deep-dive

KP sub-lord theory and significators via API

Compute KP sub-lords, cuspal sub-lords, and ranked house significators through the Vedika API, then ask plain-language KP and horary questions over the same chart.

KP (Krishnamurti Paddhati) astrology answers yes/no and "when" questions by reading the sub-lord of a cusp or planet — the planet that governs a tiny slice of a nakshatra under the Vimshottari proportions. With the Vedika API you compute a full KP chart, every cusp's sign-lord, star-lord, and sub-lord, and the significator hierarchy for any house through a single POST to /v2/astrology/kp, then ask plain-language KP questions through /api/v1/astrology/query. This guide covers the theory you need and the exact request shapes to wire it into your application.

What sub-lord theory actually computes

KP starts from the same sidereal longitudes a Vedic chart uses (Krishnamurti's own ayanamsa), but it subdivides each of the 27 nakshatras far more finely than Parashari astrology does. Every degree of the zodiac belongs to a three-level chain of rulers:

The KP principle is that the sub-lord is the deciding voice. A planet may sit in a benefic sign, but if its sub-lord signifies houses opposed to the matter in question, the result fails. The cuspal sub-lord of a house tells you whether that house's affairs will fructify at all; the sub-lords of the relevant planets and the dasha chain tell you when.

Sub-sub-lord and the 249 divisions

Extending the same proportional split one level deeper produces the sub-sub-lord and the classic 249-fold division of the zodiac used in KP horary (prashna). When a querent picks a number from 1 to 249, that number maps to a specific sign/star/sub/sub-sub chain, which seeds the horary ascendant. The API exposes this through a dedicated horary path so you don't have to hand-build the 249-row table.

Significators: ranking the planets for a house

A "significator" is a planet that promises a house's results. KP ranks significators of a house in a strict order, strongest first:

  1. Planets in the star of a planet occupying the house.
  2. Planets occupying the house.
  3. Planets in the star of the house's owner.
  4. The owner of the house.

Rahu and Ketu are weighted specially — a node generally acts as an agent for the planets it conjoins or aspects and for its own sign-lord, which is why KP readers treat node significators with extra care. The Vedika API returns significators already grouped by these levels for all twelve houses, so you can apply your own ruling-planet filters without re-deriving the star-lord chains in client code. This mechanical, code-computed ranking is exactly the kind of fact our pipeline never asks a language model to invent — significator tables come straight from the ephemeris math.

Computing a KP chart through the API

The V2 computation endpoints take a flat birth payload and return structured JSON. Authenticate with your live key in the x-api-key header. There is no AI in this path — it is pure astronomy and KP arithmetic, so it is fast and deterministic.

curl -X POST https://api.vedika.io/v2/astrology/kp \
  -H "x-api-key: vk_live_your_key_here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "datetime": "1988-08-19T14:30:00",
    "latitude": 18.5204,
    "longitude": 73.8567,
    "timezone": "Asia/Kolkata"
  }'

The response includes each of the twelve cusps with its longitude and the full sign-lord / star-lord / sub-lord chain, the same chain for all nine planets, and the per-house significator groups described above. A trimmed shape looks like this:

// fetch a KP chart and read the 7th-cusp sub-lord (marriage question)
const res = await fetch("https://api.vedika.io/v2/astrology/kp", {
  method: "POST",
  headers: {
    "x-api-key": process.env.VEDIKA_API_KEY,
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    datetime: "1988-08-19T14:30:00",
    latitude: 18.5204,
    longitude: 73.8567,
    timezone: "Asia/Kolkata",
  }),
});

const kp = await res.json();
const seventh = kp.cusps.find((c) => c.house === 7);
console.log(seventh.signLord, seventh.starLord, seventh.subLord);
// e.g. "Saturn" "Moon" "Mercury"  -> evaluate what Mercury signifies

const marriageSignificators = kp.significators["7"]; // ranked planet groups

Asking KP questions in natural language

Computing the chart is half the job; interpreting the sub-lords against a real question is the other half. The /api/v1/astrology/query endpoint accepts a question plus birth details and runs Vedika AI over the computed KP layer, returning a grounded reading rather than raw tables. Pass "system": "kp" to keep the interpretation inside the KP framework.

