--- title: "Krittika Nakshatra: Lord Surya, Deity, Padas" url: "https://abhisheksoni.in/learn/nakshatra/krittika" language: "en" updated: "2026-10-27" description: "Krittika spans 26°40'-40°00' of the zodiac, ruled by Surya, presided by Agni. Symbol: Razor / flame. Gana rakshasa, yoni sheep, nadi kapha. Its four padas fall in Mesha and Vrishabha." --- # Krittika Nakshatra *Nakshatra* Krittika (कृत्तिका) is the 3rd of the 27 nakshatras of Vedic astrology, spanning 26°40' - 40°00' of the zodiac across Mesha and Vrishabha. Its lord is Surya and its deity Agni. Symbol: Razor / flame. It is of rakshasa gana, sheep yoni and antya nadi, and its lord's Vimshottari dasha lasts 6 years. ## What is Krittika nakshatra? Krittika is the 3rd of the 27 nakshatras, spanning 26°40' to 40°00' of the zodiac, across Mesha and Vrishabha. Its lord is Surya, its deity Agni, the god of fire, and its symbol is a razor or a flame. The name means 'the cutters'. Krittika is the Pleiades, the star cluster the six Krittikas are said to be, the nurses who raised Kartikeya, and the older Vedic lists began the nakshatras here rather than at Ashwini. ## Which rashi is Krittika in, and who is its lord? Krittika straddles two signs: its first pada is in Mesha, its other three in Vrishabha. Its lord is Surya, and its lord's Vimshottari dasha lasts 6 years, the shortest of the nine. Surya also rules Uttara Phalguni and Uttara Ashadha, and all three Surya nakshatras sit across a sign boundary. A Moon in Krittika at birth means life opens in Surya's dasha. Because the dasha is short, the balance can be anything from nearly six years to a few weeks, depending on how far the Moon had travelled through the nakshatra. ## What are the four padas of Krittika? Each pada spans 3°20'. The four padas fall in the navamsas of Dhanu, Makara, Kumbha and Meena. The navamsa (D9) is the ninth-division chart, in which each pada becomes a sign; it is read for marriage and for how a graha holds up beneath the surface. Pada 1 lies in Mesha (26°40' to 30°00'), and padas 2, 3 and 4 lie in Vrishabha. Krittika is not a gandamool nakshatra. ## What does tradition say about people born in Krittika? The texts describe Krittika natives as bright, sharp and hard to fool. Varahamihira's verse calls them radiant, well known and of hearty appetite. Tradition holds that Agni gives the power to burn away what is false and to cook, refine and purify, and that the razor gives a habit of cutting to the point, which can feel blunt to others. Rakshasa gana is said to bring force, independence and a low tolerance for nonsense, rather than cruelty. Surya adds pride and a need for standards. ## Which careers are traditionally linked with Krittika? Tradition links Krittika with work that uses fire or a blade: cooking, baking, furnaces and kilns, surgery, and the military. The cutting edge also covers critics, editors and auditors, and Surya adds government and leadership. These are classical associations, not a forecast. The 10th house, its lord and the dasha running decide what someone actually does for work. ## What does Krittika mean for marriage and kundli matching? In Ashtakoota matching Krittika counts as rakshasa gana, sheep yoni (female) and Antya nadi. Rakshasa agrees fully with rakshasa and scores low against deva and manushya, which is why the gana koota of a Krittika Moon draws comment. In the 36-point scheme nadi carries 8, gana 6 and yoni 4. Two Antya nadi Moons is the classical concern called nadi dosha, and the texts give exceptions to it. None of this reads the marriage. Matching scores two Moons; the marriage itself I read from the 7th house, its lord, Shukra and the dashas of both people. ## Which syllables belong to Krittika? The traditional syllables for the four padas are A, I, U and E, in order, and a name is often begun with the syllable of the Moon's pada. ## What does Krittika not tell you? It does not even tell you the rashi on its own. 'I am Krittika' can mean a Mesha Moon or a Vrishabha Moon, and the two signs are read very differently, so the pada matters. Nor does it say where Surya sits, which house the Moon is in, or which dasha is running. A rakshasa gana label says nothing about a person's kindness. The nakshatra is one factor among hundreds, and two people born on the same day with the same Moon can still live different lives. ## Classical facts - **Number:** 3 - **Sanskrit name:** Krittika - **Hindi name:** कृत्तिका - **Lord:** Surya - **Deity:** Agni - **Symbol:** Razor / flame - **Gana:** Rakshasa - **Yoni:** Sheep, female - **Nadi:** Antya - **Degree range:** 26°40' - 40°00' - **Rashi:** Mesha, Vrishabha - **Vimshottari dasha of its lord:** 6 years - **Reference:** [Krittika (Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krittika) ## The four padas - 1, 26°40' - 30°00', Mesha, Dhanu - 2, 30°00' - 33°20', Vrishabha, Makara - 3, 33°20' - 36°40', Vrishabha, Kumbha - 4, 36°40' - 40°00', Vrishabha, Meena ## Articles about Krittika Nakshatra - [Favourable letters and numbers, and where the tradition comes from](/learn/lucky-letters-and-numbers): The letter tradition comes from your birth nakshatra and is used for naming a child. The number tradition is numerology. They are two different things. - [Famous people born in Krittika nakshatra, checked against the Moon](/learn/krittika-nakshatra-famous-people): Anil Kumble, Homi Bhabha, Sushmita Sen and Uday Kotak have strong claims to a Krittika birth. Here is the checked list and how the checking works.