Vedic astrology

Vedic astrology, called Jyotish in Sanskrit, is the traditional astrology of India. It reads the same planets as Western astrology but measures them against the stars rather than the seasons, and it places the Moon, not the Sun, at the centre of a reading.

Lahiri ayanamsa

24°14′ (3 Nov 2026)

Signs (rashis)

12

Nakshatra

27 × 13°20′

Grahas

9

Two zodiacs: tropical and sidereal

Western astrology uses the tropical zodiac. It starts 0° Aries at the spring equinox, the moment the Sun crosses the celestial equator heading north, so the signs are tied to the seasons. Vedic astrology uses the sidereal zodiac, which is fixed to the background stars: 0° Aries (Mesha) sits near the same stars it did two thousand years ago.

The two zodiacs lined up roughly in the early centuries CE. Since then the slow wobble of Earth’s axis, called the precession of the equinoxes, has moved the equinox point backwards against the stars by about one degree every 72 years. The gap between the two zodiacs is called the ayanamsa.

The ayanamsa and your Vedic signs

Most Indian astrologers use the Lahiri ayanamsa, which is the standard of the Indian government’s calendar reform. Because of it, every planet in a Vedic chart sits about 24 degrees earlier than in a Western chart. Many people find that their Vedic Sun sign is the sign before their Western one: someone born on 1 April is a Western Aries but usually a Vedic Pisces (Meena).

This is not a disagreement about where the planets are. Both systems use the same astronomical positions; they simply count the signs from a different starting point.

The Moon comes first

In Jyotish the Moon (Chandra) stands for the mind, and the Moon sign (Rashi) and its nakshatra are the heart of a reading. Indian horoscopes in newspapers are usually written for the Moon sign, not the Sun sign. The rising sign (Lagna) is the other pillar: houses are counted from it as whole signs, so the Lagna’s sign is the first house, the next sign the second, and so on.

Rahu and Ketu

Vedic astrology counts nine grahas: the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn, plus Rahu and Ketu, the north and south nodes of the Moon. The nodes are the points where eclipses happen, and myth tells of a demon whose head (Rahu) and body (Ketu) were cut apart and who now chases the Sun and Moon. Rahu is read as hunger, ambition and obsession; Ketu as detachment, loss and spiritual insight. Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are not part of the traditional system.

The 27 nakshatras

Alongside the twelve signs, Jyotish divides the sky into 27 lunar mansions called nakshatras, each 13°20′ wide, about the distance the Moon travels in a day. Each has a ruling planet, a deity and a symbol, and your birth nakshatra, the one your Moon was in, is considered one of the most personal facts of a Vedic chart. Its ruling planet also sets the starting point of the Vimshottari dasha, the system of planetary periods used for timing.

Vedic Sun sign dates in 2026

The moment the Sun enters each sidereal sign (sankranti), using the Lahiri ayanamsa. Compare them with the Western dates: the gap is about 24 days. Times are in UTC.

The 27 nakshatras

• Ashwini
• Bharani
• Krittika
• Rohini
• Mrigashira
• Ardra
• Punarvasu
• Pushya
• Ashlesha
• Magha
• Purva Phalguni
• Uttara Phalguni
• Hasta
• Chitra
• Swati
• Vishakha
• Anuradha
• Jyeshtha
• Mula
• Purva Ashadha
• Uttara Ashadha
• Shravana
• Dhanishta
• Shatabhisha
• Purva Bhadrapada
• Uttara Bhadrapada
• Revati