Chart basics

Moon sign (janma rashi) in Vedic astrology

The Moon sign, or janma rashi, is the sign the Moon was in at birth. Vedic astrology leans on it more than on the Sun sign: transits, sade sati and daily horoscopes are all counted from it, and matching compares the two people's Moon signs.

Updated Nov 3, 2026

More terms in Chart basics

Moon sign: how the API computes it

The API reads the Moon sign from the Moon's sidereal longitude at the birth moment. That is its place measured against the stars. Lahiri is the default ayanamsa (the gap between the Western and Vedic zodiacs).

POST /v1/planets returns it as the Moon's sign and sign_number. The Moon crosses a sign in about two and a quarter days. So most people can find their Moon sign from the birth date alone.

A birth on a day when the Moon changed sign needs the time. The free sade sati and nakshatra tools on this site use noon when no time is given. Much of the API starts from this one sign.

Transits, where the planets are now, are counted from it (TR-01). Sade sati is Saturn's passage through the sign before it, the sign itself and the sign after it (SS-01). Guna milan, the 36-point marriage match, has eight kootas (scoring factors).

Four of them read the Moon sign: varna, vashya, graha maitri and bhakoot. GET /v1/rashi/{sign}/today takes only a Moon sign and returns the day's reading for it. The reading includes chandra bala (a daily rating from the Moon's sign) and the transits counted from that sign. That suits a horoscope screen for a user who knows their rashi but not their birth time.

Get it from the API

Planet positions and the ascendant. Here is the call to API for Astrology (apiforastrology.com) for our sample, John Doe, born Aug 15, 1990, 10:30 AM, New York.

POST /v1/planets

# John Doe, born Aug 15, 1990, 10:30 AM, New York
curl -X POST "https://apiforastrology.com/api/astrology/v1/planets" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ASTROLOGY_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"year":1990,"month":8,"day":15,"hour":10,"minute":30,"second":0,"latitude":40.7128,"longitude":-74.006,"timezone":"America/New_York"}'

