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In short
A Sun sign is the sign the Sun occupied at birth. Western columns measure it on the tropical zodiac; this app measures it on the sidereal zodiac, so its Sun sign is usually one sign earlier than the Western one. In Vedic usage a person's sign normally means the Moon sign, and the Sun sign is a separate, secondary placement.
What the term means
The Sun sign is the rashi the Sun was in at birth. Two different things go by the name. The Western Sun sign is measured on the tropical zodiac, which starts at the March equinox. The Vedic Sun sign, the one this app computes, is measured on the sidereal zodiac, which in this engine stood a little under 24 degrees behind it in the 1980s. In Vedic usage a person's sign normally means the Moon sign, not this one.
Where the term comes from
The phrase does not occur in any of the classical texts in this project's library. They place the Sun in a rashi as they place any graha: Saravali gives a chapter to the Sun in each of the twelve rashis (Ch. 22) and another to yogas counted from the Sun (Ch. 14). This site uses the phrase mainly to set the Vedic Sun's sign beside the sign printed in Western sun-sign columns, which use the tropical zodiac.
How this app computes it
- The Sun's tropical longitude comes from Meeus's solar formula; the Lahiri ayanamsa is subtracted and the result divided by 30.
- For 19 January 1985 the tropical Sun is at 299.10 degrees, Capricorn 29.10, and the sidereal Sun at 275.46, Capricorn 5.46. Here both systems say Capricorn, because the Sun was more than 23.64 degrees, the ayanamsa, into its tropical sign. A week earlier, at the Sun's pace of about a degree a day, the tropical Sun would still have been in Capricorn and the sidereal Sun in Sagittarius.
- The project's checks expect the sidereal Sun to enter Aries, Mesha Sankranti, around 14 April.
- One numerology calculation does not compute the Sun at all: the hidden numbers take a sign from Advanced Vedic Numerology's fixed date table, running from the 14th of one month to the 13th of the next.
Pages that use this term
- The Sun in Vedic astrology - why a Vedic Sun sign usually differs from a Western one.
- Capricorn (Makara Rashi) - the sidereal and tropical Capricorn dates side by side.
- Moon sign and nakshatra - why the Moon, not the Sun, is "your rashi".
- Mulank, Bhagyank and life path - the Sun-sign date table behind the hidden numbers.
- Sun sign calculator - the sidereal Sun sign for a birth date.
- Hidden and shadow numbers - the numerology use of the date table.
Related terms
- Surya - the Sun as a graha.
- Ayanamsa - the gap between the two Sun signs.
- Sidereal zodiac - where the Vedic Sun sign is measured.
- Janma Rashi - the sign that usually means "your rashi".
Sun Sign (Surya Rashi)
The sidereal Sun sign - often one sign earlier than the Western reading.
This date is sent only to compute the answer. Nothing is stored, no account is created, and no email is asked for.