Lagna
लग्न
Ascendant: the sign rising on the eastern horizon at birth.
Definition
Lagna ('that which is attached') is the point of the zodiac rising on the eastern horizon at the moment and place of birth, and the sign containing it becomes the first house. Because it moves through all twelve signs in about a day, it individualises the chart more than any graha position. Besides the udaya lagna, the texts use other reference points as lagnas, such as the Candra lagna, Sūrya lagna, Horā and Ghaṭī lagnas, and Jaimini's Ārūḍha lagna, a theme taken up in the School's programme module on different Lagnas.
Articles that use this term
- SiddhantaExplainer
Sidereal and tropical: what the ayanamsa is, and why Lahiri
Two zodiacs, one sky. How the slow wobble of the Earth's axis separates them, and how India chose a standard in the 1950s.
7 min read · 12 October 2026
- Jyotish · HoraExplainer
The birth chart, house by house
What a kundli is, how it is drawn in North and South Indian styles, and what each of the twelve houses is traditionally said to represent.
8 min read · 11 October 2026
- Jyotish · HoraExplainer
Houses and signs: the difference every beginner misses
Twelve signs, twelve houses, and why they are not the same twelve. A plain explanation of the two frames in every kundli.
7 min read · 9 October 2026
- Jyotish · HoraExplainer
Transits (gochar) and what Sade Sati is
How the tradition reads the present sky against the birth chart, and a calm explanation of the seven and a half years of Saturn.
7 min read · 7 October 2026
- Panchanga
Muhurta: choosing a time, the Kalpa way
From the ritual sutras to the Muhurta Chintamani: how the tradition thinks about doing an act at a fitting moment.
7 min read · 5 October 2026
- Jyotish · Hora
Space and Time: the two components of prediction
How the classical tradition separates what a chart shows from when it is said to unfold, and why that framework organises everything a student learns.
8 min read · 4 October 2026
- PanchangaExplainer
Why Diwali's date moves every year
Diwali is fixed by the Moon, not the Sun: by the new Moon that closes Ashwina, by the evening it covers, and by the Lakshmi Puja window inside that evening.
7 min read · 3 October 2026
- Jyotish · Hora
South, North and East Indian charts: one sky, three drawings
The three regional ways of drawing a birth chart hold the same information. How each is laid out, how to convert between them, and what each makes easy to see.
8 min read · 22 September 2026