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

Virgo, Kanya in Sanskrit, is the sixth of the twelve rashis: the sidereal zodiac from 150 to 180 degrees. BPHS gives the sign two slokas - a maiden with grain and fire in her hands, two-footed, strong by day, ruled by Mercury - and, like Saravali, spends far more words on what each graha does there. It is the one sign in which a graha is exalted in a house it also owns: Mercury has its exaltation, Moolatrikona and own-sign portions inside these thirty degrees. Venus has its debilitation here.

This page sets out what the texts say, with chapter and sloka; what lies inside the sign; how this app's engine treats each graha in it; how Virgo behaves as a rising sign; and when its periods and transits run. It is a reference for rules, not a portrait of "Virgo people". To find out whether your Moon is in Virgo, use the Moon Sign calculator.

Three different things are called "Virgo"

BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 4-6 divides one circle twice, into 27 nakshatras and into 12 rashis, and names the rashi rising in the east the Lagna. A chart can therefore "be Virgo" in three independent ways. In Indian usage "my rashi is Kanya" means the first: the Moon was in Virgo at birth. Moon sign and nakshatra explains why that one carries the name.

The dates are sidereal. This app uses the Lahiri ayanamsa, 24.23 degrees on 5 October 2026 (see the Methodology page). In 2026 the engine puts the Sun in sidereal Virgo from 17 September to 17 October; the tropical Virgo of Western Sun-sign columns ran, by the same Sun, from 23 August to 23 September. The two overlap for about six days, so someone born on 2 September with a Western Virgo Sun has a sidereal Sun in Leo, and the Sun Sign calculator will say so.

The Lagna runs on the fastest clock. Saravali Ch. 3 Sloka 37-38 puts Virgo among the four signs of long ascension, with Leo, Libra and Scorpio, and Daivajna Vallabha Ch. 10 Sloka 6 repeats the list. Swept minute by minute at New Delhi, the engine has Virgo rising for 136 minutes. On 5 October 2026 the window there ran from 05:01 to 07:16 IST, around a sunrise at 06:16, because the Sun was itself in Virgo; it moves about two hours earlier each month. A birth time far outside the window for its month needs checking with the Lagna calculator.

How the texts describe Kanya

BPHS Ch. 4 calls the twelve rashis the limbs of Time personified (Sloka 1-2) and describes Kanya in Sloka 13-14: a hill-resorter, strong in the daytime, rising head first, of medium build, two-footed, living in the south; she holds grain and fire in her hands, is variegated in colour, "relates to hurricanes", is a virgin and Tamasic, and her ruler is Mercury. Saravali Ch. 3, "Rasi Description", draws a virgin sitting in a boat with a lamp in her hands (Sloka 3-4).

Two rows are less settled than they look. BPHS names an element for Mithun but none for Kanya; "earthy" is the convention the modern Advanced Predictive Astrology tabulates as "Common, Earth, Female". The limb is the hip in BPHS and Saravali and the bowels in that modern table. Two entries carry a rule for use: Saravali Ch. 3 Sloka 5-6 says a benefic in a sign strengthens the corresponding limb and a malefic weakens it, and Sloka 25 says a rashi is strong when aspected by its lord, by a friend of its lord, or by Mercury or Jupiter.

Of all this the engine keeps four things: the two names (Virgo, Kanya), the lord (Mercury), the element (Earth) and the mobility (common). The element feeds the "dominant element" line among your Kundali quick insights. The mobility decides where the Navamsa count starts, which signs Virgo aspects, and which house is flagged as the badhaka for a Virgo Lagna. Colour, direction, humour, guna and day or night strength are not used.

Inside the sign: three nakshatras, nine padas

Thirty degrees hold two and a quarter nakshatras: the last three padas of Uttara Phalguni, all of Hasta and the first two padas of Chitra. Each pada is 3 degrees 20 minutes wide, which is also the width of a Navamsa, and BPHS Ch. 6 Sloka 12 starts the Navamsa count of a dual sign from the fifth sign from it: for Virgo, Capricorn. So the Moon's degree in Virgo fixes three things at once: its nakshatra and pada, its Navamsa sign, and the lord of the first Vimshottari Mahadasha.

