Kanya rashi (कन्या) is Virgo in English, the sixth sign of the Vedic zodiac. It is ruled by Mercury, belongs to the earth element, is dual (dwiswabhava) in quality and is symbolised by the maiden. In Vedic astrology Kanya is your rashi only if the Moon was in it when you were born; the Sun crosses it 17 Sep – 16 Oct in 2026.
Budh owns Kanya and is also exalted in it, the only sign where a graha holds both dignities, which is why the sign is so strongly associated with discrimination and craft. Hasta, the hand, sits at its centre. The mind here improves things by finding what is wrong with them, a gift that turns corrosive when it is turned inward.
The classical meaning of a rashi comes from its lord, its element and its quality taken together: Mercury ruling a sign of the earth element and dual quality. Read as shorthand, a Moon in Kanya leans towards the four qualities above. Treat them as the sign's raw material rather than a portrait of a person: the planets that sit with the Moon, the house Kanya falls in from your lagna and the dasha that is running change the picture a great deal.
The name letters of Kanya rashi are To, Pa, Pee, Pu, Sha, Na, Tha, Pe, Po. Each is the naming syllable of one of the nine nakshatra padas that fall inside the sign, so a name that begins with one of these sounds has Kanya as its naam rashi. The naam rashi is a naming convention; your Moon sign still comes from your birth time.
Choosing a name for a baby? The baby name letters calculator gives the syllable for the exact nakshatra pada, and the rashi by name calculator reads the rashi of a name you already have.
Kanya rashi holds Uttara Phalguni (2–4), Hasta, Chitra (1–2). A rashi is 30 degrees wide and a nakshatra 13°20', so a sign holds two and a quarter nakshatras and shares the padas at its edges with Singh and Tula. The nakshatra your Moon sits in inside Kanya decides your Vimshottari dasha and much of your marriage matching.
Only if the Moon was in Kanya when you were born. Western horoscopes use the tropical Sun sign, which sits about 24 degrees away from the sidereal zodiac every Indian panchang uses, so a newspaper column and a Vedic chart often give different signs. The Moon crosses a rashi in about two and a quarter days, which is why the date alone cannot settle it and the birth time is needed. Calculate your Moon sign, find your birth nakshatra, or make the full kundli to see the lagna and all nine planets.
Short answers about Kanya rashi: its English name, lord, name letters and dates.
Your own rashi is your Moon sign. It takes a date, a time and a place.
Find my Moon signKanya rashi (कन्या) is Virgo in English. It is the sixth sign of the sidereal zodiac, spanning 150° to 180°, and its symbol is the maiden. The Vedic and Western Virgo share a name but not dates: the sidereal zodiac sits about 24 degrees behind the tropical one, so the Sun reaches Kanya about three weeks later.
Mercury is the lord of Kanya rashi. The lord, or rashi swami, is the planet that owns the sign, and a reading of the sign always goes through it: where Mercury sits in your chart, how strong it is and when its dasha runs matter more than the sign alone. Mercury also rules Mithun rashi.
The name letters of Kanya rashi are To, Pa, Pee, Pu, Sha, Na, Tha, Pe and Po. They are the syllables of the nine nakshatra padas that fall in the sign, and a name that begins with one of them gives a naam rashi of Kanya. The naam rashi is separate from the Moon sign, which comes from the birth time.
Kanya rashi holds Uttara Phalguni (2–4), Hasta, Chitra (1–2). A rashi spans 30 degrees, which is two and a quarter nakshatras, so the padas at either end of the sign are shared with the neighbouring rashis. The nakshatra your Moon occupies inside Kanya decides your Vimshottari dasha and much of your marriage matching.
In 2026 the sidereal Sun is in Kanya rashi from 17 Sep – 16 Oct. The day it enters the sign, the sankranti, moves by about a day across the leap-year cycle, so it is computed for each year. Western horoscopes give earlier dates because they use the tropical zodiac. Your own rashi is your Moon sign, which these Sun dates do not decide.
Your rashi is Kanya only if the Moon was in Kanya when you were born. Vedic astrology reads the Moon sign, not the Sun sign, and the Moon crosses a rashi in about two and a quarter days, so the date alone is not enough. A Moon sign calculator finds it from your birth date, time and place.
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