import os, requests

resp = requests.post(
    "https://api.vedika.io/api/v1/astrology/query",
    headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["VEDIKA_API_KEY"]},
    json={
        "question": "Will I get married, and is the 7th cuspal sub-lord favourable?",
        "system": "kp",
        "birthDetails": {
            "datetime": "1988-08-19T14:30:00",
            "latitude": 18.5204,
            "longitude": 73.8567,
            "timezone": "Asia/Kolkata",
        },
    },
)
print(resp.json()["answer"])

For chat or streaming UIs, point at /api/v1/astrology/query/stream instead — it emits the same answer over Server-Sent Events so you can render tokens as they arrive. Add "speed": "fast" on the Business plan or above when you want lower latency for interactive sessions.

Horary (prashna) with a number 1–249

For KP horary you don't need a birth chart at all — only the moment of the question and the querent's number. The query path understands a horary number and constructs the ruling ascendant from the 249 sub-sub divisions internally, then judges the cuspal sub-lords of the houses your question touches.

Why KP belongs in the same API as Vedic and Western

Vedika serves Vedic (sidereal), Western (tropical), and KP from one surface, alongside Jaimini, Tajaka, Lal Kitab, and numerology — 700+ operations across 25 domains in total. That matters for KP specifically because real KP work constantly cross-checks against Parashari significations and dasha periods; having both systems answer from the same ephemeris removes the longitude-mismatch bugs you get when you stitch two providers together. All of it runs on the XALEN Ephemeris, Vedika's own open-source engine (Apache-2.0, published to crates.io, PyPI, and npm) with roughly 2,200 tests, validated against JPL DE440 and swetest with no chart deviating beyond 0.1° across a five-million-chart sweep. That is astronomical precision for the underlying positions — the KP interpretation layer is still governed by classical method, not a precision claim about predictions.

How this compares to other providers

Several established APIs expose KP data. Prokerala (around $19/mo) has broad endpoint coverage and clean docs; AstrologyAPI.com (around $29/mo) ships ready-made KP significator and ruling-planet calls; RoxyAPI (around $39/mo) offers solid raw astronomical data. Vedika's differentiators are the three-systems-in-one-key model, native natural-language KP querying instead of only JSON tables, the open-source ephemeris you can audit yourself, and 30 languages (14 Indic). Pick whichever fits — but if you want to ask KP questions in plain English and read the significator math underneath the same call, that combination is the reason to evaluate Vedika.

Citations and method integrity

KP is a documented tradition, and Vedika treats it that way. Interpretive statements trace to the sources real KP practitioners train from — principally K.S. Krishnamurti's KP Readers (Volumes I–VI) for sub-lord and significator rules — layered on the Parashari foundations of Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra. The API does not fabricate verse numbers, success percentages, or accuracy statistics; cuspal and significator outputs are pure computation, and narrative readings are grounded against those classical texts rather than paraphrased from the open web.

Key facts

Getting started

Try a KP request against the free sandbox with no key, read the full request and response schemas in the API docs, and when you're ready pick a plan on the pricing page. If you also need Vimshottari dasha timing alongside the sub-lord judgment, see our walkthrough of computing dasha periods via the API.

FAQ

What is the difference between a star-lord and a sub-lord in KP?

The star-lord rules the whole 13°20' nakshatra a point falls in; the sub-lord rules a smaller slice within that nakshatra, sized by the Vimshottari year proportions. In KP the sub-lord overrides the star-lord when deciding whether a result occurs.

Which endpoint returns KP significators?

POST https://api.vedika.io/v2/astrology/kp returns cusps with their sign/star/sub-lord chains and per-house significators ranked in the four standard KP levels — no AI, pure computation.

Can I do KP horary without a birth chart?

Yes. KP horary uses the moment of the question and a number from 1 to 249, which maps to a sub-sub-lord chain. Send the question and number to /api/v1/astrology/query with the KP system selected and no birth chart is required.

What classical sources back the KP interpretations?

Sub-lord and significator rules trace to K.S. Krishnamurti's KP Readers, on the Parashari base of Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra. Vedika grounds readings in these texts and does not invent verse numbers or accuracy figures.

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