LearnFourteen short lessons, from what a jathagam is to reading one on this site. Each has a picture, a link into the tool it explains and three questions to check yourself. Tap any underlined word for its meaning.
1. What a jathagam is, and what you need to cast one
A horoscope is a picture of the sky at the moment you were born, seen from the place you were born.
Rasi
A is the sky at the moment of birth, drawn as a chart. It records where the Sun, the Moon and the planets stood against the band of stars they all travel through, and which part of that band was rising on the eastern horizon. Everything a family astrologer reads, from the birth star to the running period, comes out of that one picture.
The three things you need
- The date of birth. It fixes where the slow stood, and roughly where the Moon was.
- The time of birth, as exactly as it is known. The Moon moves about 13 degrees a day, so the time decides its and , and the rising sign moves faster still.
- The place of birth. Its latitude and longitude, and the time zone in force that day, turn the clock time into the moment the sky is computed for.
The time matters more than most families expect. The , the sign rising in the east, changes about every two hours, faster for some signs and slower for others, and four minutes of clock moves it a whole degree. A hospital record, a letter written that week or the old family notebook is worth looking for before anything is decided from a chart.
What the chart shows
The zodiac is divided into twelve of 30 degrees each. In the every rasi keeps its own square: and sit at the top left, and the signs run clockwise around the edge. The planets are written into the square of the sign they were in, and the square of the lagna is marked. The draws the same facts as a diamond with the lagna always at the top, so the two look different while saying the same thing.
The positions are : they are measured against the stars rather than the seasons. The difference between the two, the , is about 24 degrees today, which is why a Western sun sign is usually one sign ahead of the Indian one. This site uses the ayanamsa by default, as most Tamil almanacs do.
When the time is not known
Many older horoscopes carry only a date. The chart can still be cast for noon. The Moon moves slowly enough that its rasi is right on most days and its star on many, and the app says when the star or the rasi changed during that day. What cannot be trusted is the lagna and everything counted from it: the houses, the house lords and most of the . Treat those as a placeholder until the time is found.
A jathagam is also cast once, not once a year. The birth chart stays the same for life; what changes is the running and the of the planets over it, which later lessons explain.
Reading the sample
The chart beside this lesson is a real one: 25 April 1996, 08:30 in the morning, Villupuram. The lagna is , so its square is shaded. The Moon is in , in the star . The Sun and share Mesham, and sit in the lagna itself, is in , and and share Meenam, with opposite in . The rest of the course uses this same chart, so every idea can be checked against something concrete.
Check yourself
2. The twelve rasis
Twelve signs of thirty degrees each, every one with a ruling graha and a character of its own.
The twelve rasis
| Rasi | Lord | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Mesham | Sevvai | movable, fire |
| Rishabam | Sukran | fixed, earth |
| Mithunam | Budhan | dual, air |
| Kadagam | Chandran | movable, water |
| Simmam | Suriyan | fixed, fire |
| Kanni | Budhan | dual, earth |
| Thulam | Sukran | movable, air |
| Viruchigam | Sevvai | fixed, water |
| Dhanusu | Guru | dual, fire |
| Magaram | Sani | movable, earth |
| Kumbam | Sani | fixed, air |
| Meenam | Guru | dual, water |
The path the Sun, the Moon and the planets travel is a circle of 360 degrees. It is cut into twelve equal of 30 degrees, starting from . In Tamil they are Mesham, , , , , , , , , , and . They carry the same names as the Western signs, Aries to Pisces, but they are measured against the stars rather than the seasons, so the two zodiacs sit about 24 degrees apart.
Your rasi is the Moon’s
When a Tamil family asks "what is your rasi?", they mean the sign the Moon was in at birth, not the Sun. The Moon changes sign about every two and a quarter days, so two children born a week apart usually have different rasis, while a Western sun sign stays the same for a month. The daily and weekly readings in almanacs are written for the Moon’s rasi, and so is the warning that comes round once a month.
Rulers
Each rasi has a ruling . The Sun rules Simmam and the Moon rules Kadagam. Each of the other five visible planets rules two signs: Mesham and Viruchigam, Mithunam and Kanni, Rishabam and Thulam, Dhanusu and Meenam, and Magaram and Kumbam. A graha in a sign it rules is in its and counts as comfortable there. and rule no sign.
The ruler is how one part of a chart speaks to another. If the seventh sign from the lagna is Viruchigam, the matters of marriage are carried by Sevvai, wherever Sevvai happens to sit. That idea of a sign lord carrying its sign’s matters around the chart comes up again in every later lesson.
