Glossary
Every term, in plain language
Vedic astrology runs on Sanskrit vocabulary, and most of it is never explained. Here is what each word actually means - including the caveat that usually gets left out.
Reading a chart
Lagna लग्न
The zodiac sign rising on the eastern horizon at your moment of birth - the starting point of the whole chart.
Rashi राशि
A 30-degree slice of the zodiac; in Vedic practice 'your Rashi' usually means the sign your Moon occupied at birth.
Bhava भाव
One of the twelve houses of a chart - the life areas that planets act upon.
Graha ग्रह
One of the nine 'seizers' - the seven visible planets plus the lunar nodes Rahu and Ketu.
Kundli कुंडली
The birth chart itself - a diagram of where every planet stood at your moment of birth.
Navamsa नवांश
The D9 divisional chart - each sign cut into nine parts, read for marriage and for a planet's underlying strength.
Drishti दृष्टि
A planet's 'gaze' - the houses it influences from a distance, in addition to the one it sits in.
Kendra केंद्र
The four angular houses - 1, 4, 7 and 10 - the structural pillars of a chart.
Trikona त्रिकोण
The trine houses - 1, 5 and 9 - classically the most fortunate positions in a chart.
Dusthana दुःस्थान
The 6th, 8th and 12th houses - the difficult trio, read for conflict, upheaval and loss.
Yoga योग
A named combination of planets or houses that classical texts treat as producing a specific effect.
Karakamsa कारकांश
The Navamsa sign your Atmakaraka sits in, read as a second ascendant for the soul's agenda.
Nakshatra नक्षत्र
One of the 27 lunar mansions the zodiac is divided into - the layer of a chart that sits beneath the signs.
Pada पाद
A quarter of a nakshatra, 3°20' wide - the unit that fixes a baby's naming syllable.
Raja Yoga राज योग
The classical combination formed when a kendra lord and a trikona lord connect - the strongest of the named yogas, and far commoner than its name suggests.
Ishta Devata इष्ट देवता
The deity Jaimini assigns from the 12th sign counted from your Karakamsa - read as where the chart says devotion goes.
Shubha and Ashubha Graha शुभ-अशुभ
The split of the nine planets into naturally gentle and naturally harsh - and why that label changes once you know the Lagna.
Yogakaraka योगकारक
A planet that owns both a trine and a quadrant from your Lagna, which makes it the single most useful planet in that chart.
Planetary strength
Uccha उच्च
Exaltation - the sign in which a planet is considered to act at its clearest and strongest.
Neecha नीच
Debilitation - the sign opposite a planet's exaltation, where it is considered to act under strain.
Vakri वक्री
Retrograde - a planet that appears, from Earth, to be moving backwards through the zodiac.
Asta अस्त
Combustion - a planet too close to the Sun to be seen, and therefore read as weakened.
Shadbala षड्बल
The six-fold strength calculation - a numeric score that weighs a planet's position, time, motion and direction together.
Atmakaraka आत्मकारक
The planet at the highest degree in a chart - read in Jaimini practice as the significator of the self.
Darakaraka दारकारक
The planet at the lowest degree in a chart - read in Jaimini practice as the significator of the spouse or partner.
Putrakaraka पुत्रकारक
The chara karaka at the sixth-highest degree - read for children and for what a person creates.
Gnatikaraka ज्ञातिकारक
The chara karaka at the seventh-highest degree - read for rivals, obstacles and the discipline they force.
Amatyakaraka अमात्यकारक
The planet at the second-highest degree in a chart - the Jaimini 'minister', read for career and the means of the soul's work.
Ashtakavarga अष्टकवर्ग
A points system that scores every sign out of 8 per planet - the classical arithmetic behind transit timing.
Gaja Kesari Yoga गजकेसरी योग
Jupiter in a quadrant from the Moon - the most commonly cited of the named yogas, and the most commonly overstated.
Budhaditya Yoga बुधादित्य योग
Mercury conjunct the Sun - common, easy to claim, and undone by the one condition most descriptions omit.
Chandra Mangal Yoga चंद्र-मंगल योग
The Moon with Mars - classically a wealth yoga, and the one whose emotional cost the texts are unusually frank about.
Kemadruma Yoga केमद्रुम योग
A Moon with no planet in the houses on either side of it - and the three standard cancellations that usually apply.
Neecha Bhanga नीच भंग
The cancellation of a planet's debilitation - and the claim that a cancelled debilitation can outperform an ordinary placement.
Timing
Dasha दशा
A planetary period - the stretch of years during which one graha governs the unfolding of a chart.
Antardasha अंतर्दशा
A sub-period inside a Mahadasha - the second level of the dasha timeline, also called bhukti.
Gochar गोचर
Transit - where the planets are in the sky right now, read against their positions in your birth chart.
Sade Sati साढ़े साती
The roughly seven-and-a-half-year stretch when Saturn transits the sign before, the sign of, and the sign after your natal Moon.
Muhurta मुहूर्त
An elected time - choosing a favourable moment to begin something, rather than reading a moment already past.
Panchang
Tithi तिथि
A lunar day - the time the Moon takes to gain 12 degrees on the Sun, and the first limb of the panchang.
Hora होरा
A planetary hour - the day divided into 24 parts, each ruled by one of the seven visible grahas.
Rahu Kaal राहु काल
A roughly 90-minute window each day, traditionally avoided for starting anything new.
Karana करण
The half-tithi - the fourth limb of the panchang, and the one that decides whether a day carries Vishti (Bhadra).
Matching & doshas
Guna Milan गुण मिलान
The eight-fold compatibility score used in Vedic matchmaking, out of a maximum of 36 points.
Dosha दोष
A named affliction in a chart - a configuration classical texts flag as a difficulty, almost always with a stated cancellation.
Pitra dosha पितृ दोष
Afflictions to the Sun and the 9th house, read in tradition as an unfinished obligation on the paternal line.
Nadi नाड़ी
The heaviest of the eight matching koots, worth 8 of the 36 gunas - and the one that most often sinks a match.
Bhakoot भकूट
The seventh of the eight kootas, worth 7 of 36 points - and the one whose failure is most often reported as a blocker.
Gana गण
The temperament koota - Deva, Manushya or Rakshasa, assigned by birth nakshatra and worth 6 of 36 points.
Numerology
Other systems
Varshphal वर्षफल
The annual chart - cast for the moment the Sun returns to its natal degree, and read for that one year of life.
Sub-lord (KP) उपस्वामी
Krishnamurti's fourth subdivision of the zodiac - the step his system treats as deciding the matter.
Lal Kitab लाल किताब
A 20th-century system with its own fixed-house chart, known for its cheap, practical remedies.
Placidus cusps प्लेसिडस
A house system that divides by time rather than by sign, so a house can start mid-sign and the twelve are unequal.
Astroniq AI astrologer
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