Astrology

Panchang

A panchang — literally “five limbs”, from pancha (five) and anga (limb) — is the traditional Hindu almanac. For each day it records the tithi, the lunar day, measured by how far the Moon has moved ahead of the Sun; the vara, the weekday; the nakshatra, the lunar mansion, one of twenty-seven stretches of sky the Moon passes through each month; the yoga, worked out from the Sun’s and Moon’s positions together; and the karana, which is half a tithi. Many households check it each morning, along with Rahu kaal, the part of the day traditionally kept free of new beginnings. Because every limb depends on where the Sun and Moon actually are, their start and end times shift with longitude and with sunrise, so a panchang for Delhi does not match one for Chennai or London to the hour, which is why it is always worked out for a particular place rather than printed as one table for everyone.

Kundli, or janma patrika

A kundli, also called a janma patrika, is a chart of the sky at the moment and place of your birth: where the Sun, Moon and planets stood, and which sign was rising in the east. That rising sign is the lagna, or ascendant, and it anchors the whole chart. It changes roughly every two hours, which is why the time of birth matters so much, and the place matters because the eastern horizon at any instant differs between Kolkata and Mumbai. From the lagna the sky is divided into twelve houses, each standing for an area of life — self, wealth, siblings, home, children, health, partnership, longevity, fortune, career, gains and loss — and the planets are read by where they fall. The chart here uses the sidereal zodiac with the Lahiri ayanamsa, the standard adopted for India’s national calendar.

Daily horoscope

In Jyotish — the Sanskrit name for Hindu astrology, roughly “the science of light” — your rashi is your Moon sign: the sign the Moon occupied when you were born. Western astrology, including most newspaper columns, goes by the Sun sign instead. The two often differ; your kundli gives the Moon’s sign directly. A daily reading is a short reflection on the mood of the day for that rashi, not a forecast of events.

Gun Milan

Gun Milan, also called Ashtakoota (ashta, eight; koota, category), is the traditional way of comparing two birth charts before a marriage. Eight qualities — temperament, attraction, health and so on — are scored from the Moon’s nakshatra and rashi in each chart, and the points add up to a maximum of thirty-six, with eighteen or more conventionally taken as acceptable. A family astrologer treats the score as one input among several, alongside the full charts and, above all, the wishes of the two people concerned.

Tarot and palm reading

We should be plain about these two. Tarot is a European card tradition with no roots in Vedic astrology. Palm reading, or hasta samudrika, does have a long history in India, but it is a separate discipline from Jyotish and makes no use of the sky. Both are offered here because many readers enjoy them as prompts for reflection — a card or a line as a starting point for thinking about one’s own situation.

Planetary positions, tithis and nakshatras are computed with standard astronomical algorithms. Everything beyond the arithmetic — the readings, the scores, the cards — is offered for reflection, not as a prediction of fact or a substitute for professional medical, legal, financial or psychological advice.