Three kinds and four elements
The signs come in a repeating pattern. Mesham, Kadagam, Thulam and Magaram are movable signs, quick to begin. Rishabam, Simmam, Viruchigam and Kumbam are fixed signs, steady and slow to change; they are steady in the way a marriage is meant to be, though the wedding lagnas the almanacs name are Mithunam, Kanni and Thulam. Mithunam, Kanni, Dhanusu and Meenam are dual signs, adaptable and in between. Laid over that is a second pattern of four elements: fire for Mesham, Simmam and Dhanusu, earth for Rishabam, Kanni and Magaram, air for Mithunam, Thulam and Kumbam, and water for Kadagam, Viruchigam and Meenam.
The Sun’s rasi names the Tamil month
The Sun spends about a month in each rasi, and the Tamil calendar names its months by it. begins when the Sun enters Mesham, which is why falls on or about 14 April; begins when it enters Magaram, which is Pongal. The day the Sun crosses into a new rasi is a .
A rasi describes a leaning, not a destiny. Kadagam is read as home-loving and protective, Kumbam as independent, but the rest of the chart decides how much of that shows in a person.
Check yourself
3. The 27 nakshatras and their padas
The same circle cut finer: twenty-seven stars of 13°20′, each in four quarters.
The twelve rasis are a coarse division of the sky. The older, finer one is the : twenty-seven stars, each covering 13 degrees 20 minutes. The Moon moves about 13 degrees a day, so it passes through roughly one star a day and round all twenty-seven in a month. That is why the star is the Moon’s calendar, and why the birth star, the the Moon was in at birth, is the first thing a Tamil family writes on a horoscope.
The stars run from at the start of Mesham to at the end of Meenam. In between come names every family knows: , , , , , , , , , , and the rest. Several are also festival days, because a festival fixed by a star falls on the day that star is running at sunrise.
Padas: the quarters
Each star is cut into four of 3 degrees 20 minutes. Twenty-seven stars times four gives 108 padas, and 108 divided by the twelve rasis is exactly nine, so each rasi holds nine padas, two and a quarter stars. The diagram shows Mesham: all four padas of Aswini, all four of and the first pada of . Karthigai’s other three padas are in Rishabam.
That is why some stars belong to two rasis. Karthigai, , , , , , , and each straddle a sign boundary, and for those stars the pada decides the rasi. A horoscope that gives the star without the rasi is incomplete for these nine.
What the pada is used for
The pada gives the first syllable of a child’s name in the custom. Poosam’s four padas give Hu, He, Ho and Da, so a child born in Poosam pada 1 is traditionally given a name beginning with Hu. The pada also gives the sign, the chart a later lesson calls the most important of the divisions.
Star lords
Each star has a lord, and the lords repeat in a fixed order of nine: , , , , , , , and . Aswini, Magam and Moolam belong to Ketu; Bharani, and to Sukran; and so on round the circle three times. The lord of the birth star decides which a life begins in, which is the subject of lesson 8.
The star in matching
Each star also carries a temperament group, the , an animal, the , a body group, the , and a . These are the raw material of , the Tamil matching of two stars. Poosam, for instance, is Deva gana, a male sheep, Uru rajju and Madhya nadi. None of these is a judgement of character; they are the almanac’s way of comparing two stars quickly.
Check yourself
4. The nine grahas and what each stands for
Seven planets you can see and two points you cannot, each carrying a set of life’s matters.
| Graha | Stands for | Own signs | Exalted in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Suriyan Sun | the self, the father, authority and health | Simmam | Mesham |
| Chandran Moon | the mind, the mother, feeling and the home | Kadagam | Rishabam |
| Sevvai Mars | energy, courage, siblings and land | Mesham, Viruchigam | Magaram |
| Budhan Mercury | speech, learning, trade and reasoning | Mithunam, Kanni | Kanni |
| Guru Jupiter | wisdom, children, wealth and the teacher | Dhanusu, Meenam | Kadagam |
| Sukran Venus | marriage, comfort, art and pleasure | Rishabam, Thulam | Meenam |
| Sani Saturn | discipline, work, delay and long life | Magaram, Kumbam | Thulam |
| Rahu Rahu | ambition, the foreign and the unfamiliar | none | Rishabam |
| Ketu Ketu | detachment, insight and the spiritual | none | Viruchigam |
A is literally "one that grasps": a body that is held to take hold of a person’s life. There are nine, the . Seven are the lights and planets that can be seen: the Sun, the Moon, (Mars), (Mercury), (Jupiter), (Venus) and (Saturn). The other two, and , are not bodies at all but the two points where the Moon’s path crosses the Sun’s, always exactly opposite each other. Eclipses happen near them, which is how they came to be counted with the rest.
What each stands for
- Suriyan: the self, the father, authority and health.
- Chandran: the mind, the mother, feeling and the home.
- Sevvai: energy, courage, brothers and sisters, and land.
- Budhan: speech, learning, trade and reasoning.
- Guru: wisdom, children, wealth and the teacher.