Answer (long lists shortened)200 OK

{
  "meta": {
    "ayanamsa": "lahiri",
    "ayanamsa_value": 23.7260727,
    "julian_day": 2448119.10483,
    "ephemeris": "JPL DE440s",
    "node": "true",
    "timezone": {
      "source": "zone",
      "offset_hours": -4,
      "zone": "America/New_York",
      "abbreviation": "EDT",
      "dst": true,
      "dst_hours": 1,
      "ambiguous_resolved_by_fold": null,
      "note": "read from the IANA tz database at this instant, so daylight saving and historical offset changes are included"
    }
  },
  "ascendant": {
    "name": "Ascendant",
    "longitude": 169.934155,
    "sign": "Virgo",
    "sign_number": 6,
    "degree_in_sign": 19.934155,
    "degree_dms": "19 : 56 : 03",
    "house": 1,
    "nakshatra": "Hast",
    "nakshatra_lord": "Moon",
    "pada": 3,
    "speed": 0,
    "retrograde": false,
    "combust": false,
    "dignity": "n/a",
    "vargottama": false,
    "pushkara": {
      "navamsa": false,
      "navamsa_number": 6,
      "bhaga": false,
      "bhaga_degree": 9,
      "bhaga_by_element": false,
      "bhaga_degree_by_element": 14,
      "sources_agree": true,
      "orb_degrees": 1
    }
  },
  "positions": [
    {
      "name": "Sun",
      "longitude": 118.7753409,
      "sign": "Cancer",
      "sign_number": 4,
      "degree_in_sign": 28.7753409,
      "degree_dms": "28 : 46 : 31",
      "house": 11,
      "nakshatra": "Ashlesha",
      "nakshatra_lord": "Mercury",
      "pada": 4,
      "speed": 0.9610665,
      "retrograde": false,
      "combust": false,
      "dignity": "friend",
      "vargottama": false,
      "pushkara": {
        "navamsa": false,
        "navamsa_number": 9,
        "bhaga": false,
        "bhaga_degree": 8,
        "bhaga_by_element": false,
        "bhaga_degree_by_element": 7,
        "sources_agree": true,
        "orb_degrees": 1
      }
    },
    {
      "name": "Moon",
      "longitude": 54.5750352,
      "sign": "Taurus",
      "sign_number": 2,
      "degree_in_sign": 24.5750352,
      "degree_dms": "24 : 34 : 30",
      "house": 9,
      "nakshatra": "Mrigashira",
      "nakshatra_lord": "Mars",
      "pada": 1,
      "speed": 14.258194,
      "retrograde": false,
      "combust": false,
      "dignity": "mulatrikona",
      "vargottama": false,
      "pushkara": {
        "navamsa": false,
        "navamsa_number": 8,
        "bhaga": false,
        "bhaga_degree": 14,
        "bhaga_by_element": false,
        "bhaga_degree_by_element": 14,
        "sources_agree": true,
        "orb_degrees": 1
      }
    },
    {
      "name": "Mars",
      "longitude": 27.7149328,
      "sign": "Aries",
      "sign_number": 1,
      "degree_in_sign": 27.7149328,
      "degree_dms": "27 : 42 : 54",
      "house": 8,
      "nakshatra": "Krittika",
      "nakshatra_lord": "Sun",
      "pada": 1,
      "speed": 0.5753266,
      "retrograde": false,
      "combust": false,
      "dignity": "own sign",
      "vargottama": false,
      "pushkara": {
        "navamsa": true,
        "navamsa_number": 9,
        "bhaga": false,
        "bhaga_degree": 21,
        "bhaga_by_element": false,
        "bhaga_degree_by_element": 21,
        "sources_agree": true,
        "orb_degrees": 1
      }
    }
  ],
  "planetary_war": []
}

Where the API returns it

POST	/v1/planets	Planet positions and the ascendant
GET	/v1/name/rashi	The Moon sign a name points to
GET	/v1/rashi/{sign}/today	Daily reading for a Moon sign, no chart
POST	/v1/matching	Marriage compatibility score (ashtakoot, 36 points)
GET	/v1/eclipses	Eclipses (grahan) with local times and sutak
GET	/v1/panchang/daily	Daily panchang for a date and place, no birth data
POST	/v1/sadesati	Sade sati: Saturn's 7.5-year transit around the birth Moon

What the API reference says

Each line is quoted from the reference page of the endpoint named above it.

GET /v1/rashi/{sign}/today · Daily reading for a Moon sign, no chartReturns the transit part of the daily reading for a Moon sign (rashi) alone.
POST /v1/matching · Marriage compatibility score (ashtakoot, 36 points)The score uses only the two Moons: each person's Moon nakshatra (lunar mansion) and Moon sign.
GET /v1/eclipses · Eclipses (grahan) with local times and sutakmoon_sign adds for_you: the house from your Moon sign that the eclipse falls in.

Feature page: Kundli and birth charts. Who uses it: Astrology apps. The classical rules the API follows are in the rulebook.

How we check the numbers

Every value here starts from planet positions worked out from NASA JPL planet data (DE440). We test them against NASA JPL Horizons, NASA's planet position service. On 25,571 positions from 1850 to 2149, the Sun and planets agree within 0.001 arc seconds. The Moon agrees within 0.011. On 2,000 random birth charts, the rising sign agrees with Swiss Ephemeris within 0.004 arc seconds. An arc second is 1/3,600 of a degree. A practicing astrologer reviews the rules behind these answers. See how we test.

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Your birth star: the Moon's nakshatra, its quarter (pada), its ruler and your Moon sign.
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Your first answer

John Doe, New York

POST /v1/planets200 OK

RisingVirgoHast
SunCancerAshlesha
MoonTaurusMrigashira
MarsAriesKrittika

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