Start with the birth details
A chart is a calculation from a particular instant and location. Before looking at any symbol, confirm the date, local clock time, birthplace coordinates, timezone, and the UTC instant the software used. A wrong AM/PM entry or a similarly named city can change the result more than a disagreement about interpretation.
If the birth time is unknown, do not fill it with noon and treat the resulting ascendant as a fact. The ascendant and house numbers depend strongly on time and place. A responsible chart should show which outputs remain stable and which cannot be stated.
Find the rising sign and orient the houses
In a whole-sign D1 chart, the sign containing the ascendant becomes house one. The next sign is house two, and so on around the zodiac. Signs are fixed divisions of the sidereal circle; house numbers depend on the rising sign. This is why “planet in Gemini” and “planet in the first house” are not interchangeable statements.
Kalika’s South Indian chart keeps signs in fixed positions. The letter L marks the ascendant sign. If that format is unfamiliar, use the placement table: it lists the same bodies, signs, and house numbers in text.
Read exact placements before labels
A planet’s longitude identifies its sign and, in the 27-part system, its nakshatra and pada. The displayed degree matters near a boundary. A position at 29.9° of a sign is more sensitive to input and method differences than one near the middle. Check the calculation method before assuming that two websites disagree about the sky.
Rahu and Ketu are lunar nodes, not physical planets. This beta uses a mean-node convention and places Ketu opposite Rahu. Another tool may use a different node convention.
Keep interpretation separate
The chart answers “where did the calculation place each body?” It does not, by itself, prove what will happen in a person’s life. Traditional interpretation adds rules and judgment that may vary by school. Our chart pages therefore teach the structure and display the data without making personality or event predictions.
When an AI interpretation interface is added later, it should read these versioned chart facts rather than recomputing positions from prose. That boundary makes disagreements easier to inspect and correct.