Abhishek Soni Learn

The 27 nakshatras of Vedic astrology

Also in: हिन्दी

Vedic astrology divides the zodiac into 27 nakshatras of 13°20' each, from Ashwini at 0° to Revati, which ends at 360°. Each page gives the nakshatra's lord, deity, symbol, gana, yoni and nadi, and the rashi and navamsa of each of its four padas of 3°20'.

The 27 nakshatras of Vedic astrology: the wheel of the 27 nakshatras

What is a nakshatra?

A nakshatra is one of 27 lunar mansions: equal slices of the zodiac of 13 degrees 20 minutes each. The Moon goes round the sky in about 27.3 days, so it spends roughly a day in each one. The system is older in Indian astronomy than the twelve signs, and each nakshatra is named after a star or star group near it: Krittika is the Pleiades, Rohini is Aldebaran, Chitra is Spica. It is the finer of the two divisions of the zodiac, and much of Vedic timing rests on it.

What is my birth nakshatra?

Your janma nakshatra is the nakshatra the Moon was in at the moment you were born. Because the Moon changes nakshatra about once a day, a birth date alone is often not enough, and the birth time decides it. The birth nakshatra gives the first syllable of a traditional name, it is the basis of kundli matching (the 36 points of Guna Milan come almost entirely from the two nakshatras), and it fixes where the sequence of dasha periods begins.

What are padas, and how do nakshatras fit into the rashis?

Each nakshatra is divided into four padas, quarters of 3 degrees 20 minutes, so the 27 nakshatras make 108 padas, nine to every rashi. Since a rashi holds two and a quarter nakshatras, some nakshatras sit wholly inside one sign and others straddle two: Krittika begins in Mesha and ends in Vrishabha. Each nakshatra page gives the rashi of every pada. The pada also gives the syllable a traditional name starts with.

Which planet rules each nakshatra?

The nine grahas rule the nakshatras in a fixed cycle of nine, starting with Ketu at Ashwini, so each graha rules three nakshatras spaced evenly round the zodiac. The lord of your birth nakshatra is the graha whose dasha you were born into, and the table gives the length of each one's period.

LordNakshatrasDasha
KetuAshwini, Magha, Mula7 years
ShukraBharani, Purva Phalguni, Purva Ashadha20 years
SuryaKrittika, Uttara Phalguni, Uttara Ashadha6 years
ChandraRohini, Hasta, Shravana10 years
MangalaMrigashira, Chitra, Dhanishta7 years
RahuArdra, Swati, Shatabhisha18 years
GuruPunarvasu, Vishakha, Purva Bhadrapada16 years
ShaniPushya, Anuradha, Uttara Bhadrapada19 years
BudhaAshlesha, Jyeshtha, Revati17 years

Is my nakshatra good or bad?

Tradition gives each nakshatra a deity, a symbol and a temperament (its gana: deva, manushya or rakshasa), and those descriptions are worth reading. They describe a texture, not a fate. Six nakshatras at the joins of water and fire signs (Ashwini, Ashlesha, Magha, Jyeshtha, Mula and Revati) are called gandamool and carry traditional cautions at birth, and those cautions are narrower than they are usually made out to be. One factor in a chart decides nothing on its own. If you have been told a child's nakshatra is dangerous, have the chart computed properly, with the birth time, before believing it.