Aquarius (Kumbha Rashi) in Vedic astrology: the sign, its nakshatras, and what each graha does in it

Kumbha, the pot, is the eleventh sign of the zodiac. It belongs to Saturn and holds his Moolatrikona, it is airy and fixed, and it is one of four signs in which none of the seven grahas is exalted or debilitated. Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (BPHS) draws it as a man holding a pot and, in a later chapter, names it the own sign of Rahu as well. Saravali has almost nothing pleasant to say about any graha placed here, while Parashara gives the Aquarius Lagna a Yoga Karaka of its own.

It sets out what BPHS, Saravali and the other source texts behind this app say about Aquarius, with chapter and sloka, and how the engine turns the sign into the lines in your own chart. It describes rules, not people. To find out whether Aquarius matters in your chart at all, start with the Moon Sign calculator.

Three different things are called "Aquarius"

In Vedic practice, "my rashi is Kumbha" means the Moon was in sidereal Aquarius at birth. The Moon crosses the sign in a little over two days: in this engine it made 134 passes through Aquarius between 2020 and 2029, 54.8 hours long on average and never longer than 60.9. The next one runs from 07:00 IST on 21 October 2026 to 15:04 IST on 23 October. Moon sign and nakshatra explains why the Moon, not the Sun, is the default.

The Sun is in sidereal Aquarius for about thirty days a year: from 09:59 IST on 13 February 2027 to 06:50 IST on 15 March 2027. The tropical zodiac used by Western Sun-sign columns puts the Sun in Aquarius from 20 January to 19 February 2027. The gap is the Lahiri ayanamsa, 24.2267 degrees on 6 October 2026 in this engine, as the Methodology page describes. So most people who call themselves an Aquarius from a magazine have the Sun in sidereal Capricorn; only those born in the last week of that window have it in Kumbha. The Sun Sign calculator gives the sidereal answer.

The third meaning is Kumbha Lagna: Aquarius rising on the eastern horizon at birth. At New Delhi on 6 October 2026 Aquarius rose from 15:37 to 17:04 IST, about 88 minutes, against 85 for Pisces and 141 for Cancer the same day. That is why Saravali Ch. 3 Sloka 37-38 lists Aquarius among the signs of short ascension, with Pisces, Aries and Taurus, and why fewer people are born with it rising than with Cancer or Libra. The window moves about two hours earlier each month: on 15 July 2026 it ran from 21:03 to 22:30, and on 15 January 2026 from 08:59 to 10:26. The Lagna needs a birth time and a place, and the Lagna calculator computes it.

How the texts describe Kumbha

BPHS Ch. 4 describes each rashi in a sloka or two. Its lines for Kumbh (Sloka 21-21 1/2), with the general classifications of Sloka 3 to 5 1/2 and the parallel chapter of Saravali, give the following.

An airy sign that "resorts to deep water" is not a contradiction: the element is a classification, the pot and the water are the picture. On direction, BPHS Ch. 4 and Daivajna Vallabha put Aquarius in the West, while the diagram BPHS draws in Ch. 8 Sloka 6-9 to explain sign aspects sets Kumbh in the South. This engine uses neither.

BPHS also gives Kumbh a varna class. This app uses that only inside the Varna koota of Kundli matching, where it is one point of thirty-six, and makes no statement about people from it.

The engine uses the rest of these attributes mechanically. The modality fixes where the Navamsa count starts, which signs Aquarius aspects and which house is badhaka for an Aquarius Lagna. The lord, Saturn, decides the dignity of every other graha placed here. The Kundali page also prints one curated temperament line for an Aquarius Moon, "active and clever, engaged in many interests at once", and one for an Aquarius Sun, "affable and open-minded, values harmony but holds firmly to formed opinions". Those two lines are this app's wording, not a quotation from Saravali, which reads the sign very differently, as a later section shows.

