Birth-time confidence

Every chart on SahiKundli displays one of three birth-time confidence states:

• Exact — birth time recorded precisely (typically from a hospital record or birth certificate). The chart is reliable.
• Approximate — birth time remembered or rounded ("around 10 PM," "early morning"). The Lagna, house cusps, and Moon-based readings should be treated as provisional.
• Unknown — no birth time available. Only planetary signs are usable; the Lagna, house placements, and the Moon's nakshatra are not.

The Lagna shifts through all twelve signs in roughly 24 hours — about one sign every two hours. A 15-minute recording error rarely moves a planet to a different sign, but near a sign boundary it can move the Lagna entirely. Because the twelve houses are anchored to the Lagna, an incorrect Lagna materially changes the interpretive structure of the chart.

The Moon is the next-most-affected: it moves through one nakshatra in approximately 22–26 hours, so significant birth-time error can shift its nakshatra pada or, in edge cases, the nakshatra itself — and the Vimshottari dasha sequence is keyed to the Moon's nakshatra at birth.

Most consumer astrology apps treat every chart as exact. The user pays the cost — sometimes acting for years on a Lagna that is wrong by a full sign.

SahiKundli labels the confidence level on every chart and states explicitly which interpretations are robust to birth-time error and which are not. Where the time is approximate, birth-time rectification — narrowing the time using known life events — is the standard protocol; until it has been performed, Lagna- and Moon-dependent readings on the chart should be treated as provisional.