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What does retrograde (vakri) mean in ePandit?

Explainer · reviewed August 2026

In ePandit, a planet is marked retrograde when Swiss Ephemeris reports negative longitudinal speed in sidereal mode. That is an observational/ephemeris flag, not a moral judgment about the planet.

On this page
  1. How we detect it

How we detect it

Planet position calls request speed alongside sidereal longitude; retrograde means speed is negative. Transit stepping also tracks retrograde state changes for Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn.

See current planetary motion context in the app

ePandit checks these rules against your own birth chart, and shows which are sourced to a classical text and which are our engine's.

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