This portal is dedicated to Vedic Astrology - Vedanga Jyotish, a science that is deep-rooted in Indian culture, tradition, and philosophy of life. 

What's new at this Vedic Astrology website? - Click here to find out...

The intention behind developing this website on Astrology is to help seekers of knowledge of Jyotish by simplifying the most tedious of tasks - Vedic horoscope calculation and charting.

As an extension of calculation of planetary positions, this portal also provides free services of horoscope compatibility matching for matrimonial purposes. This process, also known as kundali milan or guna milap, is followed extensively in the arranged marriage system in India.

The site also provides the Panchanga of the day, calculated precisely for a place and local time. This is very different from the generic versions of Panchanga that are published daily in Indian newspapers.

This site on Vedic Astrology is the only portal of its kind that provides these services online, without requiring any registration and for absolutely no charge. Some of the questions nagging the readers are answered in the “Frequently Asked Questions” section and extensively in the “Astrology Blog” blog of this site.

Why is this astrology site free?

Whenever someone takes any jyotishi's service, it is customary to pay him/her some money as dakshina. However, I do not run this site for money.
Back in 2001, I wrote a small program for myself to generate charts. I then showed it to some friends and they suggested that I should design an interface and display the horoscope somehow on the web. So basically the chart maker program is purely a result of a hobby. Why should I charge money for something that I am interested in?... Apart from that, I don't think what I am doing amounts to a great service for which I should expect to get paid. The software just computes and displays the horoscope. I do not and can not give any interpretation, nor do I give any online advice, remedial action etc. Hence, the site is and will remain free... till the time someone buys it out ;-). That said, a lot of people do email me with their questions. I try to answer some generic questions on the astrology blog. There is also a FAQ that you could look at.

Birth Charts - Janma Kundali, Free Online Vedic Astrology Software

A birth chart (also known as janma kundali, janam kundli, Vedic horoscope) captures the precise astronomical positions of stars and planets at the individual's birth moment. Using the vast amounts of information provided by your birth chart, Vedic Astrology could predict every important event and possible opportunity that can arise in your life.  Click here to generate your Birth Chart (Janma Kundali, Vedic Horoscope): Currently, the online java application software embedded in this page will generate your birth chart - a North-Indian and South-Indian style janma kundli from date of birth, time of birth, time Zone and place of birth i.e. you have to enter latitude and longitude of the place of birth.

You may include daylight savings time (DST) for the place of birth, if required. Remember, DST is never used in India. Hence, if the place of birth is in India, always select No for daylight savings.

Divisional Astrology Charts - Studied along with Rashi Chart

Divisional Charts, also known as Vargas, are harmonics of the main Rashi kundali. The divisional charts are consulted along with the Rashi kundli for examining specific details, e.g. Navamsha, which is the most important of divisional chart, is consulted to find out more about the spouse and general well being. A planet's position in the navamsha chart provides or takes away strength in the main rashi chart. Dashamsha is used for judging ones profession, Dwadashamsha is used for parents, etc. The functionality for calculating divisional charts is added to the birth chart or kundali generator software. For help on displaying divisional chart information, click here. The divisional chart calculation is fairly accurate, but if you find any errors, please let me know and I will fix the problem immediately. 

Matching of Horoscopes (Guna Milap) to determine compatibility for Matrimonial Purposes

Vedic Astrology has a method of providing a fairly good indication of compatibility based on nakshatras (Lunar Constellations) of prospective husband and wife. It assigns points (guna) for factors that influence marriage. Although, neither this site, nor the whole process is the final say on compatibility issues (guna milap), it can be a good starting point. Apart from determining the number of Gunas that match in the two horoscopes, there are other factors that should be taken into consideration: longevity, health, wealth, children and overlapping Vimshottari dashas.
Horoscope Compatibility: You can enter date, time and place of birth for prospective husband and wife in this guna milap application software and match the charts. It determines the number of Gunas matching in the two horoscopes. It also determines whether they are Manglik and if their Manglik Dosha cancels. 

