Planets and the nodal axis

Live

Is there Kaal Sarp Dosh in your kundli?

Kaal Sarp forms when every classical planet falls between Rahu and Ketu. It either does or it does not — here is the arithmetic, with the planets that break it if any do.

Enter your birth details

Sidereal, with the Lahiri ayanamsa — the Vedic default.

How common is this?
This is a fairly modern formation. It is absent from the classical texts, and it either forms or it does not — there are no degrees of it. Many astrologers give it no weight.
We don’t sell remedies
These three terms drive most of the gemstone and puja trade. A calculator that frightens you into buying something is the thing we said we would not build. You get the placement and the context. What you do with it is yours.

What actually has to happen

Rahu and Ketu always sit exactly opposite each other. They are the two points where the Moon’s path crosses the Sun’s, so they cut the zodiac into two halves. Kaal Sarp forms when all seven classical planets fall on the same side of that cut.

It either forms or it does not

There are no degrees of it. One planet on the wrong side and the formation is broken. That is why we list exactly which planets fall outside when it does not form.

Seven planets, not nine

Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto play no part in the rule — they were unknown when it was written.

How common it is

7.4%

of 5,000 randomly generated births between 1950 and 2025

About one chart in 14

Genuinely uncommon, unlike Mangal Dosha — and still something like a hundred million people alive today. Rarity is not the same thing as significance.

It is not in the classical texts

Kaal Sarp does not appear in Parashara, in Jaimini, or in any of the foundational works. It is a fairly recent addition, twentieth century by most accounts. A great many practising astrologers give it no weight at all. That disagreement is worth knowing before anyone quotes you a price to correct it.

Worked example

Does Kaal Sarp form in the sample chart?

Take 15 August 1990, 10:30 in the morning, in Mumbai. Rahu and Ketu always sit opposite each other. The question is whether all seven planets fall on one side of that line.

What	Computed
Rahu	Makara (Capricorn)
Ketu	Karka (Cancer)
Planets outside the axis	Surya (Sun), Budh (Mercury), Shani (Saturn)
Result	No — it does not form

A fixed sample moment, not anyone’s real chart. The numbers come out of the same engine your own birth details would go through, so they are the same every time you look. See the whole reading for this moment →

At a glance

Method: Rahu and Ketu bracket all seven classical grahas
Ephemeris: VSOP87 and Brown’s lunar theory
Ayanamsa: Lahiri, the Indian government standard
Zodiac: Sidereal (nirayana)
Accuracy: Within 10 arcseconds of NASA JPL Horizons
Sign-up: None
What we store: Nothing. Your result lives in the URL
Languages: English and Hindi
Price: Free

Questions people ask about Kaal Sarp

What is Kaal Sarp Dosha?

A chart where Rahu and Ketu sit at opposite ends and every other classical planet falls between them, all on one side. The idea is a twentieth-century addition, not from the old texts.

What actually has to happen for it to form?

Rahu and Ketu always sit exactly opposite each other. They are the two points where the Moon’s path crosses the Sun’s, so they cut the zodiac into two halves. Kaal Sarp forms when all seven classical planets fall on the same side of that cut.

Is Kaal Sarp Dosha in the classical texts?

Kaal Sarp does not appear in Parashara, in Jaimini, or in any of the foundational works. It is a fairly recent addition, twentieth century by most accounts. A great many practising astrologers give it no weight at all. That disagreement is worth knowing before anyone quotes you a price to correct it.

Are there partial or weaker forms of Kaal Sarp?