Kundali (astrology)

Kuṇḍali (also called janmapatra) is the Indian term for the astrological chart or diagram representing the positions of the navagraha-s of Indian astrology at a particular moment like the moment of the birth of a child.

At a particular moment the navagraha-s will be at different points in the sky and they will be located in one of the 12 zodiacal signs (rāśi-s in Indian astrology), namely: A kuṇḍali will show diagrammatically which one of the navagraha-s are located in which one of the rāśi-s at a particular moment.

[1] The practice of constructing a kuṇḍali per se is not unscientific or pseudo-science as the kuṇḍali is only a diagram depicting the positions in the zodiac of the nine entities called the navagraha-s at a particular moment of time, and the navagraha-s are associated with true astronomical entities.

But, the practice of "reading" a kuṇḍali and interpreting or using it to predict the future events or the personality traits of individuals, has no scientific basis and is a pseudo-science.

But, the kuṇḍali format followed in the southern and eastern India are rāśi-centric in the sense that they give primacy to the rāśi-s.

[1][5][6] The kuṇḍali format followed in southern India is essentially a depiction of the zodiac exactly as it is laid out in the sky.

The Meṣa rāśi is in the second cell from the left in the top row of the diagram (marked 1 in the figure).

One advantage of this chart format is that it more closely resembles the actual astronomy of the sky.

The kuṇḍali format followed in eastern India is depicted in the attached figure.

In the format followed in southern India, the cells are assigned rāśi-s in the clockwise direction.

In the kuṇḍali format followed in northern India, the first bhāva is always in the topmost middle diamond.