To see an explanation of the horoscope matching (guna milap) system, click here : Chart Matching Fundamentals. For an explanation on Manglik Dosha, please see Clarifications on Manglik Dosha and Manglik Dosha and Chart Matching. Further reading - the missing Tara element.

Panchanga Calculations

Panch (Five) + Anga (Parts). Panchang is used to determine auspicious and inauspicious parts of the day. Any Vedic calendar contains this information for each day of the month. Start and end times of festivals is determined using Panchanga, as are muhuratas for performing rites etc. This application generates information for 1. Vaar (Day of the week), 2. Tithi, 3. Nakshatra, 4. Yoga and 5. Karana.

Vedas

Vedas are the system of knowledge in Indian culture. Although associated primarily with Hindu religion, they have a very broad outlook. They do not contain rules and regulations just for Hindus only but for all dharmik people, i.e. men and women with principles. The religion described in Vedas is called Sanatana Dharma (the eternal religion, religion for all). It is interesting to note that there is no word for religion in Sanskrit, the ancient language of India. The closest word is Dharma which means “principle”. Vedas are essentially a study of self. Astrology, as an integral part of Vedas, which is the reason it is called Vedanga Jyotish, does not deviate from this basic paradigm. Astrology is not just about predicting the course of one’s life. It is meant to be a guide. It is about how movement of planets affects you as a person. The divine science of Vedic interpretation and prediction perfected over the last 4000 years can provide guidance not only on physical matters such as health, wealth, and relations, but also on spiritual matters such as Moksha (Liberation). It can help promote your virtues, and mitigate your drawbacks.

How is a Janma Kundali, horoscope cast?

To cast a birth chart, i.e. the horoscope, the software application takes the four inputs - date of birth, time of birth, time zone and coordinates of the place of birth. Based on that, the application converts all the parameters to the local time of the place by first converting time based on time zone to UTC and then to the local time based on the longitude of the place. Once this is done, the calculations done to compute the position of planets, ascendant sign and sun rise, moon rise are pretty straightforward and can be found in any good astronomy text book. As the coordinates are a parameter in horoscope calculation, horoscope differ from place to place for the same time. E.g. horoscope cast for London for 1-Jan-2005 12:00 PM GMT would be fairly different the chart cast for Bombay 1-Jan-2005 at 5:30 PM IST, although these values represent the exact same time. The calculations are done for planets from Sun to Saturn along with Lunar Nodes - Rahu and Ketu. We give outer planets a skip - there are no Uranus, Neptune and Pluto in a Vedic horoscope. This is because these outer planets were discovered fairly recently and sages in ancient India did not know about them. Western astrologers were quick to adapt these planets in their readings, but rarely would you find any jyotishi referring to them. More so, these planets do not have any sign ownerships, nor do they appear in vimshottari dasha calculations.

Western astrology stops at this step of calculation. The display is called tropical position of planets that assumes the Zero of degree calculation is first point of Aries, i.e. position on 21st of March. For followers of Western Astrology, this may seem a bit odd, because planets change signs between the two systems. If you are a Libran according to the western system, you may find Sun situated in Virgo in a Vedic Astrology birth chart.

Ancient Indian astronomers discovered long back that these two points i.e. the Zero degree of measurement and the first point of Aries do not always coincide because our Earth is wobbling on its axis. They applied a correction to the degree calculated in the last step and called this Ayanamasha correction. It is difficult to make out the exact value of Ayanamsha correction just from observation of signs in the sky. For this, the great sages devised an ingenious method. They observed life of people around them, cast their birth charts and adjusted the degree of Ayanamsha correction. In this site, I have used Lahiri's Chitrapaksha Ayanamsha, the value of which is 23° in 1938 and increases by 50.5 secs per year after that. We can find shlokas in various places that support this Ayanamsha and this ayanamsha alone has withstood the test of times. If you do not agree with this Ayanamsha, you should add the value to the degree of the planet in question and then subtract your own value of Ayanamsha to it. However, you must realize that in doing so the Vimshottari dasha values displayed along with the chart would change completely. This would happen because the degrees of the Moon will change and will then change the entire calculation of Vimshottari dasha. 

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