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Argument-fuelling reference
Six ayanamsha systems differ by up to 3° at 2026.0 CE. Three degrees is one-tenth of a sign — enough to shift the Lagna into the next rashi for ~10% of birth charts. Here is what each system encodes, what the difference does to a chart, and how to decide.
Sidereal-tropical offset at the J2026.0 epoch (00:00 UT, 1 January 2026). Each value is the angle by which the sidereal zodiac trails the tropical zodiac under the system's chosen fiducial — a fixed star or formula. Cross-checked against JPL Horizons + Swiss Ephemeris.
Vedic astrology uses the sidereal zodiac — measured against the fixed stars. Western astrology uses the tropical zodiac — measured against the spring equinox, which precesses backwards through the constellations by about 50.3 arcseconds per year. Ayanamsha is the angle that separates the two. Subtract it from a tropical longitude and you get a sidereal longitude.
Six well-known systems disagree on the value because each anchors its sidereal zero-point to a different physical landmark — Chitra (Lahiri), Aldebaran (Fagan-Bradley), or a recomputed epoch (Surya Siddhanta). At 2026.0 CE the spread between extremes is about 2.05°. A chart that places Lagna at 1°15' Aries under Lahiri lands at 28°45' Pisces under Raman — different sign, different rashi lord, different Mahadasha sequence anchor.
Each row below shows the same birth moment computed under Lahiri and under Raman. The Lagna degree is in tropical reference for the Lahiri column (subtract 24.22° to read sidereal); under Raman, subtract 22.82°. Where the two values land in different rashis, the chart's Lagna lord, the Bhava-chalit positions, and the Vimshottari Dasha starting point all change.
| Tropical Lagna | Lahiri | Raman | KP | Fagan-Bradley |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0°00' Aries | 5°47' Pisces | 7°10' Pisces | 5°52' Pisces | 5°08' Pisces |
| 24°13' Aries | 0°00' Aries | 1°23' Aries | 0°05' Aries | -0°41' = 29°19' Pisces |
| 24°50' Taurus | 0°37' Taurus | 2°00' Taurus | 0°42' Taurus | -0°04' = 29°56' Aries |
| 15°00' Leo | 20°47' Cancer | 22°10' Cancer | 20°52' Cancer | 20°08' Cancer |
| 10°00' Sagittarius | 15°47' Scorpio | 17°10' Scorpio | 15°52' Scorpio | 15°08' Scorpio |
Rows highlighted in gold are cusp-shift examples — the tropical Lagna falls close enough to a sign boundary that the choice of ayanamsha changes the sidereal sign, and therefore the Lagna lord and the entire Vimshottari Dasha sequence anchor.
Lahiri (Chitrapaksha) is the official ayanamsha of the Indian government, adopted by the Calendar Reform Committee in 1957 under the chairmanship of M.N. Saha. It is the basis of every panchang published in India by official sources — the Rashtriya Panchang, the Indian Astronomical Ephemeris, and the panchangs of major mathas. Choosing it as the default means our results align with what most users will see in their family panchangs and what classical Jyotish teachers in India teach with.
Technically, Lahiri pins the sidereal zero-point so the star Chitra (Spica, α Virginis) sits at exactly 180° sidereal longitude at the J1900.0 epoch. The formula is published in the Indian Astronomical Ephemeris and is the same across every implementation that claims to use Lahiri. Engines that disagree with our values are either using a different system or computing precession differently.
If your teacher trained in the Krishnamurti Padhdhati school, KP ayanamsha will match the predictive system you were taught (it pairs naturally with the 249 sub-lords). If you learned from B.V. Raman's books or use a Raman-aligned almanac, switching to Raman gives results that line up with that lineage. Western sidereal practitioners working with the Fagan-Bradley framework will want Fagan to align with Spica-anchored interpretations from the Theosophical / Cyril Fagan tradition.
The honest answer to "which one is right" is that all six are internally consistent — none of them is more astronomically correct than the others, because the choice of fiducial is a convention, not a measurement. What matters is consistency: pick a system and use it across natal, Dasha, transit, and Varshaphal reads. Switching mid-analysis gives you nothing but contradictions.