The Vedic astrology glossary
26 core terms — lagna to sade sati — explained in plain, everyday language, with a link to the VedaSpark tool where each one comes alive. No jargon left unexplained.
Chart basics
The building blocks every birth chart is made of.
Lagna (Ascendant)
The zodiac sign rising on the eastern horizon at your birth — the lens your whole chart is read through.
The lagna sets house 1 and anchors every other house. It shapes your temperament, body and the way you meet the world. Because the horizon moves about one degree every four minutes, the lagna is the most time-sensitive point in the chart — which is why an accurate birth time matters most for it.
See it in actionRashi (Moon sign)
The zodiac sign your Moon occupied at birth — the seat of your mind and emotions.
In Vedic astrology the Moon sign (janma rashi) often matters more than the Sun sign of Western astrology. It governs your inner life, instincts and how you feel your way through the world, and it is the anchor for many predictive techniques like dasha and gochar.
Nakshatra
One of 27 lunar mansions — a finer, 13°20′ slice of the zodiac the Moon travels through.
Each nakshatra has a ruling deity, a planetary lord and a distinct character; your birth nakshatra colours personality, compatibility and the very first syllable traditionally chosen for a baby’s name. Nakshatras drive the Vimshottari dasha and daily tara bala.
See it in actionPada
A quarter of a nakshatra — each of the 27 stars is split into four padas of 3°20′.
Padas add precision: they map a nakshatra onto the navamsa (D9) chart and refine compatibility, naming syllables and sub-period timing. Your nakshatra plus pada pins the Moon to a very specific point.
Graha (Planet)
The nine grahas — Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu and Ketu.
Grahas are the active agents of a chart. Rahu and Ketu are the Moon’s two nodes (shadow points, not physical bodies) and are always retrograde. Each graha rules signs, karakas (significations) and dasha periods.
Bhava (House)
One of twelve life areas, counted from the lagna — career, marriage, wealth, and so on.
Houses are where the action lands. 1 is you, 2 wealth and family, 4 home and mother, 7 marriage and partnership, 10 career and status, 11 gains. A planet’s house placement is often more telling than its sign.
Timing & prediction
How Vedic astrology answers the question "when".
Dasha
Planetary periods that divide life into chapters, each ruled by a graha in turn.
The Vimshottari dasha (120-year cycle keyed to your birth nakshatra) is the workhorse. You live through a maha (major) period, subdivided into antardashas (sub-periods) and finer still. The ruling lords colour the themes and timing of that stretch of life.
See it in actionAntardasha
A sub-period inside a mahadasha — the second level of dasha timing.
If the mahadasha is the chapter, the antardasha is the section within it. The interplay between the maha lord and antar lord fine-tunes what a period actually delivers and when.
See it in actionGochar (Transit)
Where the planets are moving in the sky right now, read against your birth chart.
While dashas unfold your inner clock, gochar is the outer weather. Slow movers — Jupiter, Saturn, Rahu/Ketu — mark the big seasons; the daily Moon sets tara bala and chandra bala, the personal mood of the day.
See it in actionVarshaphal
Your annual chart — the Tajaka solar-return cast for the moment the Sun returns to its birth position each year.
Varshaphal zooms into a single year with its own lagna, year lord (varsheshwara), muntha (a progressed point) and mudda dasha mapping the year month by month. It is read for "how will this year go", refreshed every birthday.
See it in actionPrashna (Horary)
A chart cast for the moment a question is asked — no birth time needed.
Prashna answers a specific question from the sky at the instant it is posed. The lagna, the Moon (the querent’s mind) and the ruling planets carry the answer. The KP method sharpens it with a number you intuitively pick from 1 to 249.
See it in actionMuhurta
Electional astrology — choosing an auspicious time to begin something important.
A good muhurta stacks favourable factors: an auspicious choghadiya, a clear kaal window (avoiding rahu kaal), and — personalised — a supportive tara bala and chandra bala from your own Moon. Used for weddings, travel, launches and housewarmings.
