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

Makara is the tenth sign of the zodiac. It belongs to Saturn, it is earthy and movable, and it is the one sign that holds both an exaltation and a fall: Mars reaches his highest dignity here and Jupiter his lowest. Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (BPHS) adds that the sign is split, four-footed in its first half and a footless water creature in its second. Most of what the classical texts say about Makara follows from those facts. It is a sign in which the same thirty degrees can carry the strongest and the weakest graha in a chart.

This page sets out what BPHS, Saravali and the other source texts behind this app say about Capricorn, 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 Capricorn matters in your chart at all, start with the Moon Sign calculator.

Three different things are called "Capricorn"

In Vedic practice, "my rashi is Makara" means the Moon was in sidereal Capricorn at birth. The Moon crosses the sign in a little over two days: in this engine it made 133 passes through Capricorn between 2020 and 2029, lasting from 47.0 to 61.0 hours, 54.9 on average. The next one runs from 19:33 IST on 18 October 2026 to 07:00 IST on 21 October. Moon sign and nakshatra explains why the Moon, not the Sun, is the default.

The Sun is in sidereal Capricorn for about thirty days a year: from 21:00 IST on 14 January 2027 to 09:59 IST on 13 February 2027. The tropical zodiac used by Western Sun-sign columns puts the Sun in Capricorn from 22 December 2026 to 20 January 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 a Capricorn from a magazine have the Sun in sidereal Sagittarius; only those born in the last six days of that window have it in Makara. The Sun Sign calculator gives the sidereal answer.

The third meaning is Makara Lagna: Capricorn rising on the eastern horizon at birth. At New Delhi on 6 October 2026 Capricorn rose from 13:55 to 15:37 IST, about 102 minutes, against 85 for Pisces and 141 for Cancer the same day. Saravali Ch. 3 Sloka 37-38 lists Capricorn among the signs of medium ascension. The window moves about two hours earlier each month: on 15 July 2026 it ran from 19:21 to 21:04, and on 15 January 2026 from 07:17 to 08:59. The Lagna needs a birth time and a place, and the Lagna calculator computes it.

How the texts describe Makara

BPHS Ch. 4 describes each rashi in a sloka or two. Its lines for Makar (Sloka 19-20), with the general classifications of Sloka 3 to 5 1/2 and the parallel chapter of Saravali, give the following.

BPHS and Saravali agree on every attribute in the table. "Benefic" is Sloka 5's label for every even sign and "Tamasic" one of three gunas shared out among the twelve; neither is a verdict on a chart. Saravali Ch. 3 Sloka 9-10 adds that the six signs from Leo to Capricorn form the solar half of the zodiac.

The split into a land half and a water half is used, not just stated: BPHS Ch. 27 Sloka 26-29, on the strength of houses, groups a house in the first half of Makar with the quadruped signs and one in the second half with Pisces.

The engine uses the rest of these attributes mechanically. The element feeds the dominant-element count on the Kundali page. The modality fixes where the Navamsa count starts, which signs Capricorn aspects and which house is badhaka for a Capricorn Lagna. The lord, Saturn, decides the dignity of most grahas placed here. The Shad Bala block counts Capricorn as the first of six Uttarayana signs, in which the Sun and Moon receive the motional point. The app also prints one curated temperament line for a Capricorn Moon, "quick-grasping but can be cautious to a fault, values loyalty".

Inside the sign: three nakshatras, nine padas

Thirty degrees of Capricorn hold the last three padas of Uttara Ashadha, all four of Shravana and the first two of Dhanishta. Each pada is 3 degrees 20 minutes and maps to one Navamsa sign. BPHS Ch. 6 Sloka 12 starts the Navamsas of a movable rashi from the rashi itself, and Saravali Ch. 3 Sloka 11 names Capricorn as one of the four starting points, so those of Capricorn begin in Capricorn and end in Virgo.