- Sukran: marriage, comfort, art and pleasure.
- Sani: discipline, work, delay and long life.
- Rahu: ambition, the foreign and the unfamiliar.
- Ketu: detachment, insight and the spiritual.
These are what a graha "carries". When a reading says Guru is strong, it means the matters on Guru’s line are well supported in that chart; when Sani is running as the period lord, Sani’s matters come to the front.
Natural benefics and malefics
Guru, Sukran, a waxing Moon and a well-accompanied Budhan are the natural benefics, gentle by nature. Suriyan, Sevvai, Sani, Rahu and Ketu are the natural malefics, forceful by nature. The words are old and sound harsher than they are: a malefic in the right house does a great deal of good, Sani in particular rewarding patience, and a benefic badly placed can disappoint. The house a graha rules and the house it sits in matter as much as its nature.
Where a graha is strong
Each graha has a sign of , where it is at its best, and the opposite sign of , where it is weakest. The Sun is exalted in Mesham, the Moon in Rishabam, Sevvai in Magaram, Budhan in Kanni, Guru in Kadagam, Sukran in Meenam and Sani in Thulam. In between come its , a friend’s sign, a neutral one and an enemy’s, together called its . In the sample chart the Sun is exalted in Mesham and Sukran sits in its own Rishabam.
Two conditions change the picture. A graha close to the Sun is , lost in its glare and read as weakened. A planet that appears to move backwards for a few weeks is , marked R in the chart; Rahu and Ketu always move that way. Neither is a disaster, and the app notes both so the astrologer can weigh them.
Grahas look at houses
A graha affects the sign it sits in and also the signs it looks at, its . Every graha looks at the seventh sign from itself. Sevvai also looks at the fourth and eighth, Guru at the fifth and ninth, and Sani at the third and tenth. Guru’s aspect is the one families hope for: whatever it falls on is said to be protected.
Check yourself
5. The lagna and the twelve houses
The rising sign becomes the first house, and every area of life is counted from it.
Houses
The is the rasi rising on the eastern horizon at the moment of birth. It turns the chart from a picture of the sky into a picture of a life, because it fixes where the twelve houses begin. The lagna sign is the first house, the next sign the second, and so on round the circle. This is the whole-sign method used in the South and on this site: a graha’s house follows directly from its rasi.
Because the whole sky turns once a day, the lagna passes through all twelve signs every day. That makes it the most personal point in a chart. Twins born fifteen minutes apart can share a Moon star and still have different lagnas.
The twelve houses
- : the self, the body and character.
- : wealth, family and speech.
- : brothers and sisters, courage and effort.
- : the mother, the home, vehicles and schooling.
- : children, intelligence and the merit of the past.
- : health, work, debts and rivals.
- : marriage and the spouse.
- : longevity, obstacles and hidden matters.
- : the father, fortune and faith.
- : career and standing.
- : gains and friends.
- : expenses, rest and faraway places.
Groups of houses
The houses fall into families. The first, fourth, seventh and tenth are the , the pillars; a graha there acts strongly. The first, fifth and ninth are the , the houses of fortune, and their lords are the chart’s natural helpers. The sixth, eighth and twelfth are the , the difficult houses, read with care rather than fear. A graha that owns both a kendra and a trikona is a for that lagna and does double good.
Lords carry houses around the chart
Every house has a lord, the ruler of its sign, and the lord carries that house’s matters wherever it sits. In the sample chart the lagna is . Counting on, the seventh sign is , so the seventh house, marriage, is ruled by , and Sevvai sits in , the twelfth house. An astrologer reads that as a link between marriage and the twelfth house’s matters: faraway places, expenses, and the private life. For this lagna owns the ninth and tenth houses, a trikona and a kendra, so Sani is the yogakaraka.
The Moon as a second lagna
Tamil practice reads the chart twice: once from the lagna and once from the Moon’s sign, the . The daily rasi readings and the transit readings are counted from the Moon, and when the birth time is not known the Moon’s sign is the only first house there is. The two readings are compared: a matter supported from both is held to be firmer.
The in the diagram makes the houses easy to see, because it keeps them in fixed places and moves the signs instead. House one is always the top diamond; the numbers written inside are the rasis, counted from Mesham as 1.
Check yourself
6. The panchangam’s five limbs, and how a Tamil day is read
Tithi, vara, nakshatra, yoga and karana: five facts about the day, all read at sunrise.
Tithi, vara, nakshatra, yoga and karana for today — with the hour each one gives way to the next — are worked out on this device for the place the panchangam page was last set to, and appear as this page opens.
The is the almanac, and its name means five limbs. Every day is described by five facts, each read at local , and each running until a clock time the almanac prints beside it. A Tamil day begins at sunrise, not at midnight, so a limb that changes at 02:00 belongs to the day that began the previous morning.