Saravali Ch. 3 Sloka 13 names the ninth Navamsa of a dual sign Vargottama and says a Lagna there makes the native prominent among his own people. The engine marks any graha or Lagna in the last 3 degrees 20 minutes of Virgo as Vargottama; the Navamsa (D9) calculator shows the flag and Navamsa, the second chart explains what it is for. Two degrees stand out. Mercury's deepest exaltation, 15 degrees, falls in Hasta pada 2 and the Taurus Navamsa. Venus's deepest fall, 27 degrees, falls inside the Vargottama Navamsa, so a Venus there is in Virgo in both charts. Four of the nine padas belong to Hasta, so roughly four Virgo Moons in nine open life in the Moon's ten-year Mahadasha.

The other divisions of Virgo

• Hora (BPHS Ch. 6 Sl. 5-6; Saravali Ch. 3 Sl. 14): Virgo is an even sign, so its first 15 degrees are the Moon's Hora (D2) and the last 15 the Sun's.
• Drekkana (BPHS Ch. 6 Sl. 7-8): 0 to 10 degrees falls in Virgo, 10 to 20 in Capricorn, 20 to 30 in Taurus, all three earth signs, as the Drekkana (D3) calculator shows.
• Trimshamsa (BPHS Ch. 6 Sl. 27-28; Saravali Ch. 3 Sl. 15): the even-sign order, so 0 to 5 degrees Venus, 5 to 12 Mercury, 12 to 20 Jupiter, 20 to 25 Saturn, 25 to 30 Mars, as the Trimshamsa (D30) calculator shows.

Dignity: Mercury's summit, Venus's floor

BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 49-50 lists the exaltations. Mercury's is Kanya, deepest at 15 degrees; Venus, exalted at 27 degrees of Pisces, has its deep fall at the same degree of the opposite sign, Virgo. Sloka 51-54 then splits the sign three ways for Mercury: the first 15 degrees are the exaltation zone, the next 5 the Moolatrikona and the last 10 its own house. Saravali Ch. 3 Sloka 34-36 gives the same signs and degrees, and Bhrigu Sutras repeats the split (p. 9) and the Venus figure (p. 11).

The engine follows the same split. Its dignity function labels Mercury "Exalted" below 15 degrees of Virgo and "Moolatrikona" from 15 to 20, both with the full 10 of 10 for positional strength, and "Own sign" from 20 degrees, scoring 7.5. The one-line reading for each house lord and the current dasha lord's action guidance pass the planet's degree too, so they follow the same bands. Venus is "Debilitated", scoring 0, at every degree, and the engine codes no cancellation rule for debilitation. Saravali Ch. 45 keeps the grades apart: an exalted Mercury is intelligent and a skilful speaker (Sloka 1-4), one in Moolatrikona jocular and successful (Sloka 5-7), one in its own sign sweet-spoken and learned (Sloka 8-11).

For the other five grahas the engine reads the fivefold relationship with Mercury: the natural one, which is fixed, plus the temporary one of BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 56, which makes a graha in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 10th, 11th or 12th sign from another its friend for that chart, and its enemy anywhere else.

Two consequences follow. The Sun is never far from Mercury: on the 1,525 days of 1990-2039 with the Sun in Virgo, the engine had Mercury in Leo, Virgo or Libra, and in Virgo itself on 52 per cent of them. So a Virgo Sun reads "Enemy sign" in about half of all charts - exactly the charts in which Mercury is in Virgo beside it - and "Friendly sign" in the rest. Second, any graha conjunct Mercury in Virgo takes the lower of its two labels, because a graha in the same sign is a temporary enemy.

On the nodes the books part. BPHS Ch. 47 Sloka 34-39 gives Rahu's own sign as Aquarius but records that "some sages" make it Kanya; Bhrigu Sutras (p. 13) reports that Sanketnidhi agrees with those sages, while Uttara Kalamrita makes Virgo the Moolatrikona of Ketu. The engine leaves Rahu and Ketu out of dignity scoring. See the Shad Bala calculator, Mercury in Vedic astrology and Venus in Vedic astrology.

Each graha in Virgo, as Saravali reads it

Saravali gives each graha a chapter of sign-by-sign results, followed by the aspects that modify them; for every graha but the Moon the aspect lines treat Gemini and Virgo together as Mercury's houses. The table paraphrases the Virgo lines. Read it as the text's vocabulary for a placement, not as a forecast.