Three consequences follow. A graha or Lagna in the first 3 degrees 20 minutes of Capricorn is Vargottama, in the same sign in both charts; Saravali Ch. 3 Sloka 13 names the first Navamsa of a movable sign as that portion. Jupiter's deepest fall, 5 degrees, lies in the third pada of Uttara Ashadha, with an Aquarius Navamsa. Mars's deepest exaltation, 28 degrees, lies in the second pada of Dhanishta, the nakshatra he rules in the Vimshottari scheme, with a Virgo Navamsa. 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 Capricorn

• Hora (D2): Capricorn is even, so its first 15 degrees are the Moon's Hora and the second 15 the Sun's (BPHS Ch. 6 Sl. 5-6; Saravali Ch. 3 Sl. 14).
• Drekkana (D3): the three decanates fall in Capricorn, Taurus and Virgo, the sign itself, the 5th and the 9th from it, so all three stay in earth signs (BPHS Ch. 6 Sl. 7-8).
• Trimshamsa (D30): for an even sign the odd-sign order is reversed: 0 to 5 degrees go to Venus, 5 to 12 to Mercury, 12 to 20 to Jupiter, 20 to 25 to Saturn, 25 to 30 to Mars (BPHS Ch. 6 Sl. 27-28; Saravali Ch. 3 Sl. 15).

Dignity: an exaltation and a fall in one sign

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. Makar is on the list for Mangal, deepest at 28 degrees. Guru is exalted in Kark, deepest at 5 degrees, so his fall is in Makar, deepest at 5 degrees. Saravali Ch. 3 Sloka 35-36 and Bhrigu Sutras (pp. 8, 10) give the same signs and degrees; on this point no source in the corpus disagrees. Mars in Vedic astrology and Jupiter in Vedic astrology cover the two grahas, and Cancer, the opposite sign, holds the mirror image: Jupiter exalted and Mars fallen.

Four rows move because this engine judges a graha in another's sign by the fivefold relationship with the sign lord: a natural relationship, in which the Sun counts Saturn an enemy, Venus counts him a friend and the Moon and Mercury count him neutral, 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 Capricorn that means Saturn in Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Libra, Scorpio or Sagittarius; then the Moon, Mercury and Venus read as in a friendly sign and the Sun as neutral. With Saturn anywhere else, Capricorn included, the Sun, Moon and Mercury read as in an enemy sign and Venus as neutral.

The three fixed rows carry the weight. In the strength table an exalted graha scores full positional strength, 10 of 10; a graha in its own sign scores 7.5; a debilitated graha scores zero. The engine labels the whole sign, not just the degree named in the sloka, and it applies no rule that cancels a debilitation: Jupiter in Capricorn is labelled Debilitated wherever the other grahas sit.

Saturn: own sign, but not Moolatrikona

Saturn owns two signs and the sources agree on how they differ. BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 51-54 gives him the same arrangement in Kumbh that the Sun has in Simh: the first 20 degrees are Moolatrikona and the rest his own house. Saravali Ch. 3 Sloka 34 names Aquarius as his Moolatrikona sign, and Bhrigu Sutras (p. 12) says the whole of Capricorn is his own sign. This engine follows them: Saturn is Moolatrikona only in the first 20 degrees of Aquarius, and Own sign anywhere in Capricorn. His exaltation is in Libra, the 10th sign from Capricorn. Saturn in Vedic astrology covers the graha itself, and the Shad Bala calculator weighs dignity beside the other strengths.

Each graha in Capricorn, as Saravali reads it

Saravali gives every graha a sloka or two for each sign. The Capricorn lines are paraphrased below. Its descriptions of the body, of illness and of sexual conduct are left out, and so are its harshest words; what remains is still blunt, and it is the text's voice, not this app's.

Read across the rows and the dignity table shows through. The two grahas with strength here, exalted Mars and Saturn in his own sign, get the generous lines: command, fame, land, skill. The debilitated Jupiter gets the hardest one. The other four, guests in Saturn's sign, share one theme, working for others and wandering, which is the vocabulary Saravali uses for Saturn throughout.

Saravali then modifies each line 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, show how far an aspect, above all Jupiter's, can move the reading:

• Sun in a sign of Saturn aspected by Jupiter: undertakes auspicious deeds, wise, a patron to all, widely famous. Aspected by Saturn: overcomes enemies and prospers through royal honours (Ch. 22 Sl. 58-63).
• Moon in Capricorn aspected by Jupiter: a king, incomparably brave, with royal qualities, children and friends. By Mars: abundant riches, liberal, fortunate and brave. By the Sun: without means and wandering (Ch. 23 Sl. 66-71).
• Saturn in his own sign aspected by Jupiter: famous for good qualities, a king or of a royal line, long-lived. By Mars: very valorous, famous, superior among great men (Ch. 29 Sl. 61-66).