Inside the sign: three nakshatras, nine padas

Thirty degrees of Aquarius hold the last two padas of Dhanishta, all four of Shatabhisha and the first three of Purva Bhadrapada. Shatabhisha is the only nakshatra that lies wholly inside the sign. Each pada is 3 degrees 20 minutes and maps to one Navamsa sign. BPHS Ch. 6 Sloka 12 starts the Navamsas of a fixed rashi from the ninth sign from it, so those of Aquarius begin in Libra and end in Gemini.

Two consequences follow. A graha or Lagna between 13 degrees 20 minutes and 16 degrees 40 minutes of Aquarius is Vargottama, in the same sign in both charts; for a fixed sign it is the middle Navamsa, not the first or the last. Saturn's Moolatrikona, the first 20 degrees, covers the Dhanishta padas and the whole of Shatabhisha and stops exactly where Purva Bhadrapada begins. The Nakshatra calculator returns the pada, the Navamsa (D9) calculator the Navamsa sign, and Navamsa, the second chart covers how to read it.

The other divisions of Aquarius

• Hora (D2): Aquarius is odd, so its first 15 degrees are the Sun's Hora and the second 15 the Moon's (BPHS Ch. 6 Sl. 5-6; Saravali Ch. 3 Sl. 14).
• Drekkana (D3): the three decanates fall in Aquarius, Gemini and Libra, the sign itself, the 5th and the 9th from it, so all three stay in air signs (BPHS Ch. 6 Sl. 7-8).
• Trimshamsa (D30): for an odd sign, 0 to 5 degrees go to Mars, 5 to 10 to Saturn, 10 to 18 to Jupiter, 18 to 25 to Mercury, 25 to 30 to Venus (BPHS Ch. 6 Sl. 27-28; Saravali Ch. 3 Sl. 15). The Saturn portion falls in Aquarius itself.

Dignity: who is strong in Aquarius, and who is not

BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 49-50 lists the exaltation signs of the seven grahas and puts each one's fall in the seventh sign from it. Aquarius is in neither list, like Gemini, Leo and Sagittarius. Strength in this sign therefore comes from one source, its lord, and Saravali Ch. 3 Sloka 34 names Aquarius as the Moolatrikona sign of Saturn.

The rows move because this engine judges a graha in another's sign by the fivefold relationship with the sign lord: a natural relationship combined with a temporary one read from the chart. By BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 56 a graha in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 10th, 11th or 12th sign from another is its temporary friend. For a graha in Aquarius that means Saturn in Pisces, Aries, Taurus, Scorpio, Sagittarius or Capricorn; then the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter and Venus all read as in a friendly sign and the Sun as neutral. With Saturn anywhere else, Aquarius included, the Sun and the other four drop to an enemy sign and Venus to neutral. The Sun never reaches "friendly" here and Venus never reaches "enemy": those are the two fixed points of the table.

Saturn: one Moolatrikona, one boundary

For once the sources agree to the degree. BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 51-54 says Shani's arrangement in Kumbh is the same as Surya's in Simh, the first 20 degrees Moolatrikona and the rest his own house. Saravali Ch. 5 Sloka 21-24 and Bhrigu Sutras (p. 12) give the same 20 degrees. This engine marks 0 to 20 degrees, and scores Moolatrikona as full positional strength and own sign as three quarters. Capricorn, his other sign, is own sign throughout. Saturn in Vedic astrology covers the graha itself, and the Shad Bala calculator weighs dignity beside the other strengths.

Rahu and Kumbha

The nodes get a line of their own. BPHS Ch. 47 Sloka 34-39 1/2 gives Kumbh as the own rashi of Rahu and Vrischik as that of Ketu, then adds that "some sages" make it Kanya and Meen instead. Ch. 50 Sloka 42 says four rashis counted from Kumbh belong to Rahu and that his Dasha is productive when he sits in one of them. BPHS Ch. 46 Sloka 158-166 works out the Chara Dasha of Kumbh from two lords, Shani and Rahu, counting to whichever is stronger. This engine follows it there: for Chara Dasha it counts Aquarius to Saturn or Rahu by the sloka's tests. Everywhere else its lordship table gives Aquarius to Saturn alone, it assigns Rahu and Ketu no dignity, and a Rahu in Aquarius carries no dignity label in this app. Rahu in Vedic astrology has the wider picture.