Six of the seven sign lines speak of learning, skill, writing or the arts; Saturn's is the exception. Mercury's line does not name Virgo at all: it is headed "his exaltation Sign". Jupiter, which the dignity table puts in an enemy's sign, gets scholarship and affluence and no aspect line of loss. Venus, debilitated, keeps skill, sweet speech and several sources of income, and is the one graha whose sign line says "devoid of happiness and pleasures". The text and the dignity ladder measure different things, and a reading that uses only one is using half the material.

Virgo rising: Kanya Lagna

When Virgo is on the eastern horizon the engine uses whole-sign houses: Virgo is the 1st house, Libra the 2nd, and so on. BPHS Ch. 34 Sloka 31-32 then classes the grahas by the houses they rule. Mars, Jupiter and the Moon are malefics; Mercury and Venus are auspicious; the conjunction of Venus with Mercury "will produce Yog"; Venus is a maraka as well; and the Sun's role depends on his association. The engine's table holds exactly that list, with no Yoga Karaka.

Mercury and Venus: the yoga BPHS grants

Venus rules the 9th house and Mercury the 10th, the pair whose conjunction makes the best-known Raj Yoga, and for this Lagna BPHS states it outright. The engine's Dharma-Karmadhipati Yoga fires whenever the 9th and 10th lords share a kendra or trikona: with the two placed together in each house of a Virgo Lagna in turn, it appeared in the 1st, 4th, 5th, 7th, 9th and 10th. Dignity complicates two of the six. In the 1st house the pair is in Virgo, where Mercury is exalted and Venus debilitated; in the 7th it is in Pisces, where the dignities swap. The Yogas calculator shows the yoga and the strength table shows the weak partner, and both are correct: one is about lordship, the other about strength.

Jupiter, Saturn and the later books

Jupiter owns two angles, the 4th and 7th, so besides Parashara's "malefic" every Virgo-rising chart carries the engine's mild Kendradhipathya Dosha: a benefic nature "muted there rather than reversed". The commentary in Bhrigu Sutras reads by placement instead: Jupiter in Sagittarius in the 4th (p. 77), Pisces in the 7th (p. 81), the 10th (p. 84) or Cancer in the 11th (p. 85) forms a Dhana Yoga, a combination for wealth; and Venus is called a yoga karaka for Virgo as lord of the 2nd and 9th (p. 87), a title BPHS does not give it. Saturn, lord of the 5th and 6th, is left unclassed by BPHS; Advanced Predictive Astrology (Vol. II, p. 119) counts it a benefic because a trine lordship offsets a difficult one.

Which Mahapurusha Yogas can form

BPHS Ch. 75 Sloka 1-2 forms a Panchamahapurusha Yoga when Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus or Saturn is in its own or exaltation sign in a kendra from the Lagna. For Virgo rising three can form: Bhadra with Mercury in Virgo in the 1st or Gemini in the 10th, Hamsa with Jupiter in Sagittarius in the 4th or Pisces in the 7th, and Malavya with Venus exalted in Pisces in the 7th. The strong signs of Mars and Saturn fall outside the kendras, so Ruchaka and Sasa cannot; an engine sweep confirms each case. What a yoga in your chart means explains how common such rows are.

Saravali Ch. 48 Sloka 22-25 describes birth with Virgo rising: gentle, sweet-spoken, modest and merciful, skilled in teaching, music, poetry and the fine arts, given to serving others - and also untruthful and at odds with brothers. The chapter closes with the condition that matters: the effects come in full only when the rising sign or its lord is strong. Saravali's Raja Yoga chapter names this Lagna three times (Ch. 35 Sloka 9, 18 and 135), each time with Mercury in Virgo itself; the engine codes none of the three. It does flag the 7th as the badhaka house of a common-sign Lagna, so a graha in Pisces carries the note "badhaka house (sensitive to affliction)". And Mars in Virgo is Mars in the 1st house, which the Mangal Dosha calculator flags and Mangal Dosha: what it is and is not puts in proportion.

Virgo among the signs: aspects, questions and matching

BPHS Ch. 8 Sloka 1-3 gives signs aspects of their own: a dual sign aspects the other three dual signs. Virgo therefore exchanges rashi drishti with Gemini, Sagittarius and Pisces - for a Virgo Lagna, its own 10th, 4th and 7th houses. In horary work, Daivajna Vallabha Ch. 3 Sloka 5 gives status to a fixed query ascendant, denies it to a movable one and says both outcomes occur for a dual one; the app's Prashna engine reports exactly that. Saravali Ch. 33 Sloka 66-80 adds a livelihood line: with Virgo on the 10th house, counted from the Lagna or the Moon, wealth comes through vehicles, gems, gold, scents, music, the arts and writing.