Capricorn rising: Makara Lagna

Saravali Ch. 48 Sloka 38-41 describes the Capricorn-born as valorous, versed in the Shastras, the Vedas, fine arts and music, a householder, wealthy, virtuous, in the service of a king, "very liberal, happy and fortunate", and in the same list as timid, "not mighty", hostile and ill disposed to relatives. It is a list of possibilities that contradict one another, not a portrait. What a Lagna reliably fixes is which graha rules which house, and BPHS Ch. 34 Sloka 39-40 reads that for Makar. 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, which catches Jupiter and Mars; a benefic owning a kendra "will not give benefic effects", which is the Moon in the 7th; and an 8th lordship of the Sun or Moon "is not evil", so the Sun settles at neutral. Venus alone owns a kona and a kendra together, the 5th and the 10th, and Sloka 11-12 makes that link the source of a Yog. Mercury owns the 6th but also the 9th, and Parashara counts him auspicious. Saturn owns the 2nd, one of the two Marak Bhavas of Ch. 44, yet he is the Lagna lord, hence "not a killer on his own". This app reports those labels and computes no death timing.

This app's Yoga Karaka panel follows the sloka: on a Capricorn-rising Kundali it lists Venus as the yoga karaka, Venus and Mercury as auspicious, and Mars, Jupiter and the Moon as malefic, with no killer named. The label comes from Capricorn rising alone; where Venus actually sits is a separate question. See Venus and Mercury for the grahas themselves.

The later books mostly agree. Bhrigu Sutras calls Venus a yoga karaka for Capricorn ascendant as lord of the 5th and 10th (p. 87), counts the 9th lord in the 10th, Mercury in Libra, a powerful Raja yoga (p. 71), and says Saturn exalted in the 10th is "as powerful a disposition as a Raja yoga" (p. 107). Advanced Predictive Astrology calls Saturn in the 9th good for Capricorn Lagna, "even more than for Aquarius" (p. 21). On Jupiter it concedes he is "bad by lordship" of the 3rd and 12th, and still reports the view that he should not be very weak in any chart (p. 76).

Three grahas change dignity in the first house

For a Capricorn Lagna the rising sign is itself the place of an exaltation, a fall and an own sign. Bhrigu Sutras (p. 99) reports that Saturn in the ascendant in Capricorn makes a person "equal to a king", and prefers Capricorn to Aquarius because Saturn then rules the 1st and 2nd, not the 1st and 12th; a translator's note in BPHS Ch. 59 cites Brihat Jataka for the same Raj Yog. Saravali Ch. 35 Sloka 14 builds a royal configuration on exalted Mars rising in Capricorn opposite a full Moon in Cancer. Jupiter is the exception: Sloka 103 gives a king when Jupiter occupies any ascendant "other than Capricorn", and Ch. 39 Sloka 18 reads Jupiter rising in Capricorn, with the Moon not in Cancer, as a mark of want. This engine builds none of those one-off configurations. What it does check is listed next.

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. For Capricorn rising that allows four: Sasa (Saturn in Capricorn in the 1st or exalted in Libra in the 10th), Ruchaka (Mars exalted in the 1st or in Aries in the 4th), Malavya (Venus in Libra in the 10th) and Hamsa (Jupiter exalted in Cancer in the 7th). Bhadra cannot form: the signs of Mercury fall in the 6th and 9th houses. The Yogas calculator lists what your chart forms, and what a yoga in your chart means explains how to weigh it.

The badhaka house

BPHS Ch. 50 Sloka 20-21 states the Badhak for the four movable rashis by name: the 11th from each, which for Makar is Vrischik. This engine takes the same 11th house for a movable Lagna, Scorpio for Capricorn rising, and uses it in one place: a graha there carries the note "badhaka house (sensitive to affliction)" in the strength table. The app reads no event into the label.

