VEDIC ASTROLOGY

LESSON – 6
THE CHART OR KUNDALI
The 12 zodiac signs are represented on paper in the form of a chart or Kundali. We read earlier that the
Zodiac has been divided for calculation purposes into 360 degrees. Each sign represents 30 degrees. There
are two types of charts. The South and the North Indian. only the format of the chart looks slightly different,
the calculation is the same for both. For convenience, we will use the south Indian format in our lessons.

The South Indian Chart The North Indian Chart

The house marked 10 in the South Indian Chart is always the first house in the travel of the planets around
the Sun. This house is called Mesha or Aries. Starting from here the subsequent houses are calculated in
clock wise direction.
MEENAM MESHAM RISHABAM MITHUNAM
MAR 15 – APR 1 5- MAY 15 - JUN 15 –
APR 15 MAY15 JUN 15 JUL 15
PHALGUNA CHAITRA VAISAKHA JYAISHTHA
KUMBAM KATAKAM
FEB 15 – JUL 15 –
NAR 15 RASI CHAKRA AUG 15
MAGHA SHOWING SURYA’S ASHADHA
MAKARAM POSITION SIMHAM
JAN 15 – IN EACH MONTH AUG 15 –
FEB 15 SEPT 15
TAISYA SHRAVANA
DHANUR VRUCHIKAM THULAM KANYA
DEC 15 – NOV 15 – OCT 15 – SEP 15 -
JAN 15 DEC 15 NOV 15 OCT 15
MARGASIRA KARTHIKA ASWINA BHADRAPADA

Surya is in Mesha Rasi during Apr 15th to May 15th every year. This corresponds to the month Chaitra in the
Hindu Calendar. Thereafter Surya travels through each subsequent Rasi (Clockwise) every 30 days
approximately. The number of days in a month varies between 29 and 32. The Earth takes approximately 1
year to go around Surya in the Zodiac. In astrology we represent the earth’s travel as Surya’s travel. We
literally say that Surya takes one year to go around the zodiac. It stays in each house for approximately one
month. We should always remember it is not Surya that is moving but the earth.
THE ASCENDANT
The Ascendant is the degree of the ecliptic which is rising over the Eastern horizon at the precise time and
place of an individual's birth. Put more simply, the Ascendant Sign (Udhaya Lagna) is the sign of the zodiac
which is rising in the East at the exact time of birth, and this sign, and the exact position of the Ascending
degree, are the starting points in any astrological interpretation. It is called the ascendant because it literally
ascends. The ascendant sign changes approximately every two hours, and all twelve signs rise within a
twenty-four-hour period one after the other. The ascendant or rising sign is considered very important in
Vedic astrology.

The Ascendant shows us as we really are - as opposed to the Surya sign which represents our ego and how
we would like to be. This is most strikingly obvious if one talks about a person to someone who a casual
acquaintance, and describes their character as shown by the Ascendant Sign.

The sign ascending at the time of birth becomes the first house in the birth chart. For example, if Simha is
ascending, the first house is Simha, the second Kanya, the third Tula, and on through the other signs in
order: Vruchika, Dhanur, Makara, Kumba, Meena, Mesha, Rishaba, Mithuna, and Kataka.

An important point to note about the difference between Vedic and Western astrology is the position of
Surya or Chandra at the time of birth. In Vedic astrology when you see Mesha and other signs discussed in
newspapers and other places they are usually talking about where Chandra is in a birth chart and not where
Surya is in the birth chart. If a person tells someone in India that their sign is Mesha, an Indian will often
assume you are saying that Chandra was in the sign of Mesha at the time of birth, while most Westerners
are saying that Surya was in the sign of Mesha at the time of birth.

EQUINOX

the time when Surya crosses the plane of the earth's equator, making night and day of approximately equal
length all over the earth and occurring about March 21 (vernal equinox or spring equinox) and September
22 (autumnal equinox) Spring Equinox is called Vasant Vishuva or Vasant Sampath and Autumnal equinox is
called Sharad Vishuva or Sharad Sampat in Hindu astrology. Due to pression Hindu equivalent of Spring
Equinox has drifted apart and celebrated on Mesha Sankaranthi and Autumnal Equinox is celebrated on Tula
Sankaranthi.

THE RASI
The Janma Rasi is the sign that Chandra is in at the time of birth (janma). The Chandra sign and the
ascendant sign are both given great importance in a chart. Chandra comes around the earth in
approximately one month’s time. In doing so it travels along the path of the cluster of stars prevalent in the
zodiac. There are 27 constellations or cluster of stars established in astronomy and astrology. Each cluster of
star has a few bright stars

THE ECLIPTIC

The ecliptic is the circular path on the CELESTIAL SPHERE that the Sun appears to follow over the course of a
year. it is the basis of the Ecliptic Co Ordinate System.
THE ZODIAC

An imaginary belt extending 8° either side of the ecliptic is called the Zodiac. It contains the 12 zodiacal
constellations and within which the moon and planets appear to move. It is divided into 12 equal areas,
called signs of the zodiac, each named after the constellation which once lay in it.

