What is a rashi (zodiac sign)?
A rashi is one of the twelve signs of the zodiac, each spanning 30 degrees of the sidereal ecliptic.
What it is
The twelve rashis are Mesha (Aries), Vrishabha (Taurus), Mithuna (Gemini), Karka (Cancer), Simha (Leo), Kanya (Virgo), Tula (Libra), Vrishchika (Scorpio), Dhanu (Sagittarius), Makara (Capricorn), Kumbha (Aquarius) and Meena (Pisces). Mesha starts at 0 degrees sidereal.
How it is worked out or read
A planet's rashi is the integer part of its sidereal longitude divided by 30. A longitude of 75 degrees is in the fourth rashi, Karka, at 15 degrees. Each rashi has a lord, an element and a quality, described in the rashi pages.
Where it appears on this site
The rashi of each graha is shown in the birth chart. Each sign has a page in the learn section.
Reading a rashi in a chart
When a chart says that a planet is in Karka at 15 degrees, three things are being stated. The sign is Karka, the fourth sign of the sidereal zodiac, counted from Mesha. The degree is 15 out of the 30 that the sign covers. And the planet's position within the sign, together with the sign's lord and element, is what the classical rules use to describe its expression. A reader should note all three. The sign alone is only the frame. Two planets in the same sign can express the sign in different ways, depending on their degree, their nakshatra and the house in which they fall.
Common confusions
New readers often confuse a rashi with a house, or the Moon sign with the Lagna. A rashi is a fixed twelfth of the zodiac. A house is a division of the chart counted from the Lagna. The Lagna is the rising sign at birth, and the Moon sign is the sign the Moon occupies. A person can have a Lagna in one sign, a Moon in another and a Sun in a third. Keeping these three apart is the first step in reading a chart without confusion. The tools on this site list all three on the birth chart page.
Rashis in the calendar
The rashis also organise the calendar in a way that many readers meet before they meet the chart. The Sun's entry into each sign marks a sankranti, and the entry into Makara is the basis of Makar Sankranti, one of the most widely observed festivals in India. Because the Sun takes roughly a month to cross each sign, the sankranti dates shift slightly from year to year. The rashi is therefore both a unit of the chart and a unit of the solar year, and the two uses should be kept clear when a festival is discussed.
Signs as a seasonal picture
Although the sidereal signs no longer match the seasons, they are still read as a picture of the year's movement. A reader may think of the twelve signs as twelve stages of the Sun's journey, each with its own character, even though the names are fixed to the stars.