1. Tithi, the lunar day
A is each 12 degrees the Moon gains on the Sun. Thirty fill a lunar month. The first fifteen, from new moon to full, are the bright fortnight, or valarpirai; the next fifteen are the dark fortnight, or theipirai. The fifteenth of the bright half is , the full moon, and the last of the dark half is , the new moon. , the eleventh, is the fasting day. A tithi can be shorter or longer than a day, so now and then one begins and ends between two sunrises and is never named at dawn.
2. Vara, the weekday
The is the weekday, counted from sunrise. Each is ruled by a graha: Sunday by the Sun, Monday the Moon, Tuesday , Wednesday , Thursday , Friday , Saturday . That is why Tuesday is Sevvai-kizhamai in Tamil.
3. Nakshatra, the Moon’s star
The of the day is the star the Moon is in, the same twenty-seven as the birth stars. When a festival is fixed by a star, like Deepam or Thiruvonam, it falls on the day that star holds at sunrise.
4. Yoga, the joint position
The panchangam’s adds the Sun’s and Moon’s positions together and cuts the total into twenty-seven parts, from to . Most are good; a few, like and Vaidhriti, are avoided for beginnings. It has nothing to do with the yogas in a horoscope, which share the word.
5. Karana, half a tithi
A is half a tithi. Seven movable names cycle through the month and four fixed ones sit at the new moon. The one to know is , also called Bhadra: a wedding day loses points when it is running at sunrise.
Reading the day
A Tamil almanac heads each day with the Tamil date first: the month, named by the Sun’s , and the day of that month, then the from the sixty-year cycle. Then come the five limbs with their ending times, then the day’s good and bad hours, which the next lesson covers. A typical line reads: the weekday, "Shukla Trayodasi until 14:20, then Chaturdasi", "Sadayam until 09:05, then Poorattathi", the yoga, the karana. The words "until" and "then" matter: most days hold two tithis and two stars, and the one running at the moment of an event is the one that counts for it.
The times depend on where you are. Sunrise in Chennai is several minutes earlier than in Coimbatore, so the limbs are read at a different moment, and a star ending near dawn can be the day’s star in one town and not in the other. The panchangam page computes everything for the place you enter for that reason.
Check yourself
7. Good and bad hours: Rahu kaal, Gowri and Nalla neram
The daylight is cut into equal parts, and each weekday gives certain parts to certain names.
Today’s daylight, cut into the eight equal parts that fix Rahu kaal, Yamaganda and Gulika kaal, is worked out on this device for the place the panchangam page was last set to, and appears as this page opens.
Beyond the five limbs, an almanac prints the hours of the day to use and to avoid. None of them is a fixed clock time. Each is a fraction of the actual daylight at your place, from to , so they stretch in summer, shrink in winter and move from town to town.
Rahu kaal, Yamaganda and Gulika
Cut the daylight into eight equal parts, each about ninety minutes on an equinox day. takes one of those parts, a different one each weekday: the eighth on Sunday, the second on Monday, the seventh on Tuesday, the fifth on Wednesday, the sixth on Thursday, the fourth on Friday and the third on Saturday. With a 06:00 sunrise that puts Rahu kaal at 07:30 to 09:00 on a Monday and 16:30 to 18:00 on a Sunday. Families avoid starting anything in it: a journey, a purchase, a signature, a first visit.
and are two more eighths chosen the same way, and both are avoided for beginnings too. Gulika is the part of Sani’s son, and its rule is the simplest: the seventh part on Sunday, one part earlier each day, the first part on Saturday. The three never overlap on the same day.
Gowri panchangam
The Tamil cuts the day into eight parts as well, and the night into eight more, and gives every part one of eight names in a repeating cycle: , , , , , , and . Amirdha, Dhanam, Laabam, Sugam and Uthi are good; Rogam (illness), Soram (theft) and Visham (poison) are avoided. Each weekday starts the cycle at a different name, which is why the table changes day by day.
Nalla neram
, "good time", is the window the almanac prints for a family in a hurry: one in the morning and one in the afternoon. On this site it is the first good Gowri part of each half of the day that does not touch Rahu kaal, Yamaganda or Gulika, capped at ninety minutes. Almanacs differ a little in how they pick it, so a printed one may not agree to the minute.
Abhijit and the other windows
is the auspicious around noon, the eighth of the fifteen equal parts of the daylight, straddling the moment the Sun crosses the meridian. It is the standing fallback for a beginning when nothing better is free. The gives each of the twenty-four hours from sunrise to a graha, the first to the weekday’s lord; Chandran, Budhan, Guru and Sukran hours are good. Telugu and Kannada almanacs add and to avoid and to use.
North India reads the same idea as the : eight parts of the day and eight of the night named , , and for good, , and to avoid.
