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

Frequently Asked Questions

By Kshitij Sharma, March 26, 2014

Astronomers and scientists world over have perfected formulae to calculate precise positions of planets and place them in the sky from the point of view of an observer on earth. This position of planets depends on the time, for which we require date and time of birth as input and the observer’s position – for which we need latitude and longitude of the place of birth. These formulae work on UTC. Local time of place can be converted to UTC to by adding (or subtracting) the time to time zone. There are a lot of freeware programs available on the internet that can be used to write your own astrology calculator and I suggest you take a look at:

Once you have basic calculations in place, presentation is manageable. While developing this application, I read these three books:

  1. Practical Astronomy with your calculator by Peter Duffet-Smith.
  2. Astronomical Algorithms by Jean Meeus.
  3. Astronomy and Mathematical Astrology by Deepak Kapoor.

First two books are applicable to any astronomy system. The book by Mr. Deepak Kapoor is the first book on Vedic Astrology I had purchased. It explains everything – calculations, house placements, nakshatras, bhava charts, vimshottari dashas, divisional charts and panchanga. It’s a must read if you wish to learn the basics of Vedic astrology calculations. I had referred to another site for checking the correctness of the formulae, but am not able to find it now to give due credit.

There could be subtle differences in the formulae the programs might be using. However, by far the most important difference that I find in these sites is the difference in value of Ayanamsha correction. I use Lahiri Ayanmsha in my code.

Please ensure that you have a java enabled browser while trying to view birth charts on this website. I have tested this system to work well on:

  • Windows 2000, Internet Explorer 5 and above with Microsoft Java Virtual Machine
  • Windows 2000 and XP, Internet Explorer 6 and above with Java Runtime Environment Version 5.0 Update 6
  • Windows 2000 and XP, Firefox 1.0.8 and above with Java Runtime Environment Version 5.0 Update 6

You can download java from Java Download Link.

This application is known _not_ to work well on Mozilla and Netscape browsers on Linux machines.

Yes. There could be technical problems with the ISPs. My website is hosted on Geocities and Indialinks combined. At the time of writing this FAQ, Geocities was down and the application was not loading at all. This is intermittent, and I do not seem to have control over it.

Update: Due to continuous problems with Indialinks and Geocities, I have moved the site to another hosting provider. The difficulties that you were experiencing till now, should not exist any more.

I am of the opinion that interpretation and predictions based on a horoscope (Vedic or otherwise) should be attempted only by a professional and experienced astrologer. Software, however sophisticated it may become, has its limitations and can never have that human touch. While making predictions, any astrologer pays a lot of attention not only to the chart but also when the question was asked. The method is called prashna and this is where an astrologer’s intuition comes into picture. The canned values of so called interpretation that software displays will always be based on a limited number of variables. These values would work well for one small set of people and would be entirely wrong for another set. When that happens, Astrology gets a bad name. I do not wish to do that on this site.

This is not a typical Do it Yourself (DIY) site. This portal is not meant to replace the guidance of a professional astrologer who can look at every aspect of a horoscope chart and provide you with sound advice. It is meant to replace a quack who charges Rs. 150/- to give you just a printout of the janma kundali and further Rs. 200/- just to tell you how many gunas match for a given set of kundalis. This information can be found on the back of any panchanga and Hindu calendar and is meant to be free.

Please take a look at this page for the charges and consultation mode – http://www.planetarypositions.com/contact-and-consultation/.

Interestingly, when my parents showed my chart to an astrologer, he commented that I would develop an interest in astrology, but will never be able to make it a profession and earn money through it. If you are an astrologer and are interested in my birth details, I request you drop me a line.

Please take a look at the blogger notes on this site for information on when and how the kundalis match and on the process of Guna Milap and if there are any exceptions to the chart matching rules that may be applicable in your case. I am not always able to answer questions that are posted on the blog.

Please take a look at the blogger notes on this site for this information on this – the missing tara element.