The twelve rashis of Vedic astrology

What is a rashi?

A rashi is one of the twelve signs of the zodiac: a 30 degree slice of the band of sky the Sun, the Moon and the planets travel along. Vedic astrology measures that band against the fixed stars, the sidereal zodiac, so each sign here begins about 24 degrees earlier than the same sign in a Western horoscope. That gap is the ayanamsa, and this site uses Lahiri, the standard in India. It is why many people who are Leo in a magazine turn out to be Karka in a kundli. The twelve, in order, are Mesha, Vrishabha, Mithuna, Karka, Simha, Kanya, Tula, Vrishchika, Dhanu, Makara, Kumbha and Meena.

Is my rashi my Moon sign, Sun sign or ascendant?

In India, "your rashi" almost always means the Moon sign: the rashi the Moon was in when you were born. It is the one used for the first letter of a name, for the daily rashifal, for Sade Sati and for kundli matching. The lagna, the sign rising on the eastern horizon at birth, is a different thing, and it changes about every two hours, which is why a birth time matters. The Sun sign, which Western horoscopes use, changes once a month and plays a smaller part in a Vedic reading.

Which planet rules each rashi, and what is its element?

Every rashi has a lord, the graha that owns it, an element (fire, earth, air or water, repeating in that order from Mesha) and a quality: movable (chara), fixed (sthira) or dual. Seven grahas share the twelve signs. Surya and Chandra own one each; Mangala, Budha, Guru, Shukra and Shani own two each. Rahu and Ketu own none in the classical scheme.

What does a rashi do in a chart?

A rashi is the setting a graha acts in. The same Mangala reads one way in Mesha, its own sign, another in Makara, where it is exalted, and another in Karka, where it is debilitated. The signs also lay out the houses: whichever rashi rises becomes the 1st house and the rest follow in order, so the twelve signs fall on the twelve bhavas differently for every ascendant. Each rashi page lists the nakshatras inside it and the grahas exalted or debilitated there.

A sign describes a temperament, not a fate. Two people with the Moon in the same rashi share one line of their charts and almost nothing else, which is why a reading always starts from the whole chart.