The 27 Nakshatras: Vedic Lunar Mansions Explained

The nakshatras are the 27 lunar mansions of Vedic astrology. Each covers 13°20′ of the sidereal zodiac, roughly the distance the Moon travels in one day. Your janma nakshatra, the one the Moon was in at your birth, shapes your Vimshottari dasha, your naming syllable and much of kundli matching.

Rashis divide the sky into twelve signs of 30°. Nakshatras divide the same circle into 27 finer segments, starting from 0° Aries (per Lahiri ayanamsa, like everything on this site). This is why an Indian birth chart usually names both a rashi and a nakshatra for the Moon.

Span and padas

Each nakshatra is split into four padas of 3°20′, so there are 108 padas in all. Each pada matches one navamsa sign. The navamsa signs run in order from Aries, starting at Ashwini pada 1. So Ashwini's padas take Aries to Cancer, Bharani's Leo to Scorpio, Krittika's Sagittarius to Pisces, and the cycle repeats every three nakshatras. Some nakshatras sit inside one sign; others, such as Krittika or Punarvasu, cross a sign boundary.

Lords and the Vimshottari sequence

Each nakshatra has a planetary lord. The nine lords repeat three times in a fixed order: Ketu, Venus, Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury. This is the order of the Vimshottari dasha. Your first mahadasha belongs to the lord of your janma nakshatra, and how much of it remains at birth depends on how far the Moon had moved through it.

Deity, symbol and temperament

Each nakshatra also has a presiding deity (Agni for Krittika, Yama for Bharani, Aditi for Punarvasu…) and a symbol. The myths of those deities are the richest source for a nakshatra's meaning.

Gana, yoni and nadi in matching

Three classifications come straight from the nakshatra and feed gun milan:

• Gana, the temperament: Deva, Manushya or Rakshasa. Worth 6 of the 36 points.
• Yoni, an animal pairing for instinctive compatibility: 14 animals, each with a male and a female nakshatra. Worth 4 points.
• Nadi: Adi, Madhya or Antya. It runs in a repeating pattern of six. At 8 points it is the heaviest koota, and the same nadi for both partners scores zero unless an exception applies.

The kundli matching tool shows every koota. Still, one factor never decides a chart. Matching is read from both complete kundlis.

Muhurta classes

For choosing times, the Muhurta Chintamani sorts nakshatras into seven groups: fixed (dhruva), movable (chara), fierce (ugra), mixed (mishra), swift (kshipra), soft (mridu) and sharp (tikshna). Fixed ones suit foundations, soft ones celebrations and marriage, swift ones quick starts such as study or treatment. The muhurat tool uses these alongside tithi and weekday.

Abhijit, the 28th

Muhurta texts add a 28th nakshatra, Abhijit. It is carved from the last pada of Uttara Ashadha and the opening part of Shravana. It is used only for electing times, never for birth charts or dashas, which always use 27.

Find your janma nakshatra

Enter your birth date, time and place in the free kundli. It shows your Moon's nakshatra and pada, your lagna nakshatra and each planet's nakshatra. Then open its page below. See also the reference home.

All 27 nakshatras