The ecliptic is a circle, and the thing about a circle is that it doesn’t have a beginning or an end. If you want
to be able to measure something along a circle, you must establish some sort of a reference point. The
Zodiac as we know it today was first used by the Ancient Greeks over 2,000 years ago. Their year began with
the Spring Equinox, and so it made sense to pick that point—that is, the point in the sky where the Sun
appeared to be at the time of the Spring Equinox, as the reference point, and then divide the ecliptic into 12
equal segments from there. At the time, the Spring Equinox occurred when the Sun was in the band of the
ecliptic that also included part of the Constellation of Mesha. The first 30-degree division of the ecliptic was
named “MESHA,” and the remaining eleven segments were likewise named after the well-known and easily-
recognized constellations that roughly corresponded in sequence.

Zodiac can be looked at two ways in astrology. The first way is called the Sayana Zodiac. This is followed by
western astrologers who use the Vernal Equinox as the starting point. The second way is the Nirayana
Zodiac. This does not take the Vernal Equinox as starting point. It takes a fixed star as the starting point. This
is more accurate and is followed by Vedic astrology.

There is a "wobble" in the rotation of the earth on its axis. As a result, Surya does not return exactly to the
same point of 0 degrees in Mesha Rasi each spring at the vernal equinox as observed from a fixed star. It
misses by a tiny amount (around 50 seconds of arc according to the most widely used reference point). This
may not seem to matter much, but when it accumulates over the years, the vernal equinox is seen to slip
back and back into the sign of Meena then eventually Kumba and so on. This phenomenon is known as
precession of the Vernal Equinox. At present the discrepancy between these two systems is about 23
degrees, 57minutes. This ever-increasing difference is known as the ayanamsha (moving part). If you
subtract the daily specific ayanamsha from the planet's position in a Western tropical chart, you will get its
location in the Vedic Sidereal Chart. A Western Astrologer is going to fix the Vernal Equinox as 0 degrees
Mesha regardless of whether Surya is observed against the backdrop of the stars in the constellation of
Mesha on that day and year. In fact, eventually, there can be the bizarre situation where Surya is observed
by astronomers in the sign of Thula and a Western astrologer says it is in Mesha - the opposite sign of the
zodiac! This may be a contributing factor to the typical modern astronomer's negative opinions about
astrology. However, as all astrology is, at its heart, a divination system, the important thing is how well the
astrologer integrates any system with the cognitive faculty of intuition Jyotish, in turn, always establishes
the planetary position against the backdrop of the fixed stars so that real-time observation matches the
chart positions.

The Earth doesn’t so much shift on its axis as it wobbles. The Earth’s axis is tilted at an angle of
approximately 23.5° to the plane of the ecliptic. This tilt is what produces the seasonal variations. The Earth
is also not a perfect sphere; it bulges in the middle near the Equator. This unequal distribution of mass
causes the Earth to wobble around its rotational axis like a gyroscope. What this means is that the Earth’s
axis makes its own rotation, with the North and South Poles slowly describing a circle around the ecliptic
pole (which is the pole exactly perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic; the North and South poles,
remember are tilted 23.5 degrees away from this plane). How slowly? Well, a complete cycle takes about
25,800 years. The precession can also be seen in terms of the North Star. Currently the North Pole of the
Earth is aligned with the fixed star Polaris (Dhuruva nakshatra or North Star) This was not the case 3,000
years ago; and by the year 14,000 A.D., the North Star will be Vega, not Polaris.
LUNAR MANSION

A lunar mansion is a segment of the Ecliptic (often called a station or house) through which
Chandra passes in its orbit around Earth. The Zodiac is divided into 27 or 28 segments relative to
the fixed stars– one for each day of the lunar month. (A sidereal month lasts about 27.3 days.)
Chandra's position is mapped with respect to those fixed segments. Since Chandra's position at
given stage will vary according to Earth's position in its own orbit, the lunar mansions are an
effective system for keeping track of the passage of seasons. A Lunar mansion is also known as
Constellation.

As Earth orbits Surya, Surya appears to pass in front of different constellations. Much like Chandra
appears in a slightly different place in the sky each night, the location of Surya relative to distant
background stars drifts in an easterly direction from day to day. It’s not that Surya is moving. Its
motion is entirely an illusion, caused by Earth’s own motion around our star.

TO BE CONTINUED IN LESSON 7