Rashis, aligned to the stars
Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces. In a janam kundli they are rashis, occupied by grahas, counted from the lagna. The map underneath is the sidereal zodiac, aligned to the fixed stars rather than to the spring equinox. Fire, earth, air, and water still matter. Movable, fixed, and dual still matter. The names match the West. The dates do not. If you only know your tropical Sun sign, the Vedic rashi of the Sun may be the previous sign. Look at the whole kundli before you decide who you are.
Each sign is also three nakshatras
Jyotish cuts each rashi into three nakshatras, more or less, across the twenty-seven lunar mansions. Those three do not share one planetary lord. A Mercury in sidereal Taurus is not only earth and the bull. It is also whichever nakshatra holds it: Krittika, Rohini, or Mrigashira, each with a different pace. That is why a twelve-sign comparison between Vedic and Western astrology is never the whole argument. The sidereal sign is the room. The nakshatra is the furniture.
Signs from the lagna, not a costume
Your Sun's rashi is one fact. Your Moon's rashi is another. The lagna is a third, and in Jyotish it is often the one that organises the rest. A life with lagna in Cancer and Sun in Capricorn is not a Cancer person or a Capricorn person. It is a chart. Movable signs begin things. Fixed signs hold them. Dual signs adapt and double. Those qualities show in how a dasha unfolds, not only in a personality paragraph. Online Vedic astrology here draws the sidereal map from date, time, and place of birth, then you ask.
Why the dates keep disagreeing
The tropical zodiac is tied to the seasons. The sidereal zodiac is tied to the stars. They have drifted more than twenty degrees, and they keep drifting. That is ayanamsa, the correction Jyotish uses to stay with the stars. VedicAstrology.com works in this Indian, sidereal system. If you want the Western sign you already know, this is not that reading. If you want the rashi as it is used in a janam kundli, begin with the moment you were born.
