The jyotish glossary 📖
Every term you'll meet in a ShubhLekha report, tool or panchang — defined plainly, with the Hindi term alongside. Jyotish isn't mysterious once the words are; and a term you understand is a term nobody can frighten you with.
The chart itself · Timing — dashas and transits · The panchang — the daily almanac · Matching — milan and doshas · Remedies and practice
The chart itself
- Kundli · कुंडली
- The birth chart — a map of where the nine grahas stood in the twelve rashis at your exact birth moment and place. Everything else in jyotish reads from it.
- Lagna · लग्न
- The ascendant — the rashi rising on the eastern horizon at birth. It fixes the twelve houses and is the chart's 'you' point.
- Rashi · राशि
- A sidereal zodiac sign, 30° of the ecliptic. 'Your rashi' usually means your Moon sign (janma rashi) in Indian usage — not the Sun sign of Western columns.
- Graha · ग्रह
- A 'planet' in the jyotish sense: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, plus the nodes Rahu and Ketu. Nine in all — the navagraha.
- Bhava (house) · भाव
- One of twelve life-areas counted from the lagna — self, wealth, siblings, home, children, service, partnership and so on. A graha 'in the 10th house' colours career themes.
- Nakshatra · नक्षत्र
- One of 27 lunar mansions, each 13°20′ of the zodiac. Your janma nakshatra is the one holding your Moon — the basis of naming syllables, dasha and tara-bala.
- Pada · पद
- A quarter of a nakshatra (3°20′). Naming tradition assigns each pada its own starting syllable (see avakahada).
- Varga · वर्ग
- Any divisional chart (D1 main, D9 navamsa, D10 career, D60…). Finer slices of the same sky, each with a classical domain.
- Ayanamsa · अयनांश
- The offset between the tropical and sidereal zodiacs. ShubhLekha uses Lahiri, the Indian standard — why your 'sign' here can differ from a Western horoscope.
Timing — dashas and transits
- Dasha · दशा
- A planetary period system. Vimshottari — the standard — allots each graha a span in a 120-year cycle seeded by your janma nakshatra; the running lord colours the era.
- Mahadasha · महादशा
- The major period (6–20 years by planet). 'Shani mahadasha' means Saturn currently governs the chapter of life.
- Antardasha · अंतर्दशा
- The sub-period inside a mahadasha — months to a few years. Most 'why is this year like this' questions are antardasha questions.
- Dasha-sandhi · दशा-संधि
- The junction where one period hands over to the next — classically a take-stock, go-gently window, not a danger zone.
- Gochar (transit) · गोचर
- Where the grahas are moving now, read against your birth chart — usually counted from your Moon sign.
- Sade Sati · साढ़े साती
- Saturn's ~7½-year transit across the 12th, 1st and 2nd signs from your natal Moon, in three phases. The most fear-marketed transit in astrology; the classical reading is a maturing period, not a curse.
- Shani Dhaiya · शनि ढैया
- Saturn transiting the 4th or 8th from your Moon (~2½ years) — the 'small panoti'. The 8th passage is Ashtama Shani.
- Chandra-bala · चंद्र-बल
- Day quality from where the transiting Moon stands counted from your natal Moon — houses 1, 3, 6, 7, 10, 11 are supportive. Changes every 2–3 days.
- Tara-bala · तारा-बल
- Day quality from counting the day's nakshatra from your janma nakshatra in cycles of nine — Sampat, Kshema, Sadhana, Mitra and Parama Mitra support action.
- Varshphal · वर्षफल
- The solar-return ('year-ahead') reading — the year opening at each birthday, mapped month by month.
The panchang — the daily almanac
- Panchang · पंचांग
- The five-limbed almanac of a day: tithi, vara, nakshatra, yoga and karana. The engine computes all five for any place and moment.
- Tithi · तिथि
- A lunar day — 1/30th of the Moon's cycle relative to the Sun. Festivals and vrats are fixed by tithi, which is why their civil dates move each year.
- Paksha · पक्ष
- The lunar fortnight: Shukla (waxing, toward Purnima) and Krishna (waning, toward Amavasya).
