VedaExplainer
What the Vedic sciences are, and how they connect
A map of India's classical knowledge traditions, from the Vedas through the six Vedangas to the applied sciences, and where Jyotish sits among them.
7 min read · 17 October 2026
The knowledge hub of the School
Shunya शून्य
Śūnya, zero, is one of India’s gifts to the world: a sign for nothing that made place-value arithmetic possible. Shunya is the knowledge hub of the School of Vedic Sciences, where the School publishes what it studies: plain-language articles, dated research notes with their method, a bilingual glossary and a library of the classical texts.
Or ask the School a question →
25 articles · 3 findings · 150 glossary terms · 16 texts
The map of the sciences
How the Vedic sciences connect
From the Veda to its six limbs, its applied sciences and its schools of thought. Choose any branch to see what it studies, the tools that use it, what to read and where the School teaches it.
Reading
From the hub
Ganita
Shunya: how India gave the world zero, and why it matters to Jyotish
Zero as a placeholder, zero as a number, and the astronomers who needed both to compute the sky.
7 min read · 16 October 2026
PanchangaExplainer
How to read a panchang
The five limbs of the Indian almanac, what each one measures, and how to make sense of a printed page.
7 min read · 15 October 2026
Research notes
Latest findings
Dated notes from the School’s research, each with its method and a statement on the data it used.
FSVS-F-2026-003
17 October 2026
Reading an old handwritten kundli: a method
Many families keep handwritten janma-patrikas, often decades old, in Sanskrit or a regional language with time stated in ghatis from sunrise. We propose a step-by-step method for transcribing such a document, recovering the birth data it encodes and checking its internal consistency without altering the original.
FSVS-F-2026-002
17 October 2026
Kshaya and vriddhi tithis across a decade
Because a tithi can be shorter or longer than a civil day, some tithis never touch a sunrise (kshaya, 'lost') and others touch two (vriddhi, 'increased'). We describe how to count them over ten years for one location and what pattern the astronomy leads us to expect.
FSVS-F-2026-001
17 October 2026
How five published almanacs differ on tithi end times, and why
Printed panchangas for the same city and date can disagree on when a tithi ends by a few minutes or, occasionally, by much more. We set out a method for comparing five almanacs side by side and attributing each difference to a cause: computational basis, location, time convention or printing.
Glossary
Words you will meet
Sanskrit terms in IAST and Devanagari, each with a short gloss and a fuller definition.
- Kalpaकल्प
- Vedāṅga of ritual procedure: śrauta, gṛhya, dharma and śulba sūtras.
- Kanyāकन्या
- Virgo: sixth sign, earthy and dual, ruled by Mercury.
- Kapha (Śleṣman)कफ
- The doṣa of structure and cohesion, formed of water and earth.
- Kārakaकारक
- Significator: a graha that signifies a person or theme.
- Karaṇaकरण
- Half a tithi; eleven karaṇas, four fixed and seven movable.
- Karka (Karkaṭa)कर्क
- Cancer: fourth sign, watery and movable, ruled by the Moon.
- Karma bhāvaकर्मभाव
- Tenth house: action, profession, status and public life.
- Kendraकेन्द्र
- Angular houses 1, 4, 7 and 10; the chart's pillars.
Library
The classical texts
What each text is, who wrote it and when, how it is arranged, and where to read it.
- Bṛhat Pārāśara Horāśāstraबृहत्पाराशरहोराशास्त्रAttributed to the sage Parashara · Compiled form of uncertain date; the printed text is generally regarded as late medieval (dating debated) · Hora
- Bṛhajjātakaबृहज्जातकVarahamihira · 6th century CE · Hora
- PhaladīpikāफलदीपिकाMantreshvara · Medieval South India; dates proposed range from the 13th to the 16th century (dating debated) · Hora
- SārāvalīसारावलीKalyanavarma · Around the 9th–10th century CE (dating debated) · Hora
- JātakapārijātaजातकपारिजातVaidyanatha Dikshita · Around the 15th century CE (dating debated) · Hora