These hours are a first filter for everyday things. A wedding or a house-warming wants a proper , which weighs the whole day and not just an hour.
Check yourself
8. The Vimshottari dasha, and how to read "running Budhan"
A life divided into nine planetary periods, started by the birth star and laid end to end.
Today Budhan – Rahu until 2027-05-01 · Budhan dasha ends 2032-04-15, then Ketu
Hover or tap a period to read its dates.
A birth chart stays the same for life, yet life does not feel the same from one decade to the next. The system explains the change: at any moment one graha is in charge, and its matters come to the front. The system used everywhere in the South is , "of 120", because its nine periods add up to 120 years.
The nine periods
The periods always run in the same order and with the same lengths: 7 years, 20, 6, 10, 7, 18, 16, 19 and 17. After Budhan the cycle returns to Ketu. Each of these is a , a main period.
Where a life starts
The birth star decides the first period. Each star has a lord, in the same order: Aswini is Ketu’s, Bharani Sukran’s, Karthigai Suriyan’s, and so on. The life begins in the mahadasha of the birth star’s lord. How much of that period is left depends on how far the Moon had already travelled through the star: a Moon at the very start of its star gets the whole period, a Moon near the end gets only the last part. What is left is the at birth, printed on every Tamil horoscope.
In the sample chart the Moon is in , whose lord is Sani, only a little way into the star. So the life begins with almost nineteen years of Sani, from 1996 to April 2015. Budhan follows for seventeen years, to April 2032, then Ketu, then Sukran.
Bhuktis inside the periods
Each mahadasha is cut into nine , also called antardashas, in the same order, starting with the mahadasha’s own lord. Each bhukti is as long as its share of the 120 years: Rahu’s bhukti inside Budhan’s mahadasha lasts 17 times 18 divided by 120 years, about two and a half years. A third level, the , cuts each bhukti again and is used for timing within a year.
Reading "running Budhan"
When an astrologer says someone is "running Budhan", it means the Budhan mahadasha is on. "Budhan dasha, Rahu bhukti" narrows it to the sub-period. In the sample chart the Budhan mahadasha runs from April 2015 to April 2032. Inside it the Rahu bhukti runs from October 2024 to the end of April 2027, and for those years the sample is exactly that, "Budhan dasha, Rahu bhukti"; the Guru bhukti follows to August 2029 and the Sani bhukti closes the period in 2032. The dasha bar in the diagram draws the whole life with the period running on the day you read it outlined, and its bhuktis opened out underneath.
A period is not good or bad by itself. A Budhan period brings Budhan’s matters, learning, trade, writing and dealings with people, to the front, and how they go depends on Budhan in that chart: its sign, its house, the houses it rules and who aspects it. Sani’s long period is feared by habit, yet for a chart where Sani is the it is often the best stretch of the life.
The join between two mahadashas, the , is read as a time of change. When both partners in a proposed match are near such a join together, the porutham page flags it.
Check yourself
9. Transits, and Sade sati in plain words
Where the planets are today, counted from your birth Moon.
- Mithunam 12th from the Moon Rising expenses and unsettledness
- Kadagam 1st from the Moon Peak the heaviest stretch, on the Moon itself
- Simmam 2nd from the Moon Setting the load eases; care with money and speech
The birth chart is fixed, but the planets keep moving. Where they are today, read against the birth chart, is , transit. In the Tamil way transits are counted from the Moon’s rasi: a planet today in the sign after your rasi is "in the second from the Moon", and so on. That is how a weekly or a yearly rasi palan is written, one reading per rasi, and why two people with the same rasi get the same forecast.
Which transits matter
The fast bodies matter little on their own: the Moon changes sign every two and a quarter days and the Sun once a month. The slow ones colour whole years. moves one sign in about a year, and its move, , is read for every rasi; the second, fifth, seventh, ninth and eleventh from the Moon are the favourable places for it. moves one sign in about two and a half years, , and is favourable in the third, sixth and eleventh. and change signs every eighteen months or so, always moving backwards.
Sade sati
, "seven and a half", is the stretch when Sani transits the twelfth sign from the birth Moon, then the Moon’s own sign, then the second. Two and a half years in each makes seven and a half. Sani takes about thirty years to go round the zodiac, so most people meet Sade sati two or three times in a life.
Its three phases are read differently. The , in the twelfth, is read as a time of expenses and unsettledness. The , Sani on the Moon itself, is the heaviest: the mind feels the load. The , in the second, is read as the load easing, with care needed over money and speech.
What it means in plain words
Sani stands for discipline, work and time, so Sade sati is read as a period of responsibility and slowing down, when things take longer than planned and shortcuts do not work. It is not a sentence of misfortune. Many people finish a degree, build a house or settle into a career in Sade sati, precisely because Sani rewards steady effort. How much it is felt depends on the whole chart: where Sani sits at birth, the running dasha and the points of the signs it crosses.