Capricorn among the signs: aspects and questions

BPHS Ch. 8 Sloka 1-3 gives the signs aspects of their own: a movable rashi aspects the fixed rashis, except the one next to it. Capricorn therefore aspects Taurus, Leo and Scorpio, but not Aquarius, and the same three aspect it back. 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 movable sign gets the answer of motion. Daivajna Vallabha Ch. 3 Sloka 5 says a question about gaining status succeeds under a fixed ascendant and "does not happen" under a movable one. Ch. 4 Sloka 1 says travel does not occur under a fixed ascendant and "definitely occurs" under a movable one. This app's Prashna feature applies both: a Capricorn query ascendant takes one point off a status question and adds one in favour of a travel question.

A worked chart: Ruchaka, Sasa and a debilitated Jupiter in one house

This is an illustrative birth, not a real person: 10 April 2020, 02:30 IST, New Delhi (28.6139 N, 77.2090 E). Every figure is this engine's output.

Capricorn rises at 13.85 degrees, in Shravana. Three grahas sit in the 1st house with it: Mars at 12.86 degrees, Saturn at 7.09 and Jupiter at 1.29. The engine labels Mars Exalted and flags Ruchaka Yoga, "Mars is exalted in Capricorn, in your 1st house (a kendra)". It labels Saturn Own sign and flags Sasa Yoga. It labels Jupiter Debilitated, and because he is in the first 3 degrees 20 minutes his Navamsa is Capricorn too: Vargottama, in his fall in both charts.

The strength table then separates the three. Mars comes out Strong, 14.75 of 20, with the full 10 for position. Jupiter comes out Weak, 6.5 of 20: zero for position, yet the full 4 points of directional strength, because the 1st is the house in which this engine gives Jupiter his peak. Saturn comes out only Medium, 10.13 of 20: 7.5 for his own sign and nothing for direction, because his peak house is the 7th, opposite.

The Yoga Karaka panel lists Venus, and here she is well placed: in Taurus, her own sign, in the 5th, Strong at 14.96. The same engine also reports a Mild Kendradhipathya Dosha for Venus as owner of the 10th, a Mild Mangal Dosha because Mars is in the 1st, exalted or not, and a Kendra-Kona Raj Yoga from Mars and Saturn together.

The Moon in Vishakha starts the Vimshottari sequence in Jupiter's Mahadasha, which runs until 11 August 2034; Saturn's follows until 2053. The engine grades Jupiter's period challenging and those of Mars, Venus and Saturn good. Chara Dasha opens with twelve years of Capricorn, then runs backwards: no years of Sagittarius (one, less one because Jupiter is debilitated), three of Scorpio (two, plus one for Mars exalted). Two Mahapurusha Yogas in the Lagna, and the first fourteen years belong to the debilitated graha beside them. Neither line cancels the other.

Timing: dashas and transits through Capricorn

Dashas

Vimshottari Dasha starts from the Moon's nakshatra, so a Capricorn Moon begins life in the Mahadasha of the Sun (Uttara Ashadha), the Moon (Shravana) or Mars (the first two padas of Dhanishta), part-way through. The order from there is fixed: Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn. The Vimshottari Dasha calculator dates yours, and what a Mahadasha is explains the arithmetic.

For a graha placed in Capricorn, 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. Ch. 50 Sloka 29-32 names Makar among the inimical rashis of the Sun and says a graha's Dasha in an inimical rashi is full of adversities. 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 Mars or Saturn in Capricorn earns "good" unless Capricorn is the 6th, 8th or 12th from your Lagna, as it is for Leo, Gemini and Aquarius rising, and a Jupiter in Capricorn is graded "challenging" in every chart. The Saturn Mahadasha and the Jupiter Mahadasha cover the two longest of these periods.

Capricorn also has a period of its own in the sign-based Chara Dasha of BPHS Ch. 46 Sloka 158-167. In this engine Capricorn is an even-Pad sign, so its length is counted backwards to the sign Saturn occupies, less one: one year with Saturn in Sagittarius, two with Saturn in Scorpio, eleven with Saturn in Aquarius, twelve with Saturn in Capricorn itself, plus one year when Saturn is exalted and less one when he is debilitated. For a Capricorn Lagna the sequence opens with Capricorn and then runs in reverse, to Sagittarius and Scorpio, because Virgo, the sign in the 9th house, is an even-Pad sign.

Transits

Mars is exalted for about five weeks roughly every two years, and Jupiter is debilitated for about a year in every twelve, so everyone born in those months shares the label. 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 a Capricorn Moon on 6 October 2026 it reads Mercury and Venus in Libra (10th), Jupiter in Cancer (7th), Saturn in Pisces (3rd) and Rahu in Aquarius (2nd) as favourable, and Ketu in Leo (8th) as testing.

