North Indian chart
The North Indian chart is the diamond-style Kundli used across much of northern, central and western India. The houses stay fixed, with the 1st house at the top centre, and numbers in each house show which sign falls there.
Also known as: north indian kundli, north indian style chart, diamond chart, uttar bharatiya kundli
A square is divided by its two diagonals and an inner diamond into twelve houses. The diamond at the top centre is always the 1st house; the houses then run anticlockwise, so the 4th is on the left, the 7th at the bottom and the 10th on the right. The four diamond-shaped houses are the kendras.
Each house carries a number from 1 to 12 that tells you its sign: 1 is Aries, 2 Taurus, and so on to 12 for Pisces. If the top house shows 5, you have a Leo ascendant. Planets are written inside the house they occupy, often with an R for retrograde.
Because the houses are fixed, this style makes house relationships quick to see, which is why North Indian astrologers favour it. It carries exactly the same information as the South Indian chart, so use whichever reads more naturally to you.