NEW HERE? START THIS WAY
Learn to decode the chart before interpreting it
- Complete Module 1 in order and do every hands-on task.
- After Lesson 1.8, create your own chart in Kundli Lab and repeat the same steps.
- Move to Yogas, Dasha and Vargas only when you can write House → Rashi → Lord without help.
What a Kundli actually is
Start with the data: a Kundli is a structured map of the sky for one date, time and place. Learn what is calculated before learning what is interpreted.
A Janma Kundli begins with three inputs: birth date, exact local birth time and birthplace. The time is converted through the historical time zone to UTC; the place supplies latitude and longitude. From that moment the software calculates the sidereal longitudes of the grahas and the Ascendant (Lagna).
Those longitudes are the raw astronomical layer. For example, saying “Moon = Taurus 11°14′” is a calculated position. Saying what that Moon may traditionally signify is an interpretive Jyotish layer. Keeping calculation and interpretation separate prevents many beginner mistakes.
The D1 or Rashi chart is then a visual arrangement of the twelve houses. In this course D1 uses whole-sign houses: the Rashi rising at the Ascendant becomes the entire 1st house, the next Rashi becomes the 2nd house, and so on through all twelve.
A North Indian chart is only a drawing convention. It does not change the astronomical data. The same birth can be drawn in North Indian, South Indian or East Indian style and still contain the same Lagna, Rashis and grahas.
Your first goal is therefore not prediction. Your first goal is literacy: look at any chart and correctly answer “Which compartment is this house?”, “Which Rashi occupies it?”, “Which grahas are there?” and “Who is the lord of that Rashi?”
How to read it
- Birth date + exact time + place → one astronomical moment.
- Calculate Lagna and sidereal graha longitudes.
- Place the twelve Rashis into the twelve fixed house positions.
- Place each graha into the house occupied by its Rashi.
- Only after the structure is correct, begin Jyotish interpretation.
Key points
- Calculation tells you where something is; interpretation discusses what that placement traditionally means.
- D1/Rashi is the natal foundation chart used throughout the course.
- Never interpret a chart that you cannot first decode structurally.
Do not skip the decoding step because a familiar planet or sign catches your eye. One isolated placement is not the whole chart.
Apply this lesson to a chart
- Open Kundli Lab and identify Houses 1, 4, 7 and 10 without using any printed house number.
- Choose one house and write: House → Rashi → lord → lord placement.
- Check your sentence against the house inspector before moving on.