For the sample chart, with the Moon in , Sade sati runs while Sani crosses , Kadagam and . The diagram shows the three signs with their phases.
Two smaller Sani transits
Sani in the eighth from the Moon is , about two and a half years read for obstacles and care with health. Sani in the fourth is , read for unease at home. And once a month the Moon itself passes through the eighth sign from your rasi for about two and a quarter days, the , when families avoid starting anything important.
Check yourself
10. Porutham: what the ten matches check
Ten comparisons of two birth stars, each graded full, partial or none.
| Porutham | What it checks | Poosam groom, Rohini bride |
|---|---|---|
| Dina | Health, well-being and prosperity of the couple | Does not match |
| Gana | Temperament: whether the two natures get along | Matches |
| Mahendra | Children and growth of the family | Does not match |
| Stree Deergha | The wife’s long life and the marriage lasting | Does not match |
| Yoni | Physical and intimate compatibility | Matches |
| Rasi | Emotional harmony between the two | Partial |
| Rasi Adhipathi | Friendship between the two ruling planets | Does not match |
| Vasya | Mutual attraction and influence | Matches |
| Rajju | Long life of the couple. The most important check | Matches |
| Vedha | No mutual affliction between the two stars | Matches |
When a Tamil family looks at a proposal, the first thing it asks for is the : ten comparisons between the bride’s birth star and rasi and the groom’s. Most rest on a single count: walk forward from the bride’s star to the groom’s, counting both ends, which gives a number from 1 to 27. Each check is graded , a full match, , a partial one, or , no match.
The ten
- : the count from the bride’s star to the groom’s; 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13, 15, 18, 20, 24 and 26 match. Read for health and prosperity.
- : the temperament groups, Deva, Manushya and Rakshasa. The same group matches.
- : a count of 4, 7, 10 and every third after. Read for children.
- : the groom’s star well ahead of the bride’s. Read for the marriage lasting.
- : each star’s animal, compared in a table. Read for physical compatibility.
- : the groom’s rasi the seventh or later from the bride’s. Read for emotional harmony.
- : whether the two rasi lords are friends.
- : whether either rasi is drawn to the other. Read for mutual attraction.
- : the stars grouped by body part, head to foot; the two must differ. Read for the couple’s long life.
- : thirteen pairs of stars that obstruct each other; the two must not be such a pair.
Two that can end the reading
Rajju and Vedha are treated differently from the rest. If either fails, the verdict is "not recommended" whatever the other nine say, because that is how the tradition reads them. Rajju in particular is the first thing many astrologers check: two stars in the same group is the strongest objection in Tamil matching.
Adding it up
A full match scores 1, a partial one half, and none zero, so the total runs from 0 to 10. Eight or more is excellent, six or more good, five borderline and worth a conversation with the family astrologer, and below five poor. Take the pair of stars the app starts with, a groom and a bride: Rajju and Vedha clear, but the score is only 4, a poor match on stars alone.
Stars are only the start
The ten poruthams use the birth star and rasi and nothing else, so they can be checked from a star written on a piece of paper. A full reading also looks at both charts: on each side, , the weighing of the malefics, and . The porutham page does both when both birth details are given.
The North Indian is a different system of eight checks out of 36 points, shown beside the Tamil reading as a second opinion. Its check, worth 8 points, is read in the North the way Rajju is read in the South.
A porutham is a first filter, not the whole decision. Families weigh it together with everything else they know about the two people, and a borderline score is a reason to look at the full charts rather than to stop.
Check yourself
11. Doshams, without fear: Sevvai and Kala sarpa
What the two doshams families ask about actually are, how often they occur, and what cancels them.
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- 12Sevvai
A is a placement the tradition marks for attention. The word sounds alarming, and a great deal of worry has come from it. It helps to know exactly what each dosham is, how common it is, and what the texts themselves say cancels it.
Sevvai dosham
looks at where sits, counted from three points: the , the Moon and . From each of them, the first, second, fourth, seventh, eighth and twelfth houses are the dosha houses. Six houses out of twelve, from three separate starting points, means that a large share of all charts have Sevvai in a dosha house from at least one of them. It is not a rare mark, and on its own it says very little.
That is why the cancellations matter. The dosham is cancelled when Sevvai is exalted in or in its own or ; when it is with or in Guru’s signs; when it is with or ; and in five particular house-and-sign placements counted from the lagna. With no cancellation the app calls it strong; with at least one, mild.
In the sample chart Sevvai is in Mesham, the twelfth house from the lagna and from Sukran, so it is in a dosha house. But Mesham is Sevvai’s own sign, which cancels it: the dosham is mild.