See it in actionPanchang & the day
The five limbs of the Vedic calendar and the day’s windows.
Tithi
The lunar day — one of 30 phases of the Moon across a lunar month.
Tithis run from Pratipada to Purnima (full moon) in the bright fortnight and back to Amavasya (new moon) in the dark. They guide fasting days, festivals and the tone of the day.
Yoga & Karana
Two more limbs of the panchang: a Sun–Moon combination (yoga) and a half-tithi (karana).
The 27 nitya yogas and the karanas are quality markers of the day used in muhurta. (Note: "yoga" here is different from the chart yogas below.)
Choghadiya
Auspicious and inauspicious time slots dividing the day and night into eighths.
Each choghadiya (Amrit, Shubha, Labha, Chara are the good ones) suits certain activities. A quick, popular way to pick a decent window when a full muhurta isn’t needed.
See it in actionRahu Kaal
A roughly 90-minute window each day traditionally avoided for new beginnings.
Along with yamaganda and gulika kaal, rahu kaal is a "kaal window" to sidestep when starting something important. Its timing shifts with the weekday and your sunrise.
See it in actionStrengths, yogas & doshas
The chart’s gifts and the challenges to work with — read without fear.
Yoga (chart combination)
A special planetary combination that concentrates a particular result — often fortunate.
Classical texts describe hundreds of yogas — raja yogas for status, dhana yogas for wealth, and many more. A yoga is a promise the chart makes; when its planets’ dasha runs, that promise tends to ripen.
See it in actionManglik (Kuja) Dosha
A Mars placement said to affect marriage — but one with many classical cancellations.
Manglik dosha gets over-hyped and over-feared. The honest reading always checks the cancellation rules (both partners manglik, Mars’ dignity, aspects) and weighs the whole chart. VedaSpark shows the cancellations, never doom.
See it in actionKaal Sarpa Dosha
When all seven planets fall between Rahu and Ketu — intense, but not a curse.
Kaal sarpa is best read as a concentration of energy that asks for focus and patience, not a life sentence. Its effects vary hugely by type and by the strength of the rest of the chart.
Sade Sati
The roughly 7½-year transit of Saturn over the signs around your natal Moon.
Sade sati has three phases (rising, peak, setting) and a reputation worse than it deserves. It is a period of maturation — steady effort compounds, shortcuts don’t. Handled well, it builds lasting structure.
See it in actionAshtakavarga
A points system scoring each sign’s strength — a map of where the chart is well-supported.
Ashtakavarga assigns bindus (points) to signs from each planet’s perspective; high-scoring signs and houses are where transits and dashas deliver more. A practical bridge between chart and prediction.
See it in actionShadbala
A six-fold measurement of how strong each planet actually is.
A planet can rule a great yoga but be too weak to deliver it. Shadbala totals positional, directional, temporal, motional, natural and aspectual strength so you know which planets can really act.
See it in actionFoundations
The system underneath it all.
Ayanamsa
The correction that separates the sidereal (Vedic) zodiac from the tropical (Western) one.
Because the Earth wobbles, the fixed stars drift relative to the seasons. Vedic astrology uses the sidereal zodiac; the ayanamsa (VedaSpark uses Lahiri, the mainstream standard) is the ~24° offset applied to every calculation. Change the ayanamsa and every position shifts.
Nakshatra lord
The planet that rules your birth star — the seed of the Vimshottari dasha sequence.
Each of the 27 nakshatras is ruled by one of nine planets in a fixed order (Ketu, Venus, Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury). Your birth nakshatra’s lord decides which dasha you are born into and where the 120-year cycle begins.
Tara Bala
The daily "star strength" between the day’s Moon nakshatra and your birth nakshatra.
Counting from your birth star to today’s Moon star gives a 9-fold tara — some favourable, some challenging. It is the backbone of personalised daily and muhurta timing.
See it in actionGot a term you want explained against your own chart?
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