NatalCalculator

Vedic Birth Chart Calculator: Sidereal Chart, Nakshatra and Dasha

A free Vedic birth chart, cast sidereally on the Lahiri ayanamsa with Whole Sign houses, that also works out your Moon’s nakshatra and lays out the full Vimshottari dasha timeline that follows from it.

The Western tropical calculator covers that zodiac in depth, including how tropical and sidereal astrology relate to each other. This page picks up from there rather than repeating it: everything below assumes you already know the two traditions measure the zodiac from a different starting point, and goes straight into what the sidereal chart itself contains.

Calculate your Vedic chart

Birth details

Any date between 1800 and 2050.

Local clock time at the birthplace. Daylight saving is applied automatically.

Start typing a city name.

    Enter coordinates manually

    Whole Sign is the traditional default in Vedic practice; the others are offered for comparison.

    The chart shown is a worked example. Replace any detail with your own and the chart updates as you type.

    Calculated for 1990-07-04 14:30 · New York, United States · UTC-04:00 · 1990-07-04 18:30 Universal Time

    Ayanamsa applied 23°43′ (Vedic sidereal (Lahiri))

    A circular chart with the twelve signs around the rim, the twelve house cusps marked, and each planet drawn at its zodiacal degree.♈♉♊♋♌♍♎♏♐♑♒♓123456789101112☉18°48′☽12°11′☿21°17′♀17°52′♂0°55′♃26°25′♄29°02′ ℞♅13°40′ ℞♆19°29′ ℞♇21°22′ ℞

    What this chart says

    The Sun in Gemini works through curiosity and keeps several threads running at once. The Moon in Scorpio feels enormously and shows almost none of it. With Libra on the ascendant, the chart meets people with charm and an instinct for the agreeable thing to say. That solar emphasis lands in the tenth house, so it plays out through career and reputation. The Moon occupies the third house, tying private need to communication and the near world.

    4 of the ten bodies sit in fire signs, which tilts the temperament of the whole chart that way. The mutable signs hold 6 placements, which sets the pace at which this chart tends to move.

    The closest major aspect is Mercury trine Pluto, exact to within 0°05′, and still closing. Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto stood retrograde at this moment, so those functions turn inward before they turn outward.

    Planet positions

    Zodiacal position, house and motion for all ten bodies at the moment of birth.
    BodyPositionHouseMotion
    Sun18°48′ Gemini10Direct
    Moon12°11′ Scorpio3Direct
    Mercury21°17′ Gemini10Direct
    Venus17°52′ Taurus9Direct
    Mars0°55′ Aries7Direct
    Jupiter26°25′ Gemini10Direct
    Saturn29°02′ Sagittarius4Retrograde
    Uranus13°40′ Sagittarius4Retrograde
    Neptune19°29′ Sagittarius4Retrograde
    Pluto21°22′ Libra2Retrograde

    House cusps

    The zodiacal degree beginning each of the twelve houses.
    HouseCusp
    First house6°17′ Virgo
    Second house6°17′ Libra
    Third house6°17′ Scorpio
    Fourth house6°17′ Sagittarius
    Fifth house6°17′ Capricorn
    Sixth house6°17′ Aquarius
    Seventh house6°17′ Pisces
    Eighth house6°17′ Aries
    Ninth house6°17′ Taurus
    Tenth house6°17′ Gemini
    Eleventh house6°17′ Cancer
    Twelfth house6°17′ Leo

    Aspects

    Major aspects between the ten bodies, listed from the tightest orb outward.
    PairAspectOrbPhase
    Mercury – Pluto Trine0°05′Applying
    Sun – Neptune Opposition0°41′Applying
    Mercury – Neptune Opposition1°48′Separating
    Neptune – Pluto Sextile1°53′Separating
    Mars – Saturn Square1°53′Separating
    Sun – Mercury Conjunction2°29′Separating
    Sun – Pluto Trine2°35′Applying
    Jupiter – Saturn Opposition2°36′Applying
    Mars – Jupiter Square4°30′Separating
    Jupiter – Pluto Trine5°03′Separating
    Sun – Uranus Opposition5°08′Separating
    Mercury – Jupiter Conjunction5°09′Applying
    Moon – Venus Opposition5°41′Applying
    Uranus – Neptune Conjunction5°49′Separating
    Jupiter – Neptune Opposition6°56′Separating
    Mercury – Uranus Opposition7°37′Separating
    Sun – Jupiter Conjunction7°38′Applying
    Mercury – Saturn Opposition7°45′Applying
    Aspect grid
    ☉☽☿♀♂♃♄♅♆♇
    ☉
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    ☿☌
    ♀☍
    ♂
    ♃☌☌□
    ♄☍□☍
    ♅☍☍
    ♆☍☍☍☌
    ♇△△△⚹

    Nakshatra and dasha

    The Moon falls in Anuradha, pada 3, ruled by Saturn - 66.4% of the way through this nakshatra at birth.

