Lagna Chart
लग्न कुंडली
The lagna chart is the main chart of your kundli — the one drawn with the sign that was rising in the east at your birth as the first house.
The thing worth knowing, and the reason most people are confused when they first open a full report: a kundli contains several charts of the same birth moment, drawn from different starting points. They are not duplicates and they are not alternatives, and they are read for different questions.
The three you will actually use
- Lagna chart · D1, Rashi chart, birth chart
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Drawn from: The rising sign
The primary chart, and the one meant whenever somebody says "your kundli" without qualifying it. Every house placement — which planet governs your work, your marriage, your health — is read from here.
An accurate birth time. The Lagna moves about one sign every two hours.
- Chandra chart · Moon chart
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Drawn from: The moon sign
The same planets, redrawn with the Moon's sign as the first house. Read alongside the Lagna chart as a check: a result that holds in both is given more weight than one that appears in only one.
Much less precision — the Moon takes over two days to change sign, so this chart survives an uncertain birth time.
- Navamsa · D9
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Drawn from: Ninth-parts of each sign
Marriage and the deeper strength of each planet. A planet that looks strong in the Lagna chart but weak here is read as promising more than it delivers — and the reverse, called vargottama, is read as unusually solid.
A precise birth time. Each ninth-part spans only 3°20′, so a small error moves planets between them.
A full report contains thirteen divisional charts in all. The other ten are consulted for narrower questions — D10 for career, D7 for children, D12 for parents — and are not part of a general reading.
Why the lagna chart comes first
Because it decides where the twelve houses begin, and almost every statement in a reading is a statement about a house. "Jupiter is good for your career" means Jupiter is well placed relative to the tenth house — and where the tenth house falls is set by the Lagna.
That is also why birth time matters more here than anywhere else in astrology. The Lagna advances one degree every four minutes; an hour of error moves it half a sign, and a two-hour error moves every planet into a different house. More on birth-time accuracy.
North Indian, South Indian, and why yours looks wrong
The same chart drawn in the two common styles looks nothing like itself, and this catches almost everybody once.
- North Indian
- Diamond-shaped. The houses stay in the same place on the page and the signs move between them, so the first house is always the top diamond.
- South Indian
- Square. The signs stay in the same place and the houses move, so Aries is always the same box and the Lagna is marked wherever it falls.
Neither is more correct — they are two ways of drawing identical data. We draw North Indian.
Common questions
What is a lagna chart?
The main chart of a kundli, drawn with the sign that was rising in the east at your birth as the first house. It is also called the D1 or Rashi chart. When somebody refers to "your kundli" without saying which chart, this is the one they mean.
What is the difference between the lagna chart and the moon chart?
The same planetary positions, drawn from a different starting point — the rising sign in one, the moon sign in the other. Because the houses shift, a planet in your 10th house in the Lagna chart may sit in the 4th in the Chandra chart. Vedic practice reads both, and gives more weight to what shows in both.
Which chart should I read first?
The Lagna chart. It carries the house structure everything else is checked against. The Chandra chart is a second reading rather than an alternative, and the Navamsa is consulted for specific questions rather than read on its own.
Why does my lagna chart look different elsewhere?
Usually the chart style rather than the data. North Indian charts fix the houses in place and move the signs between them; South Indian charts fix the signs and move the houses. The same chart drawn both ways looks entirely unlike itself. The other common cause is a tropical rather than sidereal calculation, which shifts planets roughly one sign.
What is vargottama?
A planet holding the same sign in the Lagna chart and in the Navamsa. It is read as unusually consistent — the planet behaving the same way at both levels of detail — and is one of the few conditions that survives a slightly uncertain birth time, since both charts would have to shift together to break it.
See your own
A free Kundli draws the Lagna chart, the Chandra chart and all thirteen divisions from your birth details, with the planets placed in each.
Generate my chart