The Twelve Rashis (Vedic Zodiac Signs)
द्वादश राशि
What are the twelve rashis in Vedic astrology?
The twelve rashis are the signs of the sidereal zodiac, each 30° wide: Mesha, Vrishabha, Mithuna, Karka, Simha, Kanya, Tula, Vrishchika, Dhanu, Makara, Kumbha and Meena. In Indian usage 'your rashi' means the sign your Moon occupied at birth — not your Sun sign, which is a Western convention.
Vedic astrology measures these signs against the fixed stars rather than from the equinox, and the two zodiacs have drifted roughly 24° apart. This is why a person who has always been told they are one Western sign is frequently the previous sign in a Vedic chart. VedikPatrika uses the Lahiri (Chitrapaksha) ayanamsa, the Indian government standard.
Each sign has a lord, an element (tattva), a quality, and a fixed set of nakshatras it spans. Those four facts do most of the work in any sign-based reading.