Introduction
The chart for the moment of India's independence is one of the most discussed charts in Jyotish. On this page we do what we do with any chart: show the calculation openly, quote the texts with their source, and call tradition tradition.
One point first: casting a single-moment "birth chart" for a country is a modern practice. Old Samhita texts such as Varāhamihira's Bṛhat Saṁhitā do not draw a lagna for a country; they watch events in the sky: the courses of the planets, Jupiter's year, eclipses, and the parts of the land linked to the nakshatras. So this page keeps the two apart.
How the chart is calculated
- Time and place: 15 August 1947, 00:00 Indian Standard Time, New Delhi (28.6139° N, 77.2090° E).
- Method: Swiss Ephemeris, Lahiri ayanamsa, whole-sign houses and the mean node for Rahu and Ketu, the same rules ePandit uses for every chart.
- Dasha: Vimshottari, from the Moon's nakshatra at that moment.
About the time: 00:00 is the conventional and most widely used time, because independence is reckoned from midnight. Some astrologers use other moments, and a different time can change the lagna and the houses. In our calculation the lagna stays Vrishabha from 11:33 pm on 14 August to 1:27 am on 15 August, so within that window the lagna sign holds and only its degree moves.
The main facts of the chart
Lagna: Vrishabha 7°44′ (Krittika nakshatra, pada 4). The lagna lord is Venus.
Moon: Karka 3°59′, the first pada of Pushya. So the chart's Moon sign is Karka and its birth nakshatra is Pushya.
| Graha | Sign | Degree | House (from Vrishabha lagna) | Nakshatra (pada) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lagna | Vrishabha | 7°44′ | 1 | Krittika (4) |
| Sun | Karka | 27°59′ | 3 | Ashlesha (4) |
| Moon | Karka | 3°59′ | 3 | Pushya (1) |
| Mars | Mithuna | 7°27′ | 2 | Ardra (1) |
| Mercury | Karka | 13°40′ | 3 | Pushya (4) |
| Jupiter | Tula | 25°53′ | 6 | Vishakha (2) |
| Venus | Karka | 22°34′ | 3 | Ashlesha (2) |
| Saturn | Karka | 20°28′ | 3 | Ashlesha (2) |
| Rahu | Vrishabha | 5°04′ | 1 | Krittika (3) |
| Ketu | Vrishchika | 5°04′ | 7 | Anuradha (1) |
The first thing one notices: five grahas, the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Saturn, sit together in Karka, the third house from a Vrishabha lagna. Rahu is in the lagna and Ketu in the seventh house; Mars is in the second (Mithuna) and Jupiter in the sixth (Tula).
How tradition reads it
Astrologers who apply natal rules to a country usually look at the same things: the lagna, the Moon sign, the houses of the planets and the running dasha. Tradition links the third house with effort, communication and courage, and the sign Karka with home, nourishment and belonging. On that basis many writers read in this chart a tendency towards hard work, dialogue and a shared feeling. The Moon here is in its own sign, Karka.
Bṛhat Parāśara Horā Śāstra names Saturn as the planet that gives rajayoga for a Vrishabha lagna; in this chart Saturn is part of the same Karka group. These readings are tendencies, not a list of events.
Dasha: then and now
At that moment the Moon had crossed only about 5% of Pushya. Pushya's lord is Saturn, so the chart opens in the Saturn mahadasha, with about 18 years of it left. The antardasha was also Saturn's, because every mahadasha begins with its own lord's antardasha.
Carrying the same calculation forward, today (October 2026) the chart runs the Rahu antardasha within the Mars mahadasha. Tradition links the Mars mahadasha with courage, effort and initiative; for this blend of energy and new paths it advises pausing before decisions, and reads it as a period asking for patience and routine. A small change in the birth time shifts the dasha boundaries, which is one more reason we attach no forecasts to them here.
What the Medini (Samhita) tradition looks at
The branch of Jyotish that deals with countries, regions and society is traditionally called Medini or Samhita jyotish. Varāhamihira's Bṛhat Saṁhitā is its most famous text, and its table of contents shows what it attends to:
- The courses of the planets: separate chapters on the Sun, Moon, Rahu, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn and the Ketus.
- Jupiter's year: the year is named from the nakshatra Jupiter occupies when it reappears after its conjunction with the Sun, and each year of the 60-year cycle is described (ch. 8).
- Kūrma-vibhāga: nine groups of three nakshatras, starting from Krittika, are linked to nine parts of the land, with Bharata-varsha at the centre (ch. 14).
- The planets' domains: the countries, peoples and things placed under each planet (ch. 16).
- Eclipses: Varāhamihira explains them astronomically: in a lunar eclipse the Moon enters the Earth's shadow, and a solar eclipse looks different from country to country. He states plainly that Rahu is not the cause of an eclipse (ch. 5).
So the Samhita texts read signs in the sky as tendencies for society as a whole, not through a single-moment "national chart". Modern Medini astrology combines the two approaches.
Today's transits: themes only, not events
In October 2026 the slow-moving planets stand like this relative to the 1947 chart:
- Jupiter in Karka (the third house from the Vrishabha lagna), the same sign that holds the five planets of 1947. Karka is Jupiter's sign of exaltation. Tradition associates this with a period of learning, guidance and widening dialogue.
- Saturn in Meena (the eleventh house), retrograde at present. Tradition links Saturn's transit with structure, discipline and gradual reform.
- Rahu in Kumbha and Ketu in Simha (the tenth and fourth houses). Tradition links this axis with a theme of balancing new methods and old roots.
These are collective themes, not events. This page does not forecast any event, date or outcome; making such claims about a country is not our method.