How it is used
Sevvai dosham matters for matching, not for a person on their own. The rule is balance: neither partner having it is clear, and both having it is traditionally read as matched and acceptable. When only one has it, a mild dosham is usually accepted, and a strong one is where most astrologers want a remedy or will advise against the match. The porutham page reads it both ways, the South Indian set of houses and the North Indian set, which leaves out the second house.
Kala sarpa
is present when all seven grahas from the Sun to Sani lie on one side of the line from Rahu to . It is newer in the literature than Sevvai dosham and many astrologers do not use it at all. This site reports it because families ask, names the grahas that break the arc when it is absent, and does not use it as a matching rule. In the sample chart Guru in lies on the other side of the axis, so there is no Kala sarpa.
Remedies
Every dosham has traditional : a visit to a particular temple, a fast on the graha’s day, a , a to those in need. They are offered for devotion and for peace of mind. None of them is needed for a dosham that the placement has already cancelled, and none is a substitute for talking the match over as a family.
The honest summary is short. A dosham is one line in a long reading. Read it with its cancellations, read it against the other chart when it is about a marriage, and let the family astrologer weigh it with everything else.
Check yourself
12. Muhurtham: how a date is chosen
A good day is built up from the month, the weekday, the tithi, the star and the rising sign.
| Factor | Adds | Takes away |
|---|---|---|
| Tamil month | A wedding month +2 | Aadi, Purattasi or Margazhi rules the day out |
| Weekday | Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday +2 | Tuesday, Saturday −4 |
| Tithi at sunrise | A good tithi +2 | An avoided tithi −6 |
| Star at sunrise | One of the marriage stars +3 | One of the ten avoided stars −6 |
| Karana | nothing | Vishti at sunrise −4 |
| The couple | nothing | Chandrashtama for either rules the day out |
| The couple | nothing | Either one’s birth star −4 |
| Lagna windows | Each window of 45 minutes or more +1 | At most +2 in all |
A is a time chosen for a beginning, above all the wedding hour. Choosing one is not a single rule but a series of filters, each adding to or taking away from a day, until a handful of good days stand out in a month. This is how the muhurtham page grades every day in the range you give it, the way a Tamil almanac does.
The month
The Tamil month comes first. , and are not used for weddings at all, so any day in them is ruled out whatever else it has. The other nine, from to , are wedding months, and Thai, and are among the busiest.
The day itself
Then the day’s own limbs, read at sunrise. The weekday: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are good, Sunday acceptable, Tuesday and Saturday avoided. The : the second, third, fifth, seventh, tenth, eleventh, thirteenth and the full moon are good; the rest are avoided, among them the , the fourth, ninth and fourteenth, as well as the eighth and the new moon. The star: the eleven , among them , , and , add most, and ten stars are avoided. And the : at sunrise takes points away.
The couple
Two checks are personal. The day’s Moon must not be in the eighth sign from either partner’s rasi, the ; that is treated as ruling the day out. And the day’s star should not be either partner’s own birth star. That is why the page asks for both stars and rasis: the best day for one couple can be a poor one for another.
The hour
Within a good day the ceremony needs a good hour. The page walks the rising sign through the daylight and keeps the stretches where a fixed sign, , , or , or a dual sign is rising, then cuts out , and . What is left, if it is at least 45 minutes long, is a . A window that includes is marked.
The grade
Every factor adds or subtracts points: a wedding month adds 2, a good weekday 2, a good tithi 2, a marriage star 3, and each usable lagna window 1, up to 2. An avoided tithi or star takes away 6, Vishti 4, an avoided weekday 4. Seven or more is excellent, four good, one fair, and anything below that, or any day with a ruled-out month or a chandrashtama, is one to avoid.
The grade is a starting list, not the final word. Families then weigh what the almanac cannot: the hall, the travel for relatives, the priest’s own calendar, and the family astrologer’s reading of the couple’s charts. The same filters, with different stars and lagnas, serve a , a , a new business or a journey, and the page lets you switch between them.
Check yourself
13. Vargas, and why the navamsa matters
Each sign cut into smaller parts, and each set of parts read as a chart of its own.
Rasi
Navamsa
The places each graha in one of twelve signs. The divisional charts, the , look closer. Each sign is cut into a number of equal parts, each part is given a sign by a fixed rule, and those signs are laid out as a new chart. Parashara lists sixteen of them. The rasi chart is said to show what a life promises; the vargas show how much of each promise ripens.
The navamsa
The most used is the , the ninth division, D9. Each sign is cut into nine parts of 3 degrees 20 minutes. That is exactly the size of a , so the navamsa is really the pada made into a chart: the 108 padas of the zodiac map onto the twelve signs nine times over. pada 1 is navamsa, pada 2 is , and so on.
