Two lists that mostly overlap
Line the systems up and seven entries match exactly: the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn appear in both, under Sanskrit names in one and Roman ones in the other — Surya, Chandra, Mangal, Budha, Guru, Shukra, Shani. From there the lists part company. A modern Western chart adds Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, discovered in 1781, 1846 and 1930 respectively, bringing it to ten bodies. A Vedic chart instead adds Rahu and Ketu, two calculated points rather than physical objects, for a total of nine. The Sanskrit word graha is often translated as planet, though it means something closer to one that seizes or holds, which is why two mathematical points can sit on the list without any awkwardness.
You already use the seven every week
The shared core is not an obscure piece of trivia; it is embedded in the calendar you use daily. The seven-day week takes its day names from the same seven classical bodies in both traditions. Sunday and Monday are transparent in English, and Saturday keeps Saturn outright, while the other three come through the Norse equivalents of the Roman gods. Hindi does the same job without the detour: Ravivar for the Sun, Somvar for the Moon, Mangalvar for Mars, Budhvar for Mercury, Guruvar for Jupiter, Shukravar for Venus and Shanivar for Saturn. The order of the days is identical in both, which is a small piece of evidence that the two astronomical traditions were talking to each other a very long time ago.
Why the outer planets are absent
The classical Indian scheme was fixed long before a telescope existed, and it was built from what a careful observer can actually see moving against the stars. Uranus is at the edge of naked-eye visibility and was not recognised as a planet until the eighteenth century; Neptune and Pluto require instruments. So their absence is not a rejection of astronomy — the tradition simply closed its list of significators before they were known, and the interpretive framework was built to be complete with nine. Some contemporary Vedic astrologers do consult the outer planets as a supplementary layer, but they are not part of the standard reading, and the core techniques — the periods, the strengths, the aspects — allocate no role to them at all.
Rahu and Ketu, the points that cause eclipses
The Moon’s orbit is tilted about five degrees to the plane of Earth’s orbit, so it crosses that plane at two opposite points. Those crossings are the lunar nodes, and an eclipse can only happen when a new or full moon lands near one. Western astrology knows them as the North and South Node and generally treats them as sensitive points; Vedic astrology names them Rahu and Ketu and gives them the full status of grahas, with their own periods, aspects and results. The eclipse connection is the reason. A point capable of blotting out the Sun or Moon was never going to be a footnote, and the mythology of a severed demon swallowing the luminaries encodes exactly that observation. They are always exactly opposite each other in a chart.
What the different roster changes in practice
Mostly it changes who gets blamed and who gets credit. A Western astrologer reading a disruptive, sudden-change signature may look to Uranus; a Vedic astrologer reading the same chart will usually be looking at Rahu, Saturn, or the condition of the relevant house lord. Neither list leaves the territory uncovered — each distributes it differently across the bodies it uses. The other practical consequence is sign rulership. With no Uranus, Neptune or Pluto, Vedic astrology keeps the classical scheme in which Saturn rules both Capricorn and Aquarius, Jupiter both Sagittarius and Pisces, and Mars both Aries and Scorpio, where much Western practice has reassigned the second of each pair to an outer planet.