The twelve Rashis

The twelve Vedic Moon signs side by side; open any Rashi for the character Jyotish gives it and its name letters.

In Vedic astrology your Rashi is the sign the Moon occupied at birth, measured in the sidereal zodiac with Lahiri’s ayanamsa. Each Rashi spans 30° and holds two and a quarter nakshatras. The table gives the Sanskrit name, the matching Western sign, the lord, the Moon’s dignity and the nakshatras of every Rashi.

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At a glance

Rashi	Sanskrit	Sign (sidereal)	Lord	The Moon here	Nakshatras
Mesh Rashi	Mesha	Aries	Mars	Neither exalted, own nor debilitated	Ashwini, Bharani, Krittika
Vrishabh Rashi	Vrishabha	Taurus	Venus	Exalted (uchcha); also its moolatrikona sign	Krittika, Rohini, Mrigashira
Mithun Rashi	Mithuna	Gemini	Mercury	Neither exalted, own nor debilitated	Mrigashira, Ardra, Punarvasu
Kark Rashi	Karka	Cancer	Moon	Own sign (swakshetra)	Punarvasu, Pushya, Ashlesha
Singh Rashi	Simha	Leo	Sun	Neither exalted, own nor debilitated	Magha, Purva Phalguni, Uttara Phalguni
Kanya Rashi	Kanya	Virgo	Mercury	Neither exalted, own nor debilitated	Uttara Phalguni, Hasta, Chitra
Tula Rashi	Tula	Libra	Venus	Neither exalted, own nor debilitated	Chitra, Swati, Vishakha
Vrishchik Rashi	Vrishchika	Scorpio	Mars	Debilitated (neecha)	Vishakha, Anuradha, Jyeshtha
Dhanu Rashi	Dhanu	Sagittarius	Jupiter	Neither exalted, own nor debilitated	Mula, Purva Ashadha, Uttara Ashadha
Makar Rashi	Makara	Capricorn	Saturn	Neither exalted, own nor debilitated	Uttara Ashadha, Shravana, Dhanishta
Kumbh Rashi	Kumbha	Aquarius	Saturn	Neither exalted, own nor debilitated	Dhanishta, Shatabhisha, Purva Bhadrapada
Meen Rashi	Meena	Pisces	Jupiter	Neither exalted, own nor debilitated	Purva Bhadrapada, Uttara Bhadrapada, Revati

Every Rashi

Rashi and the Western sign

Rashi means sign, and the twelve Rashis follow the same order as the Western signs: Mesha is Aries, Vrishabha Taurus, and so on round to Meena, Pisces. What differs is where the circle starts. Western astrology counts from the March equinox, so 0° Aries moves with the seasons. Jyotish counts from the fixed stars, using the Lahiri ayanamsa to place 0° Mesha, and today that point lies about 24° behind the equinox.

The result is a shift that surprises people meeting it for the first time. A Moon at 10° of a Western sign is usually in the preceding sign when measured sidereally, so the Rashi and the Western Moon sign often differ. Neither is a mistake; they answer to different zodiacs.

The sign lords

Each Rashi has a lord, and the lord decides much of how the sign is read. Mesha and Vrishchika belong to Mars, Vrishabha and Tula to Venus, Mithuna and Kanya to Mercury, Dhanu and Meena to Jupiter, and Makara and Kumbha to Saturn. The Sun rules Simha and the Moon rules Karka. Rahu and Ketu, the two lunar nodes, hold no sign in the scheme this site follows.

The Moon has her own set of strengths in Jyotish, and the vocabulary is Vedic: exalted in Vrishabha, in her own sign in Karka, and debilitated in Vrishchika. In every other Rashi she is neither exalted, own nor debilitated. Each Rashi page states which of the three applies, along with the lord’s name and the sign’s Western counterpart.

Rashis and nakshatras

Under the Rashis sits a finer division. The zodiac is cut into 27 nakshatras of 13°20′ each, and a Rashi of 30° holds two and a quarter of them, which is nine padas of 3°20′. The boundaries do not line up, so a nakshatra such as Krittika begins in one Rashi and ends in the next, and its padas are shared between the two.

For that reason the Moon’s Rashi tells you only part of her position. The nakshatra gives the rest, and the lord of the nakshatra opens the Vimshottari dasha sequence. Every Rashi page lists the nakshatras that fall inside it with the name letters of their padas, and the nakshatras hub lists all twenty-seven side by side. To find the Rashi of a particular birth, enter a date, time and city into the Moon sign calculator, and switch it to Vedic to see the Rashi and nakshatra.

Prashna is the Vedic art of answering a question from the chart of the moment it is asked. The asker takes the Lagna, and the Rashi the Moon occupies at that moment, with its lord, shows the state of mind and the way the matter will go. AstroGPT’s Vedic mode reads a Prashna chart for the moment you ask.

Have a question on your mind?

Ask AstroGPT: it casts the chart of the moment you ask and reads it by the traditional rules.

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Frequently asked questions

What is a Rashi?

Rashi is the Sanskrit word for a sign of the zodiac. Asked for their Rashi, people give the Moon sign: the sidereal sign the Moon was in at birth.

Why is my Rashi different from my Western Moon sign?

The Vedic zodiac is fixed to the stars and the Western one to the equinox. They have drifted about 24° apart, so a Moon in the first 24° of a Western sign usually falls in the previous Rashi.

Which planets rule the Rashis?

Seven grahas rule the twelve signs: the Sun rules Simha, the Moon rules Karka, and Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn rule two signs each. In the scheme this site’s kundli calculator uses, Rahu and Ketu rule no sign.

How many nakshatras are in a Rashi?

Two and a quarter: 27 nakshatras of 13°20′ divide the twelve Rashis of 30°, so each Rashi holds nine padas. Where a nakshatra straddles two Rashis, some of its padas fall in each.

The twelve rising signsA table of the twelve Ascendants by element, ruler and rising speed, each one linking to its own guide.The Moon in the twelve signsSee where the Moon is at home, exalted or weak, then open any sign for the emotional needs the tradition links to it.The 27 nakshatrasBrowse the lunar mansions in order, and open any one for its padas and the syllables traditionally used to name a child.Moon sign calculatorFree Moon sign calculator: find your Western Moon sign or your Vedic Moon sign (Rashi) and birth nakshatra from your birth date, with or without a time.

Sources

Hart de Fouw and Robert Svoboda, Light on Life: An Introduction to the Astrology of India (Penguin, 1996)

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