Tamil astrologers read the navamsa in two ways. First, as the chart of marriage: the seventh house of the navamsa and the state of in it are read for the spouse and the married life. Second, as a check on strength. A graha that looks strong in the rasi chart but falls into its sign of weakness in the navamsa is read as promising more than it gives; one that is weak in the rasi but strong in the navamsa is read as improving with time.
A graha in the same sign in both charts is , and is read as one whose promise holds. In the sample chart, compare the two diagrams: where a graha sits in the same sign in both, it is vargottama.
The other divisions
- D2, the hora: wealth.
- D3, the drekkana: brothers and sisters, courage.
- D7, the saptamsa: children.
- D10, the dasamsa: career and standing.
- D12, the dwadasamsa: parents.
- D30, the trimsamsa: misfortunes and how they are met.
- D60, the shashtiamsa: the finest of all, used to separate twins.
Each is read for its own matter, and the adds up a graha’s dignity across a set of them into one score out of 20.
Why the birth time matters even more
The finer the division, the faster it changes. The rasi lagna changes about every two hours; the navamsa lagna, a ninth of a sign, changes about every thirteen minutes; the D60 lagna every two minutes. A birth time rounded to the nearest half hour is enough for the rasi chart and the Moon’s star, but not for the navamsa lagna. The divisional charts of a chart without a firm time are best treated as tentative. The grahas’ own navamsa signs are safer, because the planets move far more slowly than the lagna; only the Moon, which crosses a navamsa in about six hours, needs care.
On this site the jathagam page opens the divisional charts on the navamsa and lets you step through the rest.
Check yourself
14. How to read this app’s jathagam page, top to bottom
A map of the page, in the order it is printed, with what to look at first on each sheet.
- Birth detailsName, date, time and place. Pick a saved person or type a town; the time zone follows the date.
- Charts and placementsThe rasi chart, the grahas with their signs, stars and houses, the panchangam at birth, the running dasha and the dosham checks.
- Divisional chartsThe navamsa first, then any varga you pick, with vargottama and Vimshopaka bala.
- Graha strengths and ShadbalaDignity, combustion, retrogression and aspects; then the six-fold strength against each graha’s minimum.
- The twelve houses and functional lordsEach house with its sign, lord, occupants and aspects; which grahas help or hinder this lagna.
- Yogas and doshamsEvery combination the chart forms, each with the rule and the placement that made it.
- AshtakavargaThe points each sign collects, which say how well a transit through it is carried.
- Dasha in detail and Gochara todayThe bhuktis from today onward; where Guru, Sani and Rahu are transiting from the Moon, with the Sade sati periods.
- Traditional readings, dasha emphasis and marriage timingWhat the texts say about the placements, what each coming bhukti emphasises, and the periods classically linked with marriage.
- Parihaaram and NamakaranaThe traditional remedies the chart calls on, and the naming syllables of the birth star.
The jathagam page is long, because it prints everything the engine knows about one chart. It is built to be read from the top, and most families need only the first two sheets. This lesson walks it in order, using the sample chart from lesson 1.
Birth details
The page opens on the form. Pick a saved person, or type the date, the time and the town; the latitude, longitude and time zone fill in from the town. If the time is not known, tick the box, and the page will say which parts of the reading need it.
Charts and placements
This sheet is the horoscope proper. The is drawn South or North Indian, as your settings say. Beside it the grahas are listed with their , , and house, and an R for . Under that come the at birth, the running with the , and the checks. For the sample chart: lagna, Moon in pada 1 in , running , and a mild . Those four facts are what a family usually wants first.
Divisional charts
The opens by default; a selector steps through the other . Look for grahas and for any graha that changes from strong to weak between the two charts.
Strength
"Graha strengths" gives each graha’s , whether it is , and which houses it aspects. "" then measures six kinds of strength in rupas against a minimum set for each graha; a bar past its mark means the graha can deliver what its placement promises.
Houses and lords
The twelve houses are listed with their sign, lord, where the lord sits, occupants and aspects. "Functional lords" names the , and lords for this lagna and any , which for Rishabam is .
Yogas, ashtakavarga and timing
"Yogas and doshams" lists every combination with the rule it satisfies. The grid shows the each sign collects; a transit through a sign with many is carried better. "Dasha in detail" lists the from today, and "Gochara today" shows the slow transits from the Moon with the periods of the whole life.
Readings and remedies
Near the end come the traditional readings, what each coming bhukti emphasises, the periods classically linked with marriage, the the chart calls on, and the syllables of the birth star. These are the texts’ general statements, useful as a conversation with the astrologer rather than as a verdict.
Every sheet has a small # beside its title that copies a link straight to it, so a family member can be sent to the exact section being discussed.
Check yourself
The lessons describe the rules as this site applies them, in the Tamil tradition, and say where the North differs. Traditions vary in good faith from family to family and from almanac to almanac; the method page sets out every rule exactly, and the family astrologer has the last word on any decision.