---
type: Concept
bundle: jyotisha-kala
bundle_version: 0.12.0
id: lagna
title: Lagna
iast: Lagna
devanagari: लग्न
description: 'The ascendant: the point of the ecliptic rising on the eastern horizon at a given moment and place, the axis from which the chart’s houses are counted; NOT a sun sign, NOT a personality label, NOT a whole horoscope.'
darshana:
- Jyotiṣa
text_source: Bṛhat Jātaka 1; Sūrya Siddhānta 3
tags:
- lagna
- ascendant
- hora
- jyotisha
- chart
not:
- term: 'a sun sign'
  why: 'The Sun changes sign about monthly; the lagna changes sign roughly every two hours as the earth turns. It is the most time-and-place-specific element of the chart, which is why horā treats it, not the sun sign, as the chart’s first reference.'
  instead: 'Render lagna as ascendant and keep the Sanskrit term.'
- term: 'a personality label'
  why: '“Rising sign” personality copy is the same commercial overlay as sun-sign content, one house over. Classically the lagna is a computed point that anchors the house count.'
- term: 'a whole horoscope'
  why: 'The lagna is one element, the axis. A jātaka chart is the full configuration read from it.'
related:
- /concepts/rashi.md
- /concepts/bhava-jyotisha.md
- /concepts/hora.md
- /concepts/jataka.md
timestamp: '2026-07-09'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Lagna -- लग्न

**Not:** a sun sign, a personality label, a whole horoscope

## What It Actually Means

The lagna is the ascendant: the degree of the ecliptic rising on the eastern horizon at a stated moment and place. Because the earth’s rotation carries the whole zodiac past the horizon daily, the lagna moves through all twelve rāśis in a day, changing sign roughly every two hours, and computing it belongs to spherical astronomy: the siddhāntas derive rising times of the signs by latitude. In horā the lagna is the chart’s first axis, the point from which the twelve bhāvas are counted, and its computation is the precise step that makes a birth chart a function of both time and place.

## Audience Metaphor

The eastern horizon as a clock hand sweeping the whole zodiac once a day: the lagna is where the hand points at the moment that matters. Two births two hours apart in the same ward get different lagnas; it is the chart’s here-and-now axis, not its headline.

## Citations

1. Bṛhat Jātaka 1 on the lagna as the chart’s reference -- see [references/brihat-jataka.md](../references/brihat-jataka.md)
2. Sūrya Siddhānta 3 on rising times and the ascendant computation -- see [references/surya-siddhanta.md](../references/surya-siddhanta.md)