Each graha in Aquarius, as Saravali reads it

Saravali gives every graha a sloka or two for each sign. Its Aquarius slokas are the harshest set in the book: most of each one is about illness, dirt, poverty or vice. Those words are left out below, as they are throughout this site, and the table keeps what remains about character and work. Read it knowing that the omitted half is no kinder.

Read across the rows and a pattern shows. Only two lines grant standing, "chief among his own people" for Jupiter and "eminent" for Saturn, and both come attached to faults. Money is short in four of the seven. Even Saturn, in the sign that holds his Moolatrikona, is not spared.

The same book then shows how little those lines mean on their own, because it modifies each by aspect, treating Capricorn and Aquarius together as the signs of Saturn for every graha but the Moon. A few of those lines, again paraphrased:

• Sun in a sign of Saturn aspected by Jupiter: undertakes auspicious deeds, wise, a patron to all, widely famous. Aspected by Saturn: overcomes his enemies and prospers through royal honours (Ch. 22 Sl. 58-63).
• Moon in Aquarius aspected by Jupiter: owns villages, farmland and trees. By Mercury: a skilful host, proficient in music, though with less money. By the Sun: valorous, an agriculturist, "like a king in guise" (Ch. 23 Sl. 73-78).
• Saturn in his own sign aspected by Jupiter: famous for good qualities, a king or of royal family, long-lived. By Mars: very valorous, famous, superior among great men (Ch. 29 Sl. 61-66).

Jupiter's aspect reverses the reading each time. A sign line in Saravali is a starting value, and this engine issues none of these lines as predictions.

Aquarius rising: Kumbha Lagna

Saravali Ch. 48 Sloka 42-45 is as severe on the Aquarius-born as on the grahas: irascible, indolent, dissatisfied, harsh, with "checkered prosperity". In the same breath it says such a person is principal among the men of his community, acquires great wealth and honours elders. It then records a dispute. Satyacharya held that Aquarius is never an auspicious ascendant; the Yavanas went further and said even the Aquarius divisions of other signs are inauspicious; Chanakya did not accept that. What a Lagna reliably fixes is which graha rules which house, and BPHS Ch. 34 Sloka 41-42 reads that for Kumbh. The 1st house page covers the Lagna as a house.

The reasons are in the same chapter. Sloka 2-7 says any graha owning the 3rd, 6th or 11th gives evil effects, and those three houses belong to Mars, the Moon and Jupiter: exactly Parashara's three malefics. Jupiter also rules the 2nd and the Sun the 7th, the two Marak Bhavas of Ch. 44 Sloka 2-5; this app reports the "killer" label and computes no death timing. Mercury rules a kona and the 8th at once, which is why he is called mixed.

Venus is the centre of the chart. Sloka 11-12 says the lord of a kendra and the lord of a kona cause a Yog when they are linked; Venus rules a kendra, the 4th, and a kona, the 9th, by himself, so he needs no partner. Bhrigu Sutras (p. 87) says the same in plain words: for Virgo, Capricorn and Aquarius ascendants Venus is a yoga karaka planet. This app's Yoga Karaka panel follows the sloka: on an Aquarius-rising Kundali it lists Venus, with Venus and Saturn as auspicious, Jupiter, the Moon and Mars as malefic and Jupiter, the Sun and Mars as killers. These are roles from lordship. Where Venus actually sits still has to be read from the chart, as the worked example below shows. See Venus in Vedic astrology for the graha.

The later books add detail on Saturn. Bhrigu Sutras (pp. 98-99) reports the view that Saturn in the ascendant in Aquarius makes a person "equal to a king", and a translator's note in BPHS Ch. 59 cites Brihat Jataka for a Raj Yog from the same placement. The same commentary rates Capricorn above Aquarius for this, because for Aquarius rising Saturn also owns the 12th. Advanced Predictive Astrology adds one unexpected line: for an Aquarius native the Moon in Scorpio, debilitated in the 10th, is said to act as a Raj Yoga planet in her major period (pp. 27-28).

