What is traditional Indian astrology called?
Show answer
Jyotisha
Literally "science of light". It counts as one of the six Vedangas, the auxiliary sciences of the Vedas, and served above all for calendars and ritual timing.
All questions with answers
How does Indian astrology differ fundamentally from Western astrology?
Show answer
It calculates sidereally, not tropically
The Western system anchors its zero point to the spring equinox, the Indian one to the actual stars. All signs therefore shift against each other.
How far have the Western and Indian zodiacs drifted apart by now?
Show answer
About 24 degrees
Nearly a whole sign. Someone who is Aries in the West is often Pisces in India: same birth, different sign.
What causes this shift between the two systems?
Show answer
The precession of the Earth's axis
The axis wobbles like a spinning top, taking some 25,800 years for one turn. The equinox point slowly wanders through the constellations.
What is the correction value called with which Indian astrologers account for this difference?
Show answer
Ayanamsa
Schools argue over the exact figure: the common Lahiri ayanamsa is officially recognised, other traditions differ by one or two degrees.
Foto: Saranya Ghosh · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
What are the 27 lunar mansions of Indian astrology called?
Show answer
Nakshatras
They divide the zodiac by the moon's course, which takes a good 27 days. Each has a name, symbol and deity: Ashwini opens the series.
How many nakshatras are there?
Show answer
27
Some traditions count 28 by inserting Abhijit. The 27 follow from the sidereal lunar month of about 27.3 days.
Which celestial body is central in Indian astrology (unlike in the West)?
Show answer
The moon
The birth sign there follows the moon's position, not the sun's. Many Indians therefore know their moon sign better than their sun sign.
What are the twelve zodiac signs called in Sanskrit?
Show answer
Rashi
Mesha (Aries), Vrishabha (Taurus), Mithuna (Gemini) and so on: the same images as in the West, a legacy of exchange with Hellenistic Greece.
What is a child's nakshatra traditionally used for?
Show answer
The first letter of the name
Each mansion is divided into four quarters (padas), each with assigned syllables. Many families pick the given name accordingly: astrology as a naming register.
Foto: Andres Rueda · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Rahu and Ketu count as planets in Indian horoscopes. What are they really?
Show answer
The lunar nodes
The two points where the moon's orbit crosses Earth's, where eclipses occur. Myth turns them into a demon beheaded mid-swallow: Rahu gulps the sun, which falls out below.
Foto: Anant Shivaji Desai, Ravi Varma Press · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
How many celestial bodies does classical Indian astrology treat as planets?
Show answer
Nine
The Navagraha: sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn plus Rahu and Ketu. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are missing: discovered after the system took shape.
What are horoscopes most commonly compared for in India to this day?
Show answer
For matchmaking and wedding dates
In kundali matching, points (gunas) are counted; above a threshold the match counts as suitable. Marriage adverts often list the birth chart next to the profession.
Where did India receive the twelve zodiac signs from?
Show answer
From Hellenistic Greece
They reached India from the 2nd century onward through contact after Alexander's campaign; the nakshatras, by contrast, are older and genuinely Indian, already found in the Vedic texts.
Which Indian celestial system is older than the twelve zodiac signs?
Show answer
The nakshatras
The lunar mansions appear in Vedic texts long before the twelve signs. The moon system is the native core, the solar zodiac the import.
How PurFact works
- Every new tab, every visit: one question from your packs.
- What you know comes back at growing intervals; what you don't yet comes back sooner.
- Games, learning paths and duels with friends turn studying into a competition.
Home · All topics · Legal notice · Privacy · Terms · Contact