North Indian and South Indian charts: reading both styles

The same kundli is drawn two ways in India, and reading charts means being fluent in both. The North Indian style is a square with diagonals in which the houses never move and the signs are numbered into them; the South Indian style is a grid in which the signs never move and the lagna is marked. The Kundli generator draws either at a click, and this lesson shows how to read each.

North Indian: fixed houses

The chart is a square with both diagonals and a central diamond, making twelve spaces. The diamond at the top is always the first house, the lagna. Houses run anticlockwise: the top-left triangle is the second house, the left-top triangle the third, the left diamond the fourth, and so on round to the top-right triangle as the twelfth.

Each house carries the number of its sign (1 Mesha to 12 Meena). With Tula rising, the top diamond shows 7, the second house 8 (Vrishchika), the third 9, and so on. Planets are written inside their house. To read the chart: find the house you want by position, read its sign number, and see who is there.

South Indian: fixed signs

The chart is a four-by-four grid with the inner four cells empty, leaving twelve around the edge. Meena is always top-left; then clockwise along the top Mesha, Vrishabha, Mithuna; down the right side Karka, Simha, Kanya; along the bottom leftward Tula, Vrishchika, Dhanu; up the left side Makara, Kumbha. The lagna is marked, usually with a diagonal stroke in the corner of its cell.

To read the chart: find the marked cell, call it house one, and count clockwise. Planets are written inside their sign's cell, so a planet's sign is read from position and its house by counting.

Reading the same chart both ways

Reference chart, 14 August 1990, 12:00, Mumbai, Tula lagna:

• North Indian. The top diamond shows 7 (Tula) with "As". The left diamond, house four, shows 10 (Makara) with Ra. The bottom diamond, house seven, shows 1 (Mesha) with Ma. The right diamond, house ten, shows 4 (Karka) with Su Ju Ve Ke.
• South Indian. The Tula cell, bottom row second from right, carries the lagna mark. Counting clockwise: Vrishchika, Dhanu (Sa), Makara (Ra), Kumbha, Meena, Mesha (Ma), Vrishabha (Mo), Mithuna, Karka (Su Ju Ve Ke), Simha (Me), Kanya.

Same planets, same houses, two pictures.

Abbreviations

Su Sun, Mo Moon, Ma Mars, Me Mercury, Ju Jupiter, Ve Venus, Sa Saturn, Ra Rahu, Ke Ketu, As the ascendant; (R) marks a retrograde planet. Printed charts in Hindi use the first letter of the Sanskrit name instead, which the Hindi version of the generator shows.

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