A Virgo Moon in Kundli matching

The app's Kundli Matching runs the eight-part Ashtakoot from the two Moons. For a Virgo Moon, Graha Maitri scores its full 5 against a Moon in Taurus, Gemini, Virgo or Libra, and Bhakoot scores 0 of 7 against Aries, Taurus, Leo, Libra, Capricorn and Aquarius, the signs 8th, 9th, 12th, 2nd, 5th and 6th from Virgo; a Moon in Libra tops one test and fails the other. The engine's own header says none of its source books contains the Ashtakoot point tables, so these are conventional values; see the Compatibility feature.

A worked chart: Moon, Mercury and Venus rising in Virgo

Take a birth at 08:00 IST on 2 September 1989 in New Delhi (28.6139 N, 77.2090 E). The engine puts the Lagna at 11.52 degrees of Virgo, with the Moon, Mercury and Venus all rising in the sign. A Western column would also call this birth a Virgo, but for the tropical Sun at 9.61 degrees of Virgo; the sidereal Sun was at 15.90 degrees of Leo, in the 12th house.

Three things from this page show up at once. The Moon shares the sign with Mercury, so it drops a step, from a friendly sign to a neutral one. Mercury, exalted in the 1st, forms Bhadra Yoga, and with Venus beside it the engine reports the Dharma-Karmadhipati Yoga that BPHS promises this Lagna - while that same Venus is debilitated and scores 4.63 of 20. And Jupiter in the 10th stands in an angle from the Lagna and the Moon, but with all three benefics in the 1st, none joins or aspects it, so Gaj Kesari does not form; BPHS classes Jupiter a malefic here, and the engine attaches Kendradhipathya Dosha to it.

Timing follows the Moon. At 6.64 degrees it is in Uttara Phalguni pada 3, so life opened in the Sun's Mahadasha, which ran to 9 March 1991; the Moon's, Mars's and Rahu's followed, and Jupiter's began on 8 March 2026 and runs to 2042. The engine grades the Jupiter period neutral, the Saturn period after it challenging (an enemy sign), and Mercury's good - but Mercury's seventeen years do not begin until 8 March 2061.

Timing: dashas and transits through Virgo

Dashas

A Moon in Virgo opens life in one of three Mahadashas - the Sun's, the Moon's or Mars's - by the nakshatra table above; the Vimshottari Dasha calculator dates the whole sequence and what a Mahadasha is explains the arithmetic. For a graha sitting in Virgo, BPHS Ch. 47 Sloka 5-6 gives the general test: the effects are favourable when the Dasha lord is in the Lagna, in exaltation or in its own sign, and unfavourable in the 6th, 8th or 12th house, in debilitation or in an inimical sign.

• Mercury: Sloka 62-65 read a Mercury in exaltation or its own rashi as gain of wealth, reputation and knowledge and profit in business, in full when it is lord of the 10th - which it is for every Virgo Lagna. See the Mercury Mahadasha.
• Venus: Sloka 79-87 promise their results to a Venus in exaltation, its own sign, a kendra or a trikona; debilitation falls under the unfavourable half of the general test. See the Venus Mahadasha.
• The Sun, Mars and Jupiter: no sloka singles out Virgo, and Mercury's position decides whether the sign counts as hostile. See the Sun Mahadasha, the Mars Mahadasha and the Jupiter Mahadasha.

The engine's three-level grade follows the same lines: good for a Mercury in Virgo unless it is in the 6th, 8th or 12th house; challenging for a Venus in Virgo in every chart; and neutral for a Moon or Saturn outside those houses. In the sign-based Chara Dasha, a Virgo Lagna runs its periods in zodiacal order because the sign in its 9th house, Taurus, is odd-footed (BPHS Ch. 46 Sloka 167). The Virgo period lasts twelve years when Mercury is in Virgo itself, thirteen when he is there in his exaltation degrees (the first fifteen, a year added for an exalted graha), and one when he is in Leo.

