–15Combinations
Yoga योग
A combination of planets that gives a particular result — for example gajakesarī: Jupiter in a kendra from the lagna or the Moon, joined with or aspected by benefics, not debilitated, combust or in an enemy’s sign. A yoga gives its result in the daśā of the planet that makes it.
BPHS 36.3, 33.96Rājayoga राजयोग
A combination for honour and authority, made chiefly by the lords of the 1st and 5th, or by the ātmakāraka and the putrakāraka. A planet that rules both a kendra and a trikoṇa, placed in a kendra or a trikoṇa, is especially a yogakāraka.
BPHS 39.1, 39.4, 34.13Timing
Daśā (period) दशा
A period of life ruled by one planet. There are many kinds; the Viṃśottarī is the chief. It begins from the birth star, and its periods last 6 to 20 years, 120 in all: Sun 6, Moon 10, Mars 7, Rāhu 18, Jupiter 16, Saturn 19, Mercury 17, Ketu 7, Venus 20.
BPHS 46.3, 46.13, 46.15Mahādaśā and antardaśā महादशा, अंतर्दशा
The main period and its sub-periods. Each main period is shared among the nine planets in proportion to their years, beginning with its own lord; each sub-period is divided again the same way.
BPHS 51.1–2Gochar (transit) गोचर
The planets’ present movement, read from the sign of the natal Moon, the chief lagna for transits. Counted from the Moon, for example, every planet is good in the 11th.
Phaladīpikā 26.1–2Matching and the book
Guṇa milan (kundli matching) गुण मिलान
The matching of two charts for marriage by eight kūṭas — varṇa, vaśya, tārā, yoni, graha-maitrī, gaṇa, bhakūṭa and nāḍī — each worth more than the one before, from 1 guṇa to 8, 36 in all.
Muhūrta Chintāmaṇi 6.21Horā होरा
The branch of jyotiṣa that reads a person’s life from the birth chart. Jyotiṣa has three branches — horā, gaṇita and saṃhitā — and of these, the text says, horā is the best.
BPHS 1.2–3See these in your own chart: Make your free kundli