About Darshan

Our Mission

Darshan was built for the devotee in Toronto who misses the Mangala Aarti at the mandir they grew up near. For the family in London who wants a verified Acharya to perform a Satyanarayan Katha over live video. For the young professional in Bangalore who wants to understand their Kundali without an expensive appointment. For the retired couple in Chennai planning their first Char Dham yatra.

We are building Darshan one mandir at a time — steadily, carefully, with deep respect for the tradition we serve.

What Darshan Is

Darshan is a free app and website for Hindu devotees. It brings together:

• Live aarti streams — watch darshan from 60+ mandirs across India and the world, around the aarti schedule
• Temple directory — verified aarti timings, history, travel guides, and festival calendars for each mandir
• Saarthi — an AI spiritual companion grounded in Vedic scripture (Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads, Puranas), responding in English, Hindi, or your language
• Vedic Kundali — free birth chart generation using Lahiri ayanamsa and Vimshottari Dasha, with no account required
• Kundali Matching — free Ashta Koota (guna milan) compatibility scoring for marriage
• Pooja booking — live video poojas with gurukul-trained Acharyas for diaspora and India-based devotees alike
• Yatra Planner — build your pilgrimage circuit with aarti timings and Sangha for travel companions

Our Approach to Temple Data

Accuracy is the most important thing we can offer a devotee who travels to a temple based on the timings they found on Darshan. We source aarti timings directly from official temple websites — kashivishwanath.in, tirumala.org, the Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, and the like. When a temple changes its schedule, we update our records.

We always include the disclaimer: “Aarti timings are indicative. Confirm directly with the temple before travel, as schedules change for festivals and special occasions.” We will never pretend our data is more authoritative than the temple itself.

Rooted in Authentic Vedic Knowledge

Every feature on Darshan is built on classical systems, not approximations:

• Kundali uses Lahiri ayanamsa — the standard for Vedic (Jyotish) astrology
• Dasha periods follow the Vimshottari system, the primary dasha used in North and South Indian traditions
• Kundali matching follows the Ashta Koota system, scoring all 8 koota factors
• Saarthi draws on Vedic scripture and traditional commentaries, not generic spiritual content
• Acharyas are verified to hold gurukul credentials before they can accept bookings on Darshan

Privacy First

Darshan does not store your personal data on our servers. Birth details entered for Kundali generation stay in your browser's local storage only — they never leave your device. We don't run advertising. We don't sell data. Read our Privacy Policy for the complete picture.

Who Built Darshan

Darshan was founded by Raghav Kapoor. The app is built on Next.js, deployed on Vercel, and powered by Anthropic Claude for Saarthi. Temple images are sourced from Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licences and attributed to their photographers.

We are a small team with a large mission: to make the mandir accessible to every Hindu devotee, wherever they live.