What information do I need to generate a Vedic birth chart?

You need three pieces of data: date of birth (the calendar day), exact time of birth (hour and minute, ideally from the hospital record), and place of birth (city name — we resolve it to latitude, longitude, and the correct historical timezone, including any daylight-saving rules that applied then). The more precise the birth time, the more reliable the Ascendant (Lagna) and house placements will be.

Why is birth time so important for a Kundli?

The Ascendant changes by approximately 1° every 4 minutes and moves through a full sign in about 2 hours. A small time error misplaces the entire house framework — planets that should be in your 7th house may appear in your 6th or 8th. Divisional charts amplify the error: a 4-minute offset can shift a planet by a full sign in the D60 Shashtiamsha.

What is the difference between Vedic and Western astrology?

Vedic astrology uses the sidereal zodiac (anchored to fixed stars), while Western astrology uses the tropical zodiac (anchored to the spring equinox). Due to the precession of the equinoxes, the two zodiacs have drifted apart by approximately 24° in the current era. Nakshatrica uses the sidereal zodiac with Lahiri (Chitrapaksha) Ayanamsha, the standard adopted by the Indian Calendar Reform Committee.

What is the difference between North Indian and South Indian birth charts?

They display the same data in different layouts. North Indian style is a diamond with the 1st house fixed at the top and signs that rotate based on the Ascendant — Nakshatrica offers two variants: a Legacy server-rendered image (lightweight, classical) and an Interactive SVG (click-to-explore planets, hover tooltips, aspect overlays, Gandanta highlights). South Indian style (also called Tamil Jathagam or Telugu Jatakam) is a square 4×4 grid with signs fixed in position (Aries always top-left of the middle row, going clockwise) and houses that rotate. Both styles convey identical astrological information.

What are divisional charts (Varga charts)?

Divisional charts are derived sub-charts that magnify specific life themes by subdividing each 30° sign. The D9 Navamsa (each sign into 9 parts) is the most important — read for marriage, spouse, and dharma. D10 Dashamsha covers career, D7 Saptamsa covers children, D12 Dwadasamsha covers parents, and D60 Shashtiamsha is the finest resolution for past-karma analysis. Parashara's Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra describes 16 standard Vargas (the Shodasavarga), all of which Nakshatrica computes.

What is Vimshottari Dasha?

Vimshottari Dasha is the most widely used planetary time-cycle system in Vedic astrology, attributed to Maharishi Parashara. It assumes a 120-year human lifespan divided among the nine planets in fixed proportions (Sun 6, Moon 10, Mars 7, Rahu 18, Jupiter 16, Saturn 19, Mercury 17, Ketu 7, Venus 20). The starting Mahadasha is determined by the Nakshatra ruler of the Moon at birth. Nakshatrica computes Dasha down to the Antardasha and Pratyantardasha level with exact start and end dates.

How accurate are the calculations?

Every astronomical computation — planetary longitudes, house cusps, Ascendant, Nakshatra entries, Dasha boundaries, retrograde detection — is performed by the Swiss Ephemeris, the same engine used by academic astronomy software and most professional Jyotish applications. Planetary positions are accurate to sub-arcsecond level over millennia.

What is Manglik Dosha?

Manglik Dosha occurs when Mars is placed in the 1st, 4th, 7th, 8th, or 12th house from the Ascendant or Moon. It is considered important for marriage compatibility in Vedic astrology. Several mitigating factors exist that can cancel or reduce the dosha. Use the Manglik Check tool to evaluate your chart.

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Birth Chart Generator

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🔬 Calculations powered by Swiss Ephemeris for maximum accuracy

Swiss Ephemeris ॐ Vedic ⭐ Professional Grade

Birth Information

Name *

Gender

Male

Female

Other

Date Of Birth *

Time Of Birth *

Place Of Birth *

Timezone *

Auto-detected based on location

Chart Preferences

Chart Type

North Indian

South Indian

Western

About the Vedic Birth Chart (Kundli)

A Vedic birth chart — also called Janma Kundli, Jataka, Janam Kundali, or natal chart in Western terminology — is an astrological snapshot of the sky at the exact moment and location of your birth. Nakshatrica is a free Vedic birth chart calculator that computes the full chart online using the Swiss Ephemeris, the same astronomical engine used by professional Jyotish software and academic astronomy, with planetary positions accurate to sub-arcsecond precision. All calculations default to the sidereal zodiac with Lahiri (Chitrapaksha) Ayanamsha — the standard adopted by the Indian Calendar Reform Committee.

