Kark rashi (कर्क) is Cancer in English, the fourth sign of the Vedic zodiac. It is ruled by Moon, belongs to the water element, is movable (chara) in quality and is symbolised by the crab. In Vedic astrology Kark is your rashi only if the Moon was in it when you were born; the Sun crosses it 16 Jul – 16 Aug in 2026.
Karka is Chandra's own rashi and Guru is exalted here, which gives the sign its reputation for nourishment and shelter. It holds Pushya, considered by many texts the most auspicious nakshatra of all. The mind here is tidal (it moves with what surrounds it), and its instinct under pressure is to withdraw into the shell rather than confront.
The classical meaning of a rashi comes from its lord, its element and its quality taken together: Moon ruling a sign of the water element and movable quality. Read as shorthand, a Moon in Kark 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 Kark falls in from your lagna and the dasha that is running change the picture a great deal.
The name letters of Kark rashi are Hi, Hu, He, Ho, Da, Dee, Doo, De, Do. 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 Kark 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.
Kark rashi holds Punarvasu (4th pada), Pushya, Ashlesha. 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 Mithun and Singh. The nakshatra your Moon sits in inside Kark decides your Vimshottari dasha and much of your marriage matching.
Only if the Moon was in Kark 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 Kark 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 signKark rashi (कर्क) is Cancer in English. It is the fourth sign of the sidereal zodiac, spanning 90° to 120°, and its symbol is the crab. The Vedic and Western Cancer share a name but not dates: the sidereal zodiac sits about 24 degrees behind the tropical one, so the Sun reaches Kark about three weeks later.
Moon is the lord of Kark rashi. The lord, or rashi swami, is the planet that owns the sign, and a reading of the sign always goes through it: where Moon sits in your chart, how strong it is and when its dasha runs matter more than the sign alone. Moon rules no other rashi.
The name letters of Kark rashi are Hi, Hu, He, Ho, Da, Dee, Doo, De and Do. 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 Kark. The naam rashi is separate from the Moon sign, which comes from the birth time.
Kark rashi holds Punarvasu (4th pada), Pushya, Ashlesha. 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 Kark decides your Vimshottari dasha and much of your marriage matching.
In 2026 the sidereal Sun is in Kark rashi from 16 Jul – 16 Aug. 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 Kark only if the Moon was in Kark 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.
Save each birth once. Every calculator then opens already worked out for you, your parents, your partner and your children.
