Vedic sun sign dates: sidereal zodiac sign dates

The table lists the usual date the Sun enters each of the twelve sidereal signs, computed by Skybond using the True Chitra Paksha ayanamsa and Indian Standard Time.

Take one row as an example: the Sun usually enters Cancer on 16 July. The last column shows the entry dates across every year from 2000 to 2050, which for Cancer is 16 or 17 July.

That range exists because the Sun takes about 30 days to cross each sign, so it spends about a month in each, and the entry dates drift slightly from year to year. So treat these dates as close for any year, not fixed for every year.

If you were born well away from these dates, the table alone tells you your Vedic sun sign. If you were born on or near one, read the next section.

For example, if the Sun enters Cancer at 23:30 IST on 16 July, a birth earlier that day in India has the Sun in Gemini, and a birth after that time has the Sun in Cancer. The live block below gives the exact entry times for the calendar year.

One more thing matters near a boundary: the ayanamsa, the measured gap between the two zodiacs, is about 24 degrees in the early 21st century, and the exact value used decides which side of a boundary a birth falls on. Different ayanamsas can move these entry dates slightly. Skybond uses True Chitra Paksha.

So if your birth falls on a change day, check the entry time for your birth year against your birth time, and remember that another ayanamsa could place a very near-boundary birth in the neighbouring sign.

Sankranti means the entry of the Sun (Surya) into a new sign (rashi). The Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (BPHS, R. Santhanam's translation), a classical Sanskrit text, defines it in chapter 90 as 'Sankranti (entry of Sūrya in a new Rāśi)'.

P.V.R. Narasimha Rao (PVR), author of Vedic Astrology: An Integrated Approach, notes that the Sun's entry into Capricorn is celebrated in south India as 'Makara Sankraanthi' or 'Makara Sankramanam' or 'Pongal'. It falls on 14 or 15 January, the Capricorn row in the table above.

So each of the twelve entry dates on this page is a sankranti day.

In Vedic astrology, 'sign' can mean three things:

• The sun sign: the sign the Sun occupied at birth, which is what the dates on this page give you.
• The moon sign (rashi): the sign the Moon occupied. In India, 'your rashi' usually means this.
• The Vedic ascendant (lagna): the sign rising on the eastern horizon at the moment of birth. This needs a birth time.

The sun sign alone does not give the moon sign or the lagna. Those need the birth date, time and place.

Skybond's site suggests that if you only know your sun sign, reading it as your ascendant is a fine place to start. Skybond's transit articles at /transits/ are written per ascendant.