Which Mahapurusha Yogas can form

BPHS Ch. 75 Sloka 1-2 gives five Mahapurusha Yogas; this engine flags one when Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus or Saturn is exalted, in Moolatrikona or in its own sign in a kendra from the Lagna. The kendras of Aquarius rising are Aquarius, Taurus, Leo and Scorpio. That allows Sasa (Saturn in Aquarius in the 1st), Malavya (Venus in Taurus in the 4th) and Ruchaka (Mars in Scorpio in the 10th). Hamsa and Bhadra cannot form: the signs of Jupiter fall in the 2nd, 6th and 11th houses and those of Mercury in the 5th and 8th. The Yogas calculator lists what your chart forms, and what a yoga in your chart means explains how to weigh it.

The badhaka house

This engine takes the 9th as the badhaka house of a fixed Lagna, Libra for Aquarius rising, and uses it in one place: a graha there carries the note "badhaka house (sensitive to affliction)" in the strength table. BPHS Ch. 50 Sloka 20-21, as this app's corpus has it, states the rule only for the movable signs, where the Badhak is the 11th, and there it names Kumbh itself as the Badhak Bhava of an Aries Lagna. The app reads no event into the label.

Aquarius among the signs: aspects and questions

BPHS Ch. 8 Sloka 1-3 gives the signs aspects of their own: every fixed rashi aspects the three movable rashis, barring the one next to it. Aquarius therefore aspects Aries, Cancer and Libra, and the same three aspect it back; Capricorn, its neighbour, is left out. With a birth time, the Kundali page shows this rashi drishti beside the graha aspects.

In horary astrology the modality carries the rules, and a fixed sign gets the settled answer. Daivajna Vallabha Ch. 3 Sloka 5 names Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius as the query ascendants under which a person gains some position or post. Ch. 4 Sloka 1 says that under a fixed ascendant there is "no coming and going", no travel. This app's Prashna feature applies both as written: an Aquarius ascendant adds one point to a question about gains or status, and counts one point against a question about travel. Each is one reason among several in the reading, not a verdict.

A worked chart: Sasa Yoga, and the same yoga burnt

These are illustrative births, not real people, both at New Delhi (28.6139 N, 77.2090 E). Every figure is this engine's output.

First, 20 August 2023 at 19:00 IST. Aquarius rises at 5.68 degrees, in Dhanishta. Saturn is in the 1st house at 10.24 degrees, retrograde, in Shatabhisha pada 1. The engine labels him Moolatrikona and flags Sasa Yoga: "Saturn is in moolatrikona in Aquarius, in your 1st house (a kendra)". His strength comes out Medium, 12.63 of 20, with full positional strength.

Now the Yoga Karaka. The panel lists Venus, but Venus is retrograde in Cancer in the 6th house, in a neutral sign, and the engine grades his Mahadasha "challenging" because of that house. The role is granted by the Lagna; the placement decides what he can do with it. The Moon in Hasta, in the 8th, starts the Vimshottari sequence in her own Mahadasha, until 6 March 2027, followed by Mars to 2034 and Rahu to 2052. Chara Dasha opens with ten years of Aquarius, counted to Rahu in Aries because Saturn sits in Aquarius itself, then runs forward into Pisces for eleven.

Second, 1 March 2024 at 06:10 IST. Aquarius rises again, at 3.28 degrees, and Saturn is again in the 1st in Moolatrikona, now at 15.80 degrees, inside the Vargottama slice, so he is in Aquarius in the Navamsa too. Sasa Yoga is flagged in the same words. But the Sun is in Aquarius at 16.73 degrees, little more than a degree away, well inside the 15-degree combustion orb this engine uses for Saturn. The strength table sets a combust graha's positional strength to zero, Moolatrikona or not, and Saturn comes out Weak, at 2.63 of 20. Same Lagna, same named yoga, same dignity label, and a strength figure a fifth of the first chart's. Both lines are printed.

