Most people in Nepal and North India have seen their Kundli — a square full of diamonds, numbers and short planet names, often copied from the family’s Cheena. Very few know how to read it. In this guide I will show you the three rules that unlock the North Indian chart, so you can find your Lagna, your Moon sign and what each house means.
If you do not have your chart, make your free Kundli first and keep it open while you read.
Rule 1: the houses never move
The North Indian chart is a square divided by two diagonals and an inner diamond, making twelve sections. Each section is a house (bhava), and the houses are always in the same place:
- The top central diamond is the 1st house — your Lagna.
- From there the houses run anticlockwise: the 2nd is the triangle to its upper left, the 3rd below it on the left edge, the 4th is the left central diamond, and so on around the chart.
- The 7th house is the bottom central diamond, opposite the Lagna. The 10th is the right central diamond.
This is the opposite of the South Indian chart, where the signs stay fixed and the houses move.
Rule 2: the numbers are rashis, not houses
The small number in each section tells you which rashi (sign) falls in that house:
| Number | Rashi | Number | Rashi |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mesh (Aries) | 7 | Tula (Libra) |
| 2 | Brish (Taurus) | 8 | Brischik (Scorpio) |
| 3 | Mithun (Gemini) | 9 | Dhanu (Sagittarius) |
| 4 | Karkat (Cancer) | 10 | Makar (Capricorn) |
| 5 | Singha (Leo) | 11 | Kumbha (Aquarius) |
| 6 | Kanya (Virgo) | 12 | Meen (Pisces) |
So if the number 4 is written in the top diamond, your Lagna is Karkat (Cancer). The next house anticlockwise will show 5, then 6, and so on.
Rule 3: planets sit in the house they occupy
Planets are written by short names inside the house where they were at your birth:
- Su Surya (Sun), Mo Chandra (Moon), Ma Mangal (Mars), Me Budh (Mercury)
- Ju Guru (Jupiter), Ve Shukra (Venus), Sa Shani (Saturn)
- Ra Rahu and Ke Ketu, the lunar nodes, always exactly opposite each other
An (R) next to a planet means it was retrograde (vakri) at birth. In Devanagari charts you will see सू, चं, मं, बु, गु, शु, श, रा and के instead.
Finding your Moon sign
Look for Mo (or चं). The number in that house is your Chandra rashi — the sign used for Rashifal, Sade Sati and naming. If Mo sits in a house marked 9, your Moon sign is Dhanu.
What the twelve houses mean
- 1st (Lagna): body, personality, health, how you meet the world
- 2nd: family, savings, speech, food
- 3rd: courage, siblings, short journeys, communication
- 4th: mother, home, property, vehicles, peace of mind
- 5th: children, education, intelligence, romance, past merit
- 6th: work routines, debts, illness, competitors
- 7th: marriage, partners, business partnerships
- 8th: longevity, sudden events, inheritance, hidden matters
- 9th: father, luck, dharma, teachers, long journeys
- 10th: career, status, reputation, authority
- 11th: income, gains, friends, wishes fulfilled
- 12th: expenses, foreign lands, sleep, spiritual release
A planet colours the house it sits in. Jupiter in the 5th is a classic blessing for children and learning; Saturn in the 10th often brings a career built slowly and solidly.
Beyond the main chart
Two more things complete a basic reading:
The nakshatra. Your Moon’s birth star (one of 27) refines your nature and decides your first dasha. It is also where your naming syllable comes from.
The dashas. The Vimshottari system divides life into planetary periods lasting from 6 to 20 years. The Mahadasha you are running explains why some years feel completely different from others.
Many Kundlis also show the Navamsa (D9) — a divisional chart read especially for marriage and inner strength — and a Chandra chart, where the Moon’s house is treated as the 1st house.
A common surprise: your “real” sign
Many people are surprised that their Vedic sign differs from the sign in magazine horoscopes. Western astrology uses the tropical zodiac; Jyotish uses the sidereal zodiac, which today is about 24 degrees behind. That is why your Vedic Sun sign is usually one sign earlier than your Western one.
One detail for Nepali charts
Nepal moved its clock from UTC+5:30 to UTC+5:45 in 1986. A chart for anyone born in Nepal before that change must use +5:30, or the Lagna can shift. The free Kundli on this site handles this automatically.
Next steps
Reading the chart is the first step; interpreting how all the planets, houses and dashas work together takes years of practice. Once you have found your Lagna and Moon sign, book a reading and I will walk you through your own chart, house by house.