Features

Chart styles

Four ways to view the same underlying data — pick the one you learned.

North Indian — diamond layout, in two variants: Legacy (traditional printed style) and Interactive (click any planet or house for details, hover tooltips, aspect overlays, and a Gandanta highlight toggle)
South Indian — 4×4 square grid (Tamil Jathagam / Telugu Jatakam)
Western Wheel — circular zodiac wheel, with sidereal data
Divisional charts — the full 16-chart Shodasavarga: D1 Rashi, D2 Hora, D3 Drekkana, D4 Chaturthamsha, D7 Saptamsa, D9 Navamsa, D10 Dashamsha, D12 Dwadashamsha, D16 Shodashamsha, D20 Vimshamsha, D24 Chaturvimshamsha, D27 Nakshatramsha, D30 Trimshamsha, D40 Khavedamsha, D45 Akshavedamsha, D60 Shashtiamsha

Planetary detail

All 9 Vedic planets — Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu, Ketu.

Position — sign, Nakshatra, Pada, exact degree, retrograde flag
Dignity — exalted, debilitated, own sign, Moolatrikona; combustion checks
Relationships — friendship / enmity tables, house lordships, planetary aspects
Avasthas & Ashtakavarga — planetary states and bindu points for strength analysis

Timing & prediction

Ascendant (Lagna) — computed to the exact degree; all 12 house cusps anchored to it
Vimshottari Dasha — Maha, Antar, and Pratyantar periods with exact start/end dates, derived from the Moon’s birth Nakshatra
Dosha checks — Manglik, Sadhe Sati, Kaal Sarp, Ganda Moola — flagged inline in the chart view

Accuracy

Swiss Ephemeris — the same engine used in academic astronomy and professional Jyotish software
Historical timezone — the correct offset for the birth date, including daylight-saving rules in effect at the time and place
Save & revisit — with an optional account, keep your chart and switch layouts without re-entering birth data

Chart styles explained

North Indian Kundli (Legacy) uses the traditional diamond layout — 1st house always at the top, signs rotating based on the Ascendant. A clean classical view, ideal for reading or printing.
North Indian Kundli (Interactive) uses the same diamond layout with click-to-explore behavior. Tap any planet or house to open a detail panel with sign, Nakshatra, Pada, degree, dignity, and aspects; toggle Gandanta zones; hover for quick tooltips. Recommended for deeper exploration.
South Indian / Tamil Jathagam / Telugu Jatakam uses a 4×4 square grid where the signs are fixed (Aries always top-left of the middle row, going clockwise) and the houses rotate based on the Ascendant. This is the convention in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Kerala — also commonly called Tamil Kundli, Telugu Kundali, Kannada Jataka, or Malayalam Jathakam depending on the regional language.
Western Wheel presents the sidereal chart in a circular zodiac wheel familiar to Western astrology readers — useful for visualizing aspects and house emphasis at a glance. The underlying data is identical to the Vedic charts; only the visual layout differs.

Why birth time accuracy matters

The Ascendant moves by approximately 1° every 4 minutes, completing one zodiac sign in roughly two hours. A small error in birth time can shift the Ascendant — and the entire house framework — significantly: planets that should sit in your 7th house may appear in your 6th or 8th, completely changing the interpretation. Divisional charts amplify the error further; a 4-minute offset in birth time can shift a planet by a full sign in the D60 Shashtiamsha. If you don’t know the exact time, your Moon-sign (Janma Rashi) and Nakshatra readings will still be reliable since the Moon moves only ~12–13° per day.