Timing: dashas and transits through Aquarius

Dashas

Vimshottari Dasha starts from the Moon's nakshatra, so an Aquarius Moon begins life in the Mahadasha of Mars (Dhanishta), Rahu (Shatabhisha) or Jupiter (Purva Bhadrapada), part-way through. The order from there is fixed: Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury. Four of the nine padas belong to Shatabhisha, so Rahu's eighteen years is the commonest opening. The Vimshottari Dasha calculator dates yours, and what a Mahadasha is explains the arithmetic.

For a graha placed in Aquarius, BPHS Ch. 47 Sloka 5-6 gives the test: its Dasha is favourable when the lord is in the Lagna, exalted, or in its own or a friendly sign, and unfavourable when it is debilitated, in an inimical sign or in the 6th, 8th or 12th house. This app grades a Mahadasha "challenging" when its lord is debilitated, in an enemy sign or in one of those three houses, "good" when it is exalted, in Moolatrikona or in its own sign, and "neutral" otherwise. So a Saturn in Aquarius earns "good" unless Aquarius is the 6th, 8th or 12th from your Lagna, as it is for Virgo, Cancer and Pisces rising. The Saturn Mahadasha covers his nineteen years.

Aquarius also has a period of its own in the sign-based Chara Dasha of BPHS Ch. 46 Sloka 158-167. The worked example in that passage places Kumbh in an even Pad and counts from it in reverse, and this engine does the same: the length is the count backwards from Aquarius to the sign of the lord it counts to, less one. Kumbh has two lords, Saturn and Rahu, and the engine applies the two-lord clause: with both in Aquarius the period is twelve years; with one of them there it counts to the other; otherwise the sloka's tests pick one (an exalted graha in a lord's sign, then more grahas, then sign type, then degree). Counting to Saturn gives one year with him in Capricorn and eleven with him in Pisces; one year is added when the graha counted to is exalted and taken off when it is debilitated, though never for Rahu. For an Aquarius Lagna the sequence opens with Aquarius and runs forward, to Pisces and Aries, because Libra, the sign in the 9th house, is an odd-Pad sign. K.N. Rao's school leaves out the added and subtracted year, so software following it will show a different length in some charts.

Transits

Transits are read from the natal Moon. The Gochar calculator counts each graha's sign from your Moon and applies this engine's rule set; for an Aquarius Moon on 6 October 2026 it reads Mars in Cancer (6th), Mercury and Venus in Libra (9th) and Saturn in Pisces (2nd) as favourable, and the Sun in Virgo (8th) with Rahu in Aquarius itself (1st) as testing. Jupiter in Cancer and Ketu in Leo read as neutral.

Sade Sati and Ashtama Sani for an Aquarius Moon

Sade Sati, as this app defines it, is Saturn in the 12th, 1st or 2nd sign from the natal Moon: Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces for a Kumbha rashi. It is running now. It began when Saturn entered Capricorn on 26 January 2020; the peak phase, Saturn in Aquarius itself, ran from 17 January 2023 to 29 March 2025 after a first two-month visit in 2022; and the setting phase, Saturn in Pisces, lasts until 22 February 2028, with a four-month break from 6 June to 21 October 2027 while Saturn is in Aries. The next one runs from 16 March 2049 to 8 April 2057, with a five-month break in 2049. The app describes the period as "traditionally read as a time to consolidate rather than expand, not as an omen." The Sade Sati calculator gives the phase for your Moon.

Ardha Ashtama Sani, Saturn in the 4th from the Moon, means Taurus for an Aquarius Moon: six weeks from 16 August 2029, then 16 April 2030 to 30 May 2032. The app reads it as "testing domestic peace and family matters, calling for patience at home rather than signalling anything fixed or fated". Ashtama Sani proper, Saturn in the 8th, means Virgo: 23 October 2038 to 27 September 2041, apart from four months of 2039. The Ashtama Sani calculator checks both, and the Timing feature places them beside your dashas.

