Guides / Vedic astrology
How to read a Vedic birth chart
A practical order for reading a Kundli: Lagna, Moon, Sun, then planets, signs, houses, and the relationships among them.
Start with the three anchors
Look first at Lagna: the sign rising in the east, and the first house. Then the Moon: sign, Nakshatra, and Pada. Then the Sun. Those three tell you how the chart is oriented before you inventory every planet.
Read the planets, signs, and houses
Each Graha has a portfolio — Mars with heat and effort, Jupiter with dharma and growth, and so on. The sign it occupies colors that portfolio. The house it occupies names the area of life. Retrograde motion and combustion are further conditions, not replacements for sign and house.
Bring them together
Interpretation comes from relationships: a planet ruling the tenth and sitting in the sixth is a different vocational picture from the same planet exalted in the tenth. Aspects, yogas, and dasha periods are ways of seeing those relationships in time. No single placement is the whole chart.
Common questions
- Should I start with the Sun sign?
- In Jyotish, start with Lagna and the Moon, then the Sun. The Sun still matters; it is not the only entrance to the chart.