    Vimshottari Mahadasha (major period) sequence from birth, running Saturn through the rest of the 120-year cycle.
    LordStartsEndsStatus
    Saturn (balance at birth)1990-07-041996-11-22Running at birth
    Mercury1996-11-222013-11-22Later in life
    Ketu2013-11-222020-11-22Later in life
    Venus2020-11-222040-11-22Later in life
    Sun2040-11-222046-11-22Later in life
    Moon2046-11-222056-11-22Later in life
    Mars2056-11-222063-11-23Later in life
    Rahu2063-11-232081-11-22Later in life
    Jupiter2081-11-222097-11-22Later in life

    What a nakshatra is

    Where a sign is a thirty-degree slice of the zodiac, a nakshatra is a thirteen-degree-twenty-minute slice - the 360-degree circle divided into 27 equal lunar mansions instead of 12 signs. Each nakshatra is further split into four padas (quarters) of three degrees twenty minutes each, so a placement’s pada narrows things down further still. Vedic astrology has always paid particular attention to the Moon’s nakshatra at birth, both as a layer of character detail finer than the Moon sign and as the anchor point for the dasha timeline below.

    What a dasha period means, and how to read the timeline

    Vimshottari dasha divides a life into nine sequential planetary periods (Mahadashas) covering 120 years in total, in a fixed order: Ketu, Venus, Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury. Which of the nine is running at birth - and how much of it is already spent - is set entirely by the Moon’s nakshatra: the nakshatra’s ruling planet starts the sequence, and the fraction of that nakshatra already crossed at birth becomes the fraction of that first period already elapsed. Traditional practice reads each period’s ruling planet as colouring the general tenor of the years it covers - not predicting specific events, but suggesting which chart themes are likely to be more active while it runs.

    Frequently asked questions

    What makes a Vedic chart different from a Western chart?

    The homepage’s calculator uses the tropical zodiac, measured from the March equinox. This one uses the sidereal zodiac instead, measured from a fixed point among the stars, which is what Vedic (Jyotish) astrology has always used. The tropical and sidereal zodiacs coincided many centuries ago and have drifted apart since, by a gap called the ayanamsa - currently a little over 24 degrees. This calculator uses the Lahiri ayanamsa, the value adopted as the Indian government standard.

    Is my Vedic sign different from my Western sign?

    Usually, yes - most people’s sidereal Sun sign is one sign earlier than their tropical one, because the roughly 24-degree ayanamsa gap is more than two-thirds of a thirty-degree sign. Someone who is a tropical Taurus in the first few degrees of the sign is very often a sidereal Aries. Neither placement is a mistake; they are two different, internally consistent measuring conventions applied to the same real planetary positions.

    What is a nakshatra?

    A nakshatra is one of 27 lunar mansions the sidereal zodiac is divided into, each spanning exactly 13 degrees 20 minutes. Vedic astrology reads the Moon’s nakshatra at birth as a layer of meaning finer than its sign, and it is also what determines the starting point of the Vimshottari dasha sequence below.

    What is a dasha, and how do I read the timeline?

    A dasha is a planetary period. Vimshottari dasha is a 120-year sequence of nine of them, run in a fixed order, that traditional Vedic astrology uses to time when a chart’s themes are more or less active. Which lord’s period is running at birth - and how much of it is already spent - is fixed entirely by the Moon’s nakshatra at the birth moment, which is why the table above needs an exact birth time the same way the houses do.

    Why does this calculator default to Whole Sign houses instead of Placidus?

    Because that is what Vedic practice actually uses. In Whole Sign the entire rising sign becomes the first house rather than a portion of it, so this calculator follows that convention by default. The other four systems from the homepage calculator are offered here too for comparison; switching between them moves the house cusps but never the planets or the ascendant, exactly as on the homepage.

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