Transits

Sade Sati and Saturn for a Virgo Moon

The engine calls Sade Sati active while Saturn transits the 12th, 1st or 2nd sign from the natal Moon: for a Virgo Moon, Leo, Virgo and Libra. On 5 October 2026 Saturn is at 17.09 degrees of Pisces, the 7th from Virgo, so Sade Sati is not active and the Gochar calculator grades that transit neutral. The next rising phase begins when Saturn enters Leo on 28 August 2036; the peak, Saturn in Virgo, covers 23 October 2038 to 27 September 2041, bar four months back in Leo; and the setting phase ends on 12 December 2043, bar a three-month return in 2044. The app words the period as "intensified pressure and restructuring", "not as an omen". Advanced Predictive Astrology (Vol. II, p. 312) reports a North Indian school that holds only the first two and a half years adverse for a Virgo Moon; the engine does not apply that.

Something comes sooner. Saturn enters Aries, the 8th sign from Virgo, on 2 June 2027 and, apart from two retreats, stays until 16 April 2030; the engine names this Ashtama Sani and words it as "a time to move carefully rather than take on new risk". The Sade Sati calculator gives your phase, the Ashtama Sani calculator covers Saturn in Aries, and the Timing feature page describes how the app uses periods and transits.

Common misreadings

• "I am a Virgo" from a Western column is not Kanya Rashi. The first is the tropical Sun; the second is the sidereal Moon, and the two zodiacs stand 24 degrees apart.
• A debilitated Venus is a strength score, not a verdict on anyone's marriage. BPHS still lists Venus as auspicious for a Virgo Lagna, because that statement is about the houses it rules.
• "Malefic" for Jupiter in a Virgo-rising chart is likewise about lordship. The same Jupiter can form Hamsa Yoga in the 4th or 7th house.
• "Benefic", "female" and "Tamasic" classify the sign, in the same slokas of BPHS Ch. 4 that sort all twelve. None is a judgement of a person.

How to check this in your own chart

1. 1.Run the Moon Sign calculator with your birth date, adding the time if the Moon changed sign that day; the Nakshatra calculator gives the nakshatra and pada.
2. 2.Run the Lagna calculator with your birth time and place. If the time is uncertain, what an unknown birth time costs sets out what still holds.
3. 3.Open the Birth Chart calculator to see which grahas are in Virgo, in which house, and where Mercury is, then read each against the tables above.
4. 4.Check when it speaks: the Vimshottari Dasha calculator for each graha's period, the Gochar calculator for today's transits. The book behind every rule is listed on the Sources page.

Is Kanya Rashi the same as being a Virgo in Western astrology?

No. Kanya Rashi means the Moon was in sidereal Virgo at birth. A Western Virgo has the tropical Sun in Virgo, 23 August to 23 September in 2026; the sidereal Sun is there from 17 September to 17 October.

Who rules Virgo, and which planets are exalted or debilitated there?

Mercury rules it (BPHS Ch. 4 Sloka 13-14) and is also exalted in it, deepest at 15 degrees; Venus is debilitated, deepest at 27 degrees (BPHS Ch. 3 Sloka 49-50). No other graha has its exaltation, fall or Moolatrikona here, and the engine does not score the nodes.

Which planets are good for a Virgo Lagna?

BPHS Ch. 34 Sloka 31-32 names Mercury and Venus as auspicious and says their conjunction produces a yoga; it lists Mars, Jupiter and the Moon as malefics, calls Venus a maraka as well, and names no Yoga Karaka.

Venus is debilitated in my Virgo-rising chart, yet the app shows a yoga with Mercury. Which is right?

Both. The Dharma-Karmadhipati Yoga is a statement about lordship: the lords of the 9th and 10th are together in a kendra or trikona. "Debilitated" is a statement about strength in that sign. In the 1st house the yoga forms and Venus is its weak partner.

When is the next Sade Sati for Kanya Rashi?

By this app's astronomy it starts when Saturn enters Leo on 28 August 2036, peaks while Saturn is in Virgo from 23 October 2038 to 27 September 2041, and first leaves Libra on 12 December 2043. On 5 October 2026 it is not active; Ashtama Sani, Saturn in Aries, begins on 2 June 2027.

Does a Moon in Virgo describe my personality?

It gives one line, not a portrait. The app's own line for a Moon in Virgo is "ambitious and self-sacrificing, learns easily, thrives on being useful to others"; Saravali Ch. 23 Sloka 37 speaks of learning, eloquence, truthfulness and kindness. Both are modified by the Moon's house and aspects and by where Mercury sits.