Sidereal vs. Tropical zodiac

Western astrology uses the tropical zodiac, anchored to the spring equinox. Vedic astrology uses the sidereal zodiac, anchored to fixed stars. Due to the precession of the equinoxes (Earth’s axis wobbles by about 1° every 72 years), the two zodiacs have drifted apart by approximately 24° in the current era. A person born under a tropical "Aries Sun" is usually a sidereal Pisces Sun. Nakshatrica defaults to sidereal Vedic; the Western Wheel layout displays the same sidereal data in a Western visual style — it does not switch to tropical.

Why we built this

A few years ago we started noticing something troubling: charts generated by popular Vedic astrology apps and websites kept disagreeing with each other. Same birth data, same person — three tools, three different Ascendant Lords. Three different Nakshatras. Three different Dashas running right now. That shouldn’t happen. A birth chart is a precise astronomical calculation. There’s exactly one right answer, and it doesn’t depend on which app you paid for.

The more we looked, the clearer the pattern became. Some tools use the wrong ayanamsha under a “sidereal” label. Some calculate house cusps with Western conventions and then relabel them as Bhava. Some assign Nakshatra Padas by phonetic English spelling instead of the underlying Devanagari akshara. Individually, small errors. Together, a chart that isn’t yours. The issue is concentrated in the free tier — most of the well-established paid Jyotish software does this correctly. But most people never reach the paid tier. They generate their chart on a free website or a free mobile app, save the PDF, and never think about whether the math was right. We won’t name specific tools. But the harm is real.

Consider a person whose true Ascendant Lord is Mars, but a miscalculated chart tells them it’s Jupiter. On the strength of that chart, they wear a yellow sapphire for years. The stone fails to help — because it was never their Ascendant Lord’s stone. Worse, it may amplify areas of the chart already strong and starve areas already weak. When outcomes disappoint, the person blames “astrology” or the astrologer who read the chart. Neither is the problem. The problem is that the chart they trusted was wrong from the moment it was drawn.

That’s why every calculation on this site runs through the Swiss Ephemeris — the same engine used in academic astronomy and by professional Jyotish software — with the sidereal Lahiri (Chitrapaksha) Ayanamsha. Not because we’re purists, but because a chart is the foundation for everything that follows. If the foundation is off by a degree, the whole reading is off. If the whole reading is off, the remedies are off. And people pay for that in ways that never make it back to the app that got it wrong.

We can’t fix every broken chart on the internet. But we can make sure yours isn’t one of them — for free, at whatever precision the source ephemeris permits.

After your chart is generated

Once your Kundli is ready, the result page lets you switch between North Indian, South Indian, and Western Wheel layouts without re-entering birth data. You can drill into any of the 16 divisional charts — D9 Navamsa for marriage and dharma, D10 Dashamsha for career, D7 Saptamsa for children, D12 Dwadashamsha for parents, and more — and step through the Vimshottari Dasha timeline at Mahadasha, Antardasha, and Pratyantardasha resolution. Dosha summaries (Manglik, Sadhe Sati, Kaal Sarp, Ganda Moola, combust, debilitated) are shown inline so you don’t have to leave the chart to evaluate them.

Explore the rest of Nakshatrica

One tool won't answer everything. Nakshatrica pairs each landing page with a full set of free, Swiss-Ephemeris-precise Vedic tools — pick whichever you need next.

Daily Panchang →

Today's Tithi, Nakshatra, Yoga, Karana, Vara, plus Rahu Kalam, Abhijit Muhurat, and Choghadiya windows.

Monthly Panchang →

Full-month calendar with Tithi, Nakshatra, festivals, and Vrat dates at a glance.

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Fast Dates →

Ekadashi, Purnima, Amavasya, and Sankranti calendars for the full year.

Planetary Transits →

Live positions of all 9 Vedic planets — sign, Nakshatra, Pada, retrograde, and combustion.

Vedic Baby Names →

Nakshatra + Pada-based name suggestions across Hindu, Sikh, Urdu, and regional traditions.

Quick Astro Tools →

Find Rashi, Find Nakshatra, Sadhe Sati, Manglik, Kaal Sarp, and Ganda Moola lookups.

Privacy & data handling

Birth data submitted for chart generation is used only to compute your chart and is not shared with third parties. Charts generated without an account are calculated on-demand and not stored against any user profile. See our Privacy Policy for full details, or read the FAQs for more about how the calculations work.