A nakshatra is one of twenty-seven divisions of the zodiac, each spanning 13°20′ and each ruled by a graha. The nakshatra the Moon occupied at your birth is your janma nakshatra, or birth star. It sets the starting point of your Vimshottari dasha sequence and is used for naming, matching and muhurtham.
The twenty-seven divisions
The nakshatra scheme divides the same 360° circle as the twelve rasis, but into twenty-seven parts instead of twelve. Because 27 does not divide evenly into 12, a nakshatra can straddle two rasis — which is why a chart lists both, and why the pada matters.
Each nakshatra is further divided into four padas of 3°20′. The pada places the Moon in a specific navamsa and is what the first syllable of a traditional name is drawn from.
What the birth star decides
The janma nakshatra does more practical work in Vedic practice than the rasi does.
- Dasha: the nakshatra lord determines which mahadasha you were born into and how much of it remained, which fixes the timeline of the whole Vimshottari sequence.
- Naming: the pada supplies the customary first syllable used at the namakaranam.
- Matching: the ashtakoota and ten-koota systems used in kundali matching are computed largely from the two birth nakshatras.
- Muhurtham: the running nakshatra on a given day is checked against the janma nakshatra when a date is being selected.
- Observance: many families mark the birth star each month rather than, or as well as, the Gregorian birthday.
Running nakshatra versus birth nakshatra
A panchangam lists the nakshatra running on that day — the one the Moon is transiting now. That is a different thing from your birth star, and both appear in a muhurtham discussion. The birth star is fixed for life; the running nakshatra changes roughly every twenty-four hours and is one of the five angas of the daily panchangam.
What is established, and what varies
These are kept apart deliberately. The first list is what published practice describes consistently; the second is where families, regions and sampradayams legitimately differ, and where a Purohit’s own tradition decides the answer rather than a general rule.
Consistently described
- There are twenty-seven nakshatras of 13°20′ each, subdivided into four padas of 3°20′.
- The janma nakshatra is determined by the Moon's sidereal longitude at birth, so it depends on the birth time.
- Each nakshatra has a fixed ruling graha, and that lord starts the Vimshottari dasha sequence.
Varies by tradition
- Abhijit is counted as a twenty-eighth nakshatra in some contexts, chiefly muhurtham, and omitted in the standard twenty-seven-fold scheme.
- The customary naming syllables for each pada differ slightly between regional lists.
- How much interpretive weight is placed on nakshatra qualities, as against graha placement, differs by school.
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