Common misreadings

• "I am an Aquarius" from a Western column. That is the tropical Sun. The sidereal Sun is in Aquarius from mid February to mid March, and your rashi is the Moon's sign, not the Sun's.
• "Aquarius is the water sign." It is the water-bearer and BPHS says it resorts to deep water, but the same sloka classes it as airy. The water signs are Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces.
• "Saturn in his own sign always delivers." The engine zeroes his positional strength when combust and grades his Mahadasha challenging in the 6th, 8th or 12th house. Saravali is harsh on Saturn in Aquarius even without those.
• "Planets sitting with Saturn in Aquarius are with a friend." By BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 56 a graha in the same sign is not a temporary friend, so this engine reads the Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury or Jupiter beside Saturn as in an enemy sign.

How to check this in your own chart

1. 1.Run the Moon Sign calculator. Without a birth time it also reports the Moon at both ends of your birth date and whether the sign changed; what an unknown birth time costs explains the rest.
2. 2.Check the Sun with the Sun Sign calculator and the Lagna with the Lagna calculator. Then cast the full chart with the Birth Chart calculator. Note every graha in Aquarius, its degree, its house and its combust flag.
3. 3.Find Saturn first. In Aquarius, his degree decides Moolatrikona or own sign, and his distance from the Sun decides whether that counts. Elsewhere, his sign decides whether the grahas in Aquarius read as friendly.
4. 4.Use the nakshatra table for the pada and Navamsa sign of each, and check 13:20 to 16:40 for Vargottama.
5. 5.If Aquarius rises, read the lordship table, then find Venus: his house and dignity carry the Yoga Karaka role. Then read the yoga list on your Kundali.
6. 6.Date the Dashas of the grahas in Aquarius and of Saturn, and, for an Aquarius Moon, check Sade Sati, Ashtama Sani and Gochar.
7. 7.To verify a citation, the Sources page lists the texts this app draws on.

Frequently asked questions

What are the dates for Aquarius in Vedic astrology?

For the Sun, about 13 February to 14 or 15 March each year. But Kumbha rashi usually means the Moon sign, and the Moon is in Aquarius for about 55 hours every month, so no date range answers that. It needs your birth date and sometimes your birth time.

Who rules Kumbha Rashi, and what kind of sign is it?

Saturn rules it (BPHS Ch. 4 Sloka 21-21 1/2). It is the eleventh sign: fixed, odd and male, airy, Tamasic, a human sign that is strong by day, rises head first and is placed in the West. BPHS Ch. 47 also calls it the own sign of Rahu.

Which nakshatras fall in Aquarius?

The last two padas of Dhanishta, all of Shatabhisha, and the first three padas of Purva Bhadrapada. Their Vimshottari lords are Mars, Rahu and Jupiter, which decides the first Mahadasha of an Aquarius Moon.

Is any planet exalted or debilitated in Aquarius?

None of the seven grahas. BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 49-50 lists the exaltation signs and their opposites, and Aquarius is in neither list. The strongest dignity here is Saturn's Moolatrikona in the first 20 degrees.

Which planets are good for Aquarius ascendant?

BPHS Ch. 34 Sloka 41-42 calls Venus and Saturn auspicious and says Venus alone causes a Raj Yog, because he rules both the 4th and the 9th. It calls Jupiter, the Moon and Mars malefic, names Jupiter, the Sun and Mars as killers, and gives Mercury mixed effects. These are roles from house lordship; where each graha sits still has to be read from the chart.

Why does my chart say "Own sign" for Saturn in Aquarius and not Moolatrikona?

Because of the degree. This engine, like BPHS, Saravali and Bhrigu Sutras, counts only the first 20 degrees of Aquarius as Saturn's Moolatrikona; in the last 10 he is in his own sign. Saturn in Capricorn is own sign at every degree.

Is Sade Sati over for Kumbha Rashi?

Not yet. In this engine the peak phase ended when Saturn left Aquarius on 29 March 2025, and the setting phase, Saturn in Pisces, runs to 22 February 2028 with a break from June to October 2027. The next Sade Sati for an Aquarius Moon begins in March 2049.

Is an Aquarius Moon compatible with a particular sign?

None of the source texts behind this app gives sign-to-sign verdicts, so this page gives none. Matching in the Indian tradition scores eight kootas from both Moons' signs and nakshatras; the Kundli Matching calculator and the Compatibility feature show each part of that score for two real birth dates.