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Lagna Calculator — Find Your Ascendant

Your Lagna is the zodiac sign that was rising on the eastern horizon at the moment and place you were born, and it sets the houses of your whole chart. This free calculator finds your Lagna and shows the sign, degree and house of every planet. Because the rising sign changes about every two hours, it needs your exact birth time as well as your date and place.

New to the term? Read the full definition: Lagna

This answer depends on the exact time. Enter your best estimate — even a few minutes’ difference can matter.

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What your Lagna result means

Your Lagna, or ascendant, is the zodiac sign that was rising on the eastern horizon at the exact moment and place you were born. In Vedic astrology it is the anchor of the chart: it marks the 1st house, and every other house is counted from it.

Because the horizon turns with the Earth, the Lagna changes sign about every two hours on average. That is why it needs an exact birth time, and why two people born on the same day can have different Lagnas.

The table shows each planet’s sign, degree inside that sign, Nakshatra and pada, and its house counted from your Lagna. A planet marked R is retrograde.

How to find your Lagna by hand

  1. Write down your birth time in local clock time and convert it to Universal Time using the time zone of your birth place, including any daylight-saving time that applied on that date.
  2. Work out the sidereal time at that moment for the longitude of your birth place. It tells you which point of the ecliptic was crossing the eastern horizon.
  3. Look up, in a table of ascendants or an ephemeris, the zodiac degree that was rising at that sidereal time for the latitude of your birth place. This is the tropical ascendant.
  4. Subtract the Lahiri ayanamsa (about 24° today). The sign that contains the result is your sidereal Lagna.
  5. Number the houses in whole signs from it: the Lagna sign is the 1st house, the next sign the 2nd, and so on.

How this calculator decides

  • The Lagna is the sidereal (Lahiri) ascendant calculated with the Swiss Ephemeris for your birth moment and the coordinates of the city you select.
  • Houses are whole-sign: the whole Lagna sign is the 1st house, the next sign the 2nd house, and so on.
  • Your birth time is converted using the timezone of your birth place, including historical daylight-saving and standard-time changes.
  • Coordinates come from the city you pick, not your exact street, so choose the nearest listed city. Rahu is the mean node and Ketu is placed opposite it.

Frequently asked questions

What is a Lagna?

The Lagna is your ascendant, the sign rising on the eastern horizon at your birth. It defines the 1st house of the chart, and all twelve houses are counted from it.

How is the Lagna different from my Sun sign and Moon sign?

The Sun sign shows where the Sun was, the Moon sign (Rashi) where the Moon was, and the Lagna which sign was rising. The Lagna changes fastest, about every two hours, so it is the one that depends most on an exact birth time.

Why do I need my exact birth time?

A birth-time difference of an hour or two can move the ascendant into a different sign. Without a birth time the Lagna cannot be worked out, so this calculator asks for one instead of guessing.

How accurate is the result?

The astronomy is calculated from the Swiss Ephemeris. The result is only as accurate as the birth time you enter and the city coordinates used, and a birth time that falls close to a sign change is worth double-checking.

Why is my Vedic Lagna different from my Western rising sign?

Vedic astrology uses the sidereal zodiac, roughly 24° behind the tropical zodiac used in Western astrology, so the rising sign is often the one before the Western one.

What if my birth town is not listed?

Pick the nearest listed city. A difference of a few tens of kilometres shifts the moment a sign rises by only a minute or two, though a birth very close to a sign boundary can still change sign.

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For cultural and entertainment purposes. Not medical, financial or legal advice.