Meaning
Karka is the crab, "of the shape of a crab" in Iyer's note. Its other name in the Brihat Jataka, Kulira, is one of the two that Iyer notes as not Greek.
It is a movable sign, even and feminine, and its triangle with Vrishchika and Meena faces north; it is a night sign rising by its feet. The Moon rules it, Guru is exalted in it at the 5th degree, and Mangala is debilitated here, opposite its own exaltation in Makara.
Our chart's text for a Karka lagna speaks of a receptive, caring and emotionally attuned self, whose moods may move with its changing lord, the Moon. It is the lagna of the sample person on our system page.
Karka ends at 120°, where its last nakshatra, Ashlesha, meets Magha and the fire of Simha: the first of the three places where a water rashi meets a fire rashi and a nakshatra ends together with a rashi.
In the chart
Karka is the fourth rashi, 90° to 120° of the sidereal zodiac, and it holds the last pada of Punarvasu, Pushya and Ashlesha. In the whole-sign houses of the chart, the rashi of the lagna is the first bhava and each rashi after it the next, so Karka is the first bhava for a Karka lagna, the seventh for a Makara lagna, and so on round the twelve.
Its navamsas begin with Karka: the nine parts of 3°20′ run Karka, Simha, Kanya, Tula, Vrishchika, Dhanu, Makara, Kumbha and Meena, as the Brihat Jataka's rule gives them, the movable rashis starting from themselves, the fixed from the ninth and the dual from the fifth. In 2026 the rashi covers about 24°13′ Cancer to 24°13′ Leo of the tropical zodiac, by the Lahiri measure, so a planet in tropical Cancer is often in Mithuna here; another ayanamsa would move the edges by up to about 2.5°.
Correspondences
Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.
- Shape (Brihat Jataka I.5, Iyer 1885)
- "of the shape of a crab", in Iyer's note to the stanza sourced
- Other name (I.8)
- Kulira, one of the two Iyer notes as not Greek sourced
- Direction of its triangle (I.11)
- north sourced
- Day or night (I.10)
- a night sign, powerful by night; rises by its feet sourced
- Exalted here (I.13)
- Guru, at 5° sourced
- Debilitated here (I.13)
- Mangala sourced
- Themes in our chart's text, our words
- a receptive, caring and emotionally attuned self our construction
How the schools read it
- The Brihat Jataka (Varahamihira, 6th century; Iyer 1885)
- Shaped like a crab; called Kulira, a name Iyer notes as not Greek; movable, even and feminine; its triangle faces north; a night sign rising by its feet; lord the Moon; Jupiter exalted at 5°, Mars debilitated.
- Modern Jyotisha
- A movable water rashi ruled by Chandra, its element and quality grouped as in the Western triplicities.
- Western tropical astrology
- Cancer, the same twelfth of the circle counted from the March equinox, about 24° ahead in 2026.
- Other ayanamsas
- Raman's about 1.5° smaller than Lahiri's, Krishnamurti's about 5′ smaller, Fagan-Bradley's about 53′ larger: a placement near an edge can change rashi.
- The chart forms
- South Indian: Karka has its own fixed box; North Indian: the boxes are the bhavas and the rashi's number, 4, moves with the lagna.
- EsoTerrier
- Our chart's text for a Karka lagna: "With Karka as lagna, a movable water rashi ruled by Chandra, the self is receptive, caring and emotionally attuned. Because the lagna lord is the swiftly changing Moon, moods may ebb and flow, and steady routines help that tender, nurturing nature feel secure." Our words.
Claims about it
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The sidereal rashi shows the sky as it really is: it is the constellation of that name.
falseWhat the record shows: Both zodiacs measure the same positions from different starting points. A rashi is an equal 30° division counted from a point set by the ayanamsa, not the constellation of the same name.
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The Lahiri ayanamsa is accepted everywhere.
falseWhat the record shows: Lahiri is India's national standard and by far the most used, but the KP school, B. V. Raman's followers and Western siderealists use other values, up to about 2.5° apart; a placement near a rashi's edge can change rashi between them.
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The sidereal signs sit about 24° behind the tropical ones whichever ayanamsa is used.
disputedWhat the record shows: True for Lahiri (about 24°13′ in 2026) and close for Krishnamurti; Raman's is about 1.5° less and Fagan-Bradley's about 0°53′ more.
