Jyotish Term
Kundli — कुण्डली
Short answer. A kundli is a Vedic birth chart — a diagram showing the position of the nine grahas (planets) in the twelve bhavas (houses) at the exact moment of birth. It is the foundation of all Jyotish prediction.
Kundli, also called janma kundli (birth chart) or janam patrika (birth scroll), is the central document of Vedic astrology. It shows the positions of all nine grahas — Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu, and Ketu — distributed across the twelve houses (bhavas) at the moment a person was born. From this single diagram, a Jyotishi reads the entire life: personality, relationships, career, periods of difficulty and expansion, marriage timing, and karmic themes. The Indian convention is the North Indian diamond layout where the houses are fixed and the rashis (signs) rotate based on the lagna (Ascendant). South Indian style fixes the rashis and rotates the houses. Both encode the same information. A correctly computed kundli requires three inputs — date, time, and place of birth — because the lagna shifts by approximately one sign every two hours, and any error in birth time changes which house each planet falls in.
Related terms
- Lagna — Lagna, also called the Ascendant, is the sign rising on the eastern horizon at the moment of birth. It defines the first house of the chart and is the foundation of how all other planets are read.
- Rashi — Rashi is the Vedic term for a zodiac sign — one of twelve 30° divisions of the sidereal zodiac. Each rashi has a ruling planet, an element, and a quality that shapes how planets in that sign behave.
- Graha — Graha is the Vedic term for a planet — literally meaning 'one who seizes' or 'one who grabs'. Vedic astrology recognises nine grahas: the seven classical planets plus the two lunar nodes Rahu and Ketu.
- Bhava — Bhava is the Vedic term for a house in the birth chart — one of twelve life-domain divisions. Each bhava governs a specific set of life themes: the 1st rules self, the 7th rules marriage, the 10th rules career, and so on.
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