Guides / Vedic astrology
What is Lahiri ayanamsha?
Lahiri ayanamsha is the offset used to convert tropical longitudes into the sidereal zodiac most widely used in Indian astrology today.
The gap between two zodiacs
The tropical zodiac is tied to the seasons. The sidereal zodiac is tied to the stars. Because of precession, those two starting points slowly drift apart. Ayanamsha is the size of that gap.
Lahiri, also called Chitrapaksha, is the ayanamsha adopted by the official Indian calendar and by most working Jyotish software. Inner Light uses Lahiri for Vedic charts when that option is selected.
Why you will see it named
Naming the ayanamsha is a matter of method, not decoration. Two Kundlis calculated for the same birth with different ayanamshas can disagree about a planet’s sign. Stating Lahiri tells you which sidereal frame produced the positions on the page.
Common questions
- Does changing ayanamsha change the chart?
- It can, especially for planets near a sign boundary. Ayanamsha is the size of the gap between the tropical and sidereal starting points. A different ayanamsha moves every planet by that difference.