Vedic Astrology

This section covers Jyotisha, the astrology of the Indian subcontinent, sometimes called Vedic astrology. Its defining feature is the sidereal zodiac, measured from a fixed point among the stars, in contrast to the tropical zodiac of Western astrology, which is measured from the moving equinox. The two zodiacs have drifted apart by roughly twenty-four degrees, so the same birth can yield different sign placements in the two systems, a difference of framework, not of error.

The section gathers the nine grahas (the planets, including the lunar nodes Rahu and Ketu), the twelve rashis (signs), the twenty-seven nakshatras (lunar mansions), the divisional vargas, the planetary-period systems such as the Vimshottari dasha, and the named planetary combinations, the yogas.

Jyotisha is not a translation of Western astrology into Sanskrit; it is an independent tradition with its own techniques, the dasha period systems that time events across a life, the nakshatras that predate the twelve-sign zodiac in India, the divisional charts that magnify one area of life, and compatibility schemes such as the ganas built on the nakshatras.

The terms and the deities attached to each factor are Indian, and the tradition is embedded in a wider religious and calendrical world, the tithis, karanas and nitya yogas of the Hindu lunar calendar are collected here too, since Jyotisha and the calendar share the same underlying astronomy.