Sade Sati and Ashtama Sani for a Capricorn Moon

Sade Sati, as this app defines it, is Saturn in the 12th, 1st or 2nd sign from the natal Moon: Sagittarius, Capricorn and Aquarius for a Makara rashi. The last one ran from 26 January 2017 to 29 March 2025, with a four-month break in 2017 while Saturn was back in Scorpio. Its middle stretch, which the app labels the "Peak phase", was Saturn in Capricorn itself, in his own sign, from January 2020 to January 2023. The next Sade Sati runs from 8 December 2046 to 6 February 2055, with a three-month break in 2054. 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.

On 6 October 2026 neither Sade Sati nor an Ashtama Sani transit is active for a Capricorn Moon: Saturn is in Pisces, the 3rd. Ardha Ashtama Sani, Saturn in the 4th from the Moon, means Aries: 6 June to 21 October 2027, then 22 February 2028 to 16 April 2030, apart from six weeks of 2029. Ashtama Sani proper, Saturn in the 8th, means Leo: 28 August 2036 to 23 October 2038, and again from 27 March to 14 July 2039. The Ashtama Sani calculator checks both, and the Timing feature places them beside your dashas.

Common misreadings

• "I am a Capricorn" from a Western column. That is the tropical Sun. The sidereal Sun is in Capricorn from mid January to mid February, and your rashi is the Moon's sign, not the Sun's.
• "Saturn in Capricorn is in Moolatrikona." BPHS, Saravali and Bhrigu Sutras all put his Moolatrikona in Aquarius. In Capricorn he is in his own sign, which this engine scores at three quarters of full positional strength.
• "Exalted Mars means no Mangal Dosha." This engine flags the dosha from the house Mars occupies, whatever his dignity, as the worked chart shows. The Mangal Dosha calculator states the rule it uses.
• "Debilitated Jupiter ruins the chart." The label is one line of the strength table. In the worked chart the same Jupiter holds full directional strength, and Saravali's own aspect lines change his sign reading.

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 Capricorn, its degree, its house and its combust flag.
3. 3.Look for Mars, Jupiter and Saturn in Capricorn first; their dignity is fixed by the sign. For any other graha there, find Saturn: his sign decides whether it reads as friendly.
4. 4.Use the nakshatra table for the pada and Navamsa sign of each, and check the first pada for Vargottama.
5. 5.If Capricorn rises, read the lordship table, then the Yoga Karaka panel and the yoga list on your Kundali. Mars in the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th or 12th is worth checking with the Mangal Dosha calculator.
6. 6.Date the Dashas of the grahas in Capricorn and of Saturn, and, for a Capricorn 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 Capricorn in Vedic astrology?

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

Which planets are exalted or debilitated in Capricorn?

Mars is exalted, deepest at 28 degrees, and Jupiter is debilitated, deepest at 5 degrees (BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 49-50; Saravali Ch. 3 Sloka 35-36). Saturn is in his own sign. This engine labels the whole sign for all three and gives Rahu and Ketu no dignity.

Which planets are good for Capricorn ascendant?

BPHS Ch. 34 Sloka 39-40 calls Venus and Mercury auspicious and says only Venus causes a superior Yog; it calls Mars, Jupiter and the Moon malefic and the Sun neutral, and says Saturn will not be a killer on his own. These are roles from house lordship; where each graha sits still has to be read from the chart.

Is Mars a good or a bad planet for Capricorn Lagna, given that he is exalted there?

Both statements are in the sources and they measure different things. By lordship BPHS counts Mars a malefic for this Lagna, as owner of the 4th and 11th. By dignity he is exalted in the 1st, which this engine scores as full positional strength and flags as Ruchaka Yoga. The app reports both lines and does not merge them.

When is the next Sade Sati for Makara Rashi?

In this engine it begins when Saturn enters Sagittarius on 8 December 2046 and ends when Saturn leaves Aquarius on 6 February 2055. The previous one ran from January 2017 to 29 March 2025. On 6 October 2026 Saturn is in Pisces, the 3rd from a Capricorn Moon, and the app reports neither Sade Sati nor Ashtama Sani.

Is a Capricorn 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.