A janam kundli in English is your Vedic birth chart with its labels and terms given in English rather than Hindi, Gujarati or Punjabi: the same lagna chart, planetary table and dasha list, made readable. This guide walks through each part of a typical kundli so the page your family has kept in a drawer finally makes sense.

Would you rather have it explained to you? A General Reading can take your existing kundli and talk you through it in plain English.

First, recognise which chart style you have

The North Indian diamond

Common in Hindi-speaking regions, Gujarat and Punjab, this is a square with diagonal lines forming twelve diamond and triangle shapes. The houses are fixed: the top-centre diamond is always the first house, the lagna, and the houses run anticlockwise from there. The numbers written inside are signs, not houses.

Reading the numbers

1 is Aries (Mesh), 2 is Taurus (Vrishabh), 3 is Gemini (Mithun), and so on up to 12, Pisces (Meen). If the top diamond shows 7, your lagna is Libra (Tula).

The South Indian grid

Used by many Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayali families, this is a ring of twelve boxes around an empty centre. Here the signs are fixed, with Pisces in the top-left box and the rest following clockwise. The lagna is marked with a diagonal line or the letters "La" or "Asc". Because the boxes are the signs, a planet in Leo always sits in the same box whatever your lagna; only the lagna marker moves.

The East Indian chart

Bengali and Odia families may have a third style, which also keeps the signs fixed. If yours looks unfamiliar, it can be redrawn in a familiar layout from your birth details.

Common kundli terms, translated

Lagna: the ascendant, the sign rising in the east at birth, and house one.
Bhava: house; there are twelve.
Rashi: sign; on a kundli it often means your Moon sign specifically.
Graha: planet. Typical abbreviations are Su (Sun), Ch or Mo (Moon), Ma (Mars), Bu or Me (Mercury), Gu or Ju (Jupiter), Sk or Ve (Venus), Sa (Saturn), Ra (Rahu) and Ke (Ketu).
Nakshatra and charan: the Moon's lunar mansion and its quarter, also called pada.
Vakri: retrograde, often marked "R".
Ast: combust, a planet sitting too close to the Sun.
Uchcha and neech: exalted and debilitated.
Swami: lord or ruler, as in rashi swami (Moon-sign lord); lagnesh means the ascendant lord.

Section by section through a janam kundli in English

Birth details and the panchang

The opening page records date, time and place of birth, often with the Vikram Samvat date, sunrise time and ishta kaal, the time elapsed since sunrise. The panchang at birth lists the tithi (lunar day), vara (weekday), nakshatra, yoga and karana.

Avakahada chakra

A box of traditional identifiers: varna, vashya, yoni, gana, nadi, nakshatra lord and the naming syllable. Much of this is used in marriage matching, so it is worth keeping safe.

Lagna and Chandra charts

The main birth chart, called D1, and the Moon chart, which redraws the same planets with your Moon sign as house one.

Navamsa

The D9 chart divides each sign into nine parts and is used for relationships and inner strength. Our explainer on the navamsa chart covers it in depth.

Planetary positions table

Each graha's sign, degree, nakshatra and pada, with marks for retrograde or combust planets.

Vimshottari dasha table

A list of planetary periods with dates. Find today's date in it to see which mahadasha and antardasha you are currently in.

Ashtakavarga and other extras

Longer kundlis may add ashtakavarga tables, which score each sign's support for each planet, further divisional charts such as the D10 for career, and yogas listed by name. These are valuable in a reading but are the easiest parts to misread alone, so treat any single number or named yoga with caution.

What you can work out yourself, and where it stops

With this guide you can find your lagna, Moon sign, nakshatra and current dasha in a few minutes. What is harder is weighing everything together: a planet that is exalted but sits in a difficult house, a combust Venus in the seventh, or a dasha lord that rules one helpful and one challenging house. Kundlis prepared by a family pandit also sometimes carry short handwritten notes, such as a mention of manglik status, that can be alarming without context. Those are exactly the points worth discussing properly rather than searching online late at night.

If one item on the page is worrying you, you can send us your question about it directly.

Bringing your kundli to a reading in English

If you were born in the UK to a South Asian family, there may well be a kundli drawn up at your birth that nobody has ever explained in the language you think in. A General Reading is a good way to change that. Bring a photo or scan of the chart along with your birth details, and I will check the calculations, explain the layout and talk through what your janam kundli in English shows about the area of life you care about most. If you want the whole chart and your long-term timing covered, an In-Depth Reading gives a full hour. Our guide to kundli readings online in the UK explains how sessions work.

Frequently asked questions

Is a janam kundli the same as a birth chart?

Yes. Janam kundli, janam patri, kundali and horoscope all refer to the Vedic birth chart calculated for your moment and place of birth.

Why does my kundli show a different sign from my star sign?

Vedic astrology uses the sidereal zodiac, which currently sits about 24 degrees behind the tropical zodiac used in Western sun-sign columns. Your Vedic signs are often one sign earlier.

Can you read a kundli written in Gujarati or Tamil?

The charts follow the same structure whatever the script, so the positions can be read once the layout is identified. Anything unclear can be recalculated from your birth details.

What if my kundli has no birth time?

Some older kundlis use an estimated time. A reading can explain which parts remain reliable and which do not.

Have a kundli you have always wanted to understand? Send us your question with your birth details and, if you can, a photo of the chart, then book a General Reading to have it explained clearly in English.