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Ayanamsa

What an ayanamsa change does to a chart

The site’s three ayanamsa choices differ by a few arcminutes. See which chart and Panchang values change with them, which do not, and how often.

01 · The choices

The site’s three choices sit within a few arcminutes.

True Chitrapaksha, Lahiri and KP all start the zodiac near the same place in the stars. Today they differ by less than five arcminutes, about a sixth of the Moon’s width.

The site’s three ayanamsa choices in 2026 In 2026 the True Chitrapaksha ayanamsa is about 24 degrees 12 arcminutes. The Lahiri formula gives about 0.9 arcminutes more and KP about 4.5 arcminutes less. Raising the ayanamsa lowers every sidereal longitude by the same amount. DIFFERENCE FROM TRUE CHITRAPAKSHA IN 2026 · ARCMINUTES −6′−4′−2′0′+2′+4′+6′ True Chitrapaksha24°12′Lahiri+0.9′KP−4.5′
Values for 2026 from the engine’s ayanamsa functions. The gaps change slowly over the years.

02 · How often it matters

Small offsets change labels rarely, and fine ones most.

Cast a chart at the same time every day for a year and count the days a label changes when the ayanamsa does. Coarse labels almost never change; fine divisions change more often.

How often a chart label changes with the ayanamsa For a chart cast at 06:00 IST in Delhi on every day of 2026, the number of days on which a label differs from True Chitrapaksha. With Lahiri, about one arcminute away, labels almost never change: one day for any planet’s sign, fourteen for any planet’s navamsa. With KP, about four and a half arcminutes away: eight days for a sign, four for the Moon’s nakshatra, fifty-four for a navamsa. DAYS IN 2026 WITH A DIFFERENT LABEL · CHART AT 06:00 IST, DELHI LahiriKP Any planet’s sign18Moon’s nakshatra04Moon’s pada26Ascendant’s sign00Ascendant’s navamsa46Any planet’s navamsa1454
Charts cast with the site’s engine for 06:00 IST in Delhi on each of the 365 days of 2026. Planets are the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Rahu.

Three nearby choices

The Kundli page offers three sidereal references. In 2026:

Reference Value in 2026 Difference
True Chitrapaksha (default) 24°12′
Lahiri formula 24°13′ about 0.9′ higher
KP 24°08′ about 4.5′ lower

True Chitrapaksha places the star Spica at exactly 180° and is what the site’s Panchang uses. The Lahiri formula is the official approximation to it; KP is the reference of the Krishnamurti system. The ayanamsa guide describes the choices, and why the equinox drifts explains why any ayanamsa exists.

What changes

Every sidereal longitude moves by the same small amount: each planet, the nodes and the ascendant. Anything read from a sidereal position can change if that position is close enough to a boundary:

  • the sign of a planet or the ascendant, and with the ascendant the whole-sign house count;
  • the nakshatra and pada of a planet, and with the Moon’s nakshatra the order of dasha periods;
  • the signs in divisional charts such as the navamsa, whose divisions are only 3°20′ wide.

Even without a label changing, the dasha balance at birth moves. It depends on how far the Moon has travelled through its nakshatra, and one arcminute of the Moon’s position corresponds to about one eight-hundredth of a full dasha period. With the Moon in a 20-year Venus nakshatra, KP’s 4.5′ shifts every later dasha date by about six weeks.

What does not

Anything measured between two bodies is unchanged, because both move equally: the angles between planets, and the tithi and karana, which count the Moon’s lead over the Sun. Sunrise, sunset and the weekday do not use the zodiac at all. In a day’s Panchang, the nakshatra and the yoga can change with the ayanamsa; the yoga, built from the sum of the Sun’s and Moon’s positions, moves twice as far.

How often it matters

Casting a chart for 06:00 IST in Delhi on each day of 2026 and comparing it with True Chitrapaksha:

Label Lahiri KP
Any planet’s sign 1 day 8 days
Moon’s nakshatra 0 days 4 days
Moon’s pada 2 days 6 days
Ascendant’s sign 0 days 0 days
Ascendant’s navamsa 4 days 6 days
Any planet’s navamsa 14 days 54 days

Lahiri, less than an arcminute away, almost never changes a label. KP changes them more often, and the finer the division, the more often. Why one planet can change sign alone shows the mechanism in a single chart.

Compare the three choices for any birth on the Kundli page, or explore another topic in Learn.