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POST/api/astro/seasons/1 credit

Equinoxes, solstices and ritus

The two equinoxes, the two solstices and the six Indian ritus for a year. Each solar moment is named by its month and returned in chronological order. That matters: the underlying data gives the solstices December-first, so reading the first entry as the June one would be wrong half the time. The ritus — Vasant, Grishma, Varsha, Sharad, Hemant and Shishir — are the Indian seasonal division and do not line up with the four-season calendar: there are six, each about two months, anchored to the Sun's sidereal position rather than to the solstices.

https://yogataraapi.prahlad.app/api/astro/seasons/
Test Request

Authentication

Send your key in the X-API-Key header. Keys are server-side credentials — never put one in browser JavaScript or a mobile app.

X-API-Key: yt_live_a1b2c3d4_…
Content-Type: application/json

Request fields

FieldTypeRequiredNotes
date_timestring (date-time)required

The moment to calculate for, ISO 8601. ALWAYS include an offset or a trailing Z - a value with no zone is read as Asia/Kolkata (UTC+05:30), not UTC, and can return the previous day's result with a 200. '2026-09-01T06:00:00Z' and '2026-09-01 06:00:00' are different instants and give different answers.

latitudenumber (double)required

Latitude of the place, in decimal degrees. Positive is north, negative is south. Example: 26.9124 for Jaipur, 40.7128 for New York. Minutes and seconds are not accepted - convert first.

min -90 · max 90

longitudenumber (double)required

Longitude of the place, in decimal degrees. Positive is east, negative is west. Example: 75.7873 for Jaipur, -74.0060 for New York. Note the sign: a missing minus puts New York in China.

min -180 · max 180

timezone_as_floatnumber (double)required

UTC offset of the place, in hours, as a decimal. Example: 5.5 for India (UTC+05:30), -5 for New York in winter, 5.75 for Nepal. This is NOT validated against date_time - if the two disagree you get a successful response for the wrong moment, so derive both from the same source. Use the offset in force on that date, not today's: a summer birth in a country with daylight saving needs the summer offset.

min -12 · max 14

yearintegerrequired

Year of birth as a number, e.g. 1990. Four digits.

keysarrayoptional

Which calculations to return, as a list of names. See the key table for this endpoint; an unrecognised name rejects the whole request. One call costs one credit however many keys you ask for, so request everything you need at once rather than making several calls.

nakshatrastringoptional

Only read by /nakshatra-chakras/; ignored elsewhere.

Example request

curl -X POST https://yogataraapi.prahlad.app/api/astro/seasons/ \
  -H "X-API-Key: $OCCULT_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"year":2025,"date_time":"2025-02-13T05:00:37Z","latitude":26.9124,"longitude":75.7873,"timezone_as_float":5.5}'

Response

{
  "data": {
    "year": 2025,
    "equinoxes": [
      {
        "name": "March",
        "moment": "2025-03-20T09:01:29Z"
      },
      {
        "name": "September",
        "moment": "2025-09-22T18:19:20Z"
      }
    ],
    "solstices": [
      {
        "name": "June",
        "moment": "2025-06-21T02:42:16Z"
      },
      {
        "name": "December",
        "moment": "2025-12-21T15:03:05Z"
      }
    ],
    "ritus": [
      {
        "ritu": "Vasant",
        "name": "Vasant Ritu (Indian Spring)",
        "subtitle": "Spring - Vasant",
        "begins": "2025-02-18T10:06:34Z",
        "ends": "2025-04-19T19:56:00Z",
        "tropical_zodiac": [
          "Pisces",
          "Aries"
        ],
        "note": "Vernal Equinox occurs at the middle of Vasant Ritu",
        "image_url": "https://res.cloudinary.com/dd5qujmj9/image/upload/v1785388301/Vasanta_Ritu_muqpf3.svg"
      },
      {
        "ritu": "Grishma",
        "name": "Grishma Ritu (Indian Summer)",
        "subtitle": "Summer - Grishma",
        "begins": "2025-04-19T19:56:00Z",
        "ends": "2025-06-21T02:42:16Z",
        "tropical_zodiac": [
          "Taurus",
          "Gemini"
        ],
        "note": "Grishma Ritu ends with Summer Solstice",
        "image_url": "https://res.cloudinary.com/dd5qujmj9/image/upload/v1785388300/Grishma_Ritu_vhdu0v.svg"
      },
      {
        "ritu": "Varsha",
        "name": "Varsha Ritu (Indian Monsoon)",
        "subtitle": "Monsoon - Varsha",
        "begins": "2025-06-21T02:42:16Z",
        "ends": "2025-08-22T20:33:52Z",
        "tropical_zodiac": [
          "Cancer",
          "Leo"
        ],
        "note": "Varsha Ritu starts with Summer Solstice",
        "image_url": "https://res.cloudinary.com/dd5qujmj9/image/upload/v1785388301/Varsha_Ritu_tvqnhl.svg"
      },
      {
        "ritu": "Sharad",
        "name": "Sharad Ritu (Indian Autumn)",
        "subtitle": "Autumn - Sharad",
        "begins": "2025-08-22T20:33:52Z",
        "ends": "2025-10-23T03:50:55Z",
        "tropical_zodiac": [
          "Virgo",
          "Libra"
        ],
        "note": "Autumnal Equinox occurs at the middle of Sharad Ritu",
        "image_url": "https://res.cloudinary.com/dd5qujmj9/image/upload/v1785388302/Sharad_Ritu_nvzy4z.svg"
      },
      {
        "ritu": "Hemant",
        "name": "Hemant Ritu (Indian Prewinter)",
        "subtitle": "Prewinter - Hemant",
        "begins": "2025-10-23T03:50:55Z",
        "ends": "2025-12-21T15:03:05Z",
        "tropical_zodiac": [
          "Scorpio",
          "Sagittarius"
        ],
        "note": "Hemant Ritu ends with Winter Solstice",
        "image_url": "https://res.cloudinary.com/dd5qujmj9/image/upload/v1785388300/Hemanta_Ritu_a3sole.svg"
      },
      {
        "ritu": "Shishir",
        "name": "Shishir Ritu (Indian Winter)",
        "subtitle": "Winter - Shishir",
        "begins": "2025-12-21T15:03:05Z",
        "ends": "2026-02-18T15:51:55Z",
        "tropical_zodiac": [
          "Capricorn",
          "Aquarius"
        ],
        "note": "Shishir Ritu starts with Winter Solstice",
        "image_url": "https://res.cloudinary.com/dd5qujmj9/image/upload/v1785388300/Shishira_Ritu_sffdv3.svg"
      }
    ]
  },
  "status": 200,
  "is_error": false,
  "message": "successful"
}

Captured from a real call using the exact request above. Results sit under data.

Errors

Metering errors return { "error": "…", "message": "<code>", "is_error": true }. Show error to people and branch on message. See the error reference.