Kundli, also known as the birth chart or horoscope, is an astrological diagram which is used for evaluating one's future and giving out predictions. One's date of birth, time, and place is required to create a kundli. An expert astrologer takes into account the birth details, placement and state of planets and zodiac signs in one's kundali for giving out predictions. This chart depicts planetary angles and astrological positions at the time of native's birth, which is further calculated to analyse several aspects of life. In Vedic Astrology, a kundli holds the key to your past, present, and future, and can be evaluated to understand your physical traits, emotional, mental, and spiritual predilections, your likes and dislikes, inclinations, and hobbies. Reading a kundali isn't as hard as it seems, as one only has to understand some vital aspects to go through several houses and planetary positions.

Importance of a Kundli or Birth Chart

Creating a kundli is an important task to carry out after a person is born. It helps one deal with several issues and obstacles in life, and holds remedies and solutions to various challenges. Let's read its importance and how it plays an unparalleled role when predicting the future:

1. A kundali can be used for marriage matching purposes by matching the horoscopes of the bride and groom. In Hinduism, no auspicious event related to marriage takes place before matching the kundlis and calculating the gunas. Also, it reveals about one's marital life, spouse, the understanding you both share with each other, and possible troubles which can take place.
2. One's kundali or birth chart maps the challenges, obstacles, opportunities, and much more for their lifetime. It reveals what kind of challenges are waiting in their way, and how to deal with the darkest times.
3. It guides you through your traits, characteristics, shortcomings, and prowess, which makes up your whole personality and reveals your true self.
4. You can analyse the kundli to predict about your professional life, business ventures, finances, wealth and investment and know how favourable or unfavourable circumstances will be while making economic decisions.
5. A kundali points out the preferable career choices one can make for a fruitful and prosperous future. It decodes the kind of career which will suit your efforts and intellect.
6. A birth chart informs you about your academic life, creativity, enemies, diseases, and children. Know how successful your academic life will be, your status of opponents and enemies, health factor and much more.

How To Read Your Vedic Kundali?

Identify Your Rising Sign or Ascendant: In the kundli mentioned below, the first step is to identify the ascendant sign. The number mentioned in the first house represents the rising or ascendant sign of the native. The planets in one's kundali are denoted by numericals (1-12) and houses by roman numbers (I-XII). Hereby,

1. Aries is denoted by the number 1
2. Taurus is denoted by the number 2
3. Gemini is denoted by the number 3
4. Cancer is denoted by the number 4
5. Leo is denoted by the number 5
6. Virgo is denoted by the number 6
7. Libra is denoted by the number 7
8. Scorpio is denoted by the number 8
9. Sagittarius is denoted by the number 9
10. Capricorn is denoted by the number 10
11. Aquarius is denoted by the number 11
12. Pisces is denoted by the number 12

According to this kundli, the Ascendant or Rising sign is Aries, posited in the 1st house.

Understanding the Houses and their Significance: A kundali has 12 houses, which signify several aspects of the life of the native along with physical traits, interests, and features. Hence, any planet or sign posited in a house influences its factors and offers results accordingly. As mentioned above, the roman numerals denote the house number, and its factors are stated as follows:

1. First House: physical features and traits, self, characteristics, personality
2. Second House: wealth, primary knowledge, finances, family
3. Third house: communication, skills, hobbies, efforts, younger siblings
4. Fourth House: happiness, mother, secondary education, land, vehicle, property
5. Fifth House: higher education, creativity, wittiness, love and affair, progeny, past life experience
6. Sixth House: debt, profession, diseases, advocacy, enemies
7. Seventh House: marriage, spouse, long-term partnerships and relationships, import-export, public image
8. Eighth House: longevity, unexpected incidents, research
9. Ninth House: beliefs, higher learning, luck, mentor, father, religion, long distance travel
10. Tenth House: career, karma or actions, job, profession
11. Eleventh house: ambitions, income, gains, elder siblings
12. Twelfth House: expenditure

Identify The Nine Planets in Your Kundali: At the time of your birth, the kundali captures and offers a pictorial representation of the position of planets and constellations. Hence, when learning to read a kundli, one must understand the abbreviated form of planets mentioned in the chart and their significance.

In the kundali given above, the first house sees the placement of Cancer, number 4, along with Mercury (Me), Rahu (Ra), and Sun (Su). Therefore, it will chalk out the results accordingly. Below mentioned are the planets, their abbreviated form and Vedic significance:

1. Sun (Su): Ruler, source of energy and life, king of all planets, masculine in nature
2. Moon (Mo): Mind, inner self, feminine in nature, intellect, fertility, good memory
3. Mercury (Me): Speech, communication, calculative, witty, intellectual
4. Mars (Ma): Courage, passion, physical strength, short-tempered, argumentative, daring, signifies younger siblings
5. Venus (Ve): Materialistic pleasure, love, romance, beauty, music, marriage, friendship, art
6. Jupiter (Ju): Spirituality, higher education, research
7. Saturn (Sa): Land, property, secret, misfortune, hard work, sorrow, prestige, name and fame
8. Rahu (Ra): Foreigners, international travel, grandparents, theft, gambling, drinking, over-ambitious, undiagnosed health problems, loss of reputation-finance
9. Ketu (Ke): Grandparents, spiritual inclination, superstitions, electronics

Planetary Exaltation & Debilitation: After this, you must figure out which planet is in exaltation or debilitation. In astrology, Exaltation is a state when the influence of a planet posited in a particular sign elevates, i.e. both of their natural harmony syncs and the outcome tends to be favourable. Hence, in the below kundali, Sun is placed in Aries, number 1, and exalted.

On the other hand, the state of agitation formed for the planet when placed with any sign is known as Debilitation. Here, the influence of the planet weakens, and the effects can be unfavourable. Knowing this gives the native a chance to understand the planetary signs, their position, and overall impact on their kundli. Below is a table explaining the planets, their ruling, exalted and debilitated signs. According to the kundali mentioned below, the Moon is placed in Scorpio zodiac sign, number 8, and debilitated.

Following these steps, you can easily understand and read a kundli. Although there are various details needed to be kept in mind when evaluating a kundali, but by following the aforementioned steps you can get a quick and general insight about your life.