- Vara · वार
- The weekday, each ruled by a graha — Somvar/Moon, Mangalvar/Mars, Shanivar/Saturn and so on. The base of weekday vrats and remedy days.
- Yoga (panchang) · योग
- One of 27 Sun–Moon combinations of the day — distinct from chart yogas below.
- Karana · करण
- Half a tithi; eleven repeat through the month. A finer screening layer in muhurta.
- Rahu kaal · राहु काल
- The daily ~90-minute segment tradition avoids for new beginnings. Its clock time depends on local sunrise/sunset — city-specific by construction.
- Abhijit muhurat · अभिजीत मुहूर्त
- The midday auspicious window (~48 minutes around local solar noon) — the classic 'safe slot' when nothing better is available.
- Choghadiya · चौघड़िया
- Eight day + eight night segments, each ruled by a graha and graded (Amrit, Shubh, Labh, Char are favourable; Rog, Kaal, Udveg are avoided). Popular for travel and trade timing.
- Muhurat · मुहूर्त
- An elected auspicious window for an activity — screening tithi, vara, nakshatra (and more) for the deed. Electional astrology, as against reading a birth chart.
- Ekadashi · एकादशी
- The 11th tithi of each paksha — the Vishnu fasting day, twice a lunar month. The most widely kept vrat in India.
- Vrat · व्रत
- A vow-based observance — commonly a fast tied to a tithi or vara, kept willingly and excused freely for the unwell and travelling.
Matching — milan and doshas
- Kundli milan · कुंडली मिलान
- Compatibility matching of two charts for marriage — classically the Ashtakoota 36-guna count from the two Moons.
- Ashtakoota · अष्टकूट
- The eight kootas (Varna, Vashya, Tara, Yoni, Graha Maitri, Gana, Bhakoot, Nadi) summing to 36 gunas. 18+ is the traditional minimum.
- Guna · गुण
- A compatibility point in milan — '24/36 gunas matched'.
- Nadi dosha · नाड़ी दोष
- Zero in the Nadi koota (same nadi). Carries the most points and the most fear — and has explicit classical cancellations (same rashi, different nakshatras, among others) that resolve it in many charts.
- Bhakoot dosha · भकूट दोष
- Zero in the Bhakoot koota from certain Moon-sign pairs; also softened by classical exceptions (e.g. sign-lord friendship).
- Manglik / Mangal dosha · मांगलिक
- Mars in certain houses from lagna or Moon (1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 12 by most traditions). Read only WITH its cancellations — age, placement, both-partners-manglik — which clear a large share of flagged charts.
- Dosha · दोष
- Any flagged affliction in a chart or match. House rule and classical rule alike: a dosha is named together with its softening — never left standing alone as fear.
- Yoga (chart) · योग
- A named planetary combination in a birth chart — Gajakesari, Budhaditya, Raja yogas and hundreds more. Combinations of promise, not guarantees.
Remedies and practice
- Upaya (remedy) · उपाय
- The classical response to a difficult indication: mantra, daan, vrat, discipline, or a gemstone — traditional, optional, and never something to fear-buy.
- Mantra japa · मंत्र जप
- Repetition of a graha's mantra, traditionally 108 times counted on a mala, often for 40 days (see sankalpa).
- Beej mantra · बीज मंत्र
- The seed-syllable mantra of a graha — e.g. 'Om Shram Shreem Shraum Sah Chandraya Namah' for the Moon.
- Daan · दान
- Charity as remedy — each graha has traditional items and a weekday. The giving is the practice; the amount is irrelevant.
- Sankalpa · संकल्प
- The stated intention that opens a vrat or remedy — naming the practice and its span (classically 40 unbroken days).
- Ratna (gemstone) · रत्न
- A graha's stone, worn to strengthen it — always chart-first (lagna lord, functional benefics), and never urgent: no classical text supports panic-buying a stone.
- Ishta devata · इष्ट देवता
- The personal deity indicated by the chart (via the Atmakaraka's Karakamsa in Jaimini method) — for one's own upasana.
- Kula devata · कुल देवता
- The family's hereditary deity — honoured alongside, not replaced by, the ishta devata.
Want the terms applied to your own chart? Start with the free kundli, or read the plain-language guides. Methodology and sources are on the methodology page.