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Liber VII · Divination

Liber VII · Divination · Chapter XIV: Vedic Astrology

Nakshatras: The 27 Lunar Mansions of Vedic Astrology

The nakshatras explained: the 27 lunar mansions of Vedic astrology, their Vedic origins, deities, padas and rulers, and their use in naming and matching.

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The nakshatras (Sanskrit nakṣatra) are the twenty-seven lunar mansions of Indian astronomy and astrology: segments of the sky, each marked by a star or star group, through which the Moon passes in roughly one day each during its monthly circuit. Named already in the Vedas, they are older in India than the twelve zodiac signs, and in Jyotiṣa they remain central to personal horoscopes, the naming of children, marriage matching and the choice of auspicious times.

The Moon's Twenty-Seven Stations§

The Moon completes a circuit of the stars, measured against the background of fixed stars rather than against the Sun, in about 27.3 days. Dividing the circle into twenty-seven equal parts gives the Moon one "station" for each day of that sidereal month, and the nakshatras originated as a way of marking those stations by prominent stars. In the classical system each nakshatra spans 13°20′, beginning from a fixed point in the sidereal zodiac, and is identified with a "junction star" (yogatārā) used by astronomers to check positions.

Because the Moon moves quickly, the nakshatra it occupies changes about once a day. This made the mansions a natural tool for a calendar: a day could be identified by its lunar mansion, and religious rites could be fixed to them. The pañcāṅga, the Hindu almanac, still records the nakshatra of every day alongside the lunar day (tithi), the weekday, and two further divisions called yoga and karaṇa. The general framework of Indian astrology, of which the nakshatras are one part, is described in our guide to Vedic astrology.

The Nakshatras in the Vedas§

The nakshatras are among the oldest astronomical ideas recorded in India. The Taittirīya Saṃhitā of the Black Yajurveda gives a list of twenty-seven with their presiding deities, and the Atharvaveda contains a hymn listing twenty-eight, including Abhijit. Ritual texts of the Brāhmaṇa period prescribe offerings to the mansions and say which are suitable for setting up the sacred fires or beginning other rites. These are among the Vedic texts studied for their astronomy since the nineteenth century.

Many of the deities assigned to the mansions are familiar Vedic gods. Kṛttikā belongs to Agni, the god of fire; Rohiṇī to Prajāpati; Ārdrā to Rudra; Puṣya to Bṛhaspati; Āśleṣā to the serpents; Maghā to the ancestors (pitṛs); Hasta to Savitṛ; Viśākhā jointly to Indra and Agni; Mūla to Nirṛti, goddess of dissolution; Śravaṇa to Viṣṇu; Revatī to Pūṣan; and Aśvinī to the twin Aśvins. Their character in later astrology often follows these associations. A well-known myth, told in the Taittirīya Saṃhitā and retold in the Purāṇas, makes the nakshatras the daughters of Prajāpati (in the Purāṇas, of Dakṣa) and the wives of the Moon god Soma; Soma's preference for Rohiṇī angered their father, whose curse is said to explain the Moon's waxing and waning. The gods involved are introduced in our article on Hindu gods and goddesses.

The Kṛttikā list and the dating debate§

The Vedic lists begin with Kṛttikā, the Pleiades, whereas later lists begin with Aśvinī. In 1893 Hermann Jacobi and Bal Gangadhar Tilak independently used such features, including the Kṛttikā order, which some read as reflecting an age when the Pleiades stood near the spring equinox, together with precession to date parts of Vedic literature to the third millennium BCE or earlier. Most historians of astronomy now regard such arguments with caution, because a list's starting point may reflect ritual convention rather than observation, and because the observations implied are imprecise. The age of the Vedic material remains debated on other grounds.

From the Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa to the Zodiac§

The Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa, a short calendrical manual attributed to Lagadha and dated variously between roughly the fifth and second centuries BCE, uses the nakshatras to compute the positions of the Sun and Moon over a five-year cycle for the timing of sacrifices. It contains no horoscopy. Horoscopic astrology, with twelve signs, planets and houses, reached India from the Greek-speaking world in the early centuries CE, and Indian astronomers then fitted the old mansions into the new zodiac.

In the resulting system, the first mansion, Aśvinī, begins at 0° sidereal Aries, and each sign contains two and a quarter nakshatras. Because the Indian zodiac is sidereal, tied to the stars rather than to the equinoxes as in Ptolemy's tropical zodiac (see our article on the Tetrabiblos), the mansions keep their relation to their stars. Varāhamihira's sixth-century Bṛhat Saṃhitā devotes chapters to the mansions, their stars and their significance for omens, agriculture and human affairs, and later Jyotiṣa manuals give each nakshatra a detailed description of the temperament and fortune of people born under it.

Padas, Planetary Rulers and the Daśā System§

Each nakshatra is divided into four quarters, or padas, of 3°20′, giving 108 padas in the circle, a number of sacred significance in Indian religions. Each pada corresponds to one ninth of a sign, so the padas link the nakshatras to the navāṃśa, the most important of the divisional charts.

Every nakshatra is also assigned a planetary ruler, in a repeating sequence of nine: Ketu, Venus, the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Rāhu, Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury. Aśvinī is ruled by Ketu, Bharaṇī by Venus, Kṛttikā by the Sun, and so on three times around the circle until Revatī, ruled by Mercury. This sequence drives the Vimśottarī daśā, the most widely used Indian system of planetary periods, a cycle of 120 years. The planetary period at birth is fixed by the ruler of the Moon's nakshatra, and the proportion of the nakshatra the Moon has already crossed determines how much of that first period remains.

Traditional manuals also classify the mansions by temperament (gaṇa: divine, human or demonic), by an animal symbol (yoni), by a bodily "channel" (nāḍī), and as fixed, movable, sharp, gentle or mixed, which matters for choosing times. Each has its own pages on our Vedic horoscope section, from Aśvinī and Rohiṇī to Mūla and Revatī.

Naming, Marriage Matching and Festivals§

The nakshatra occupied by the Moon at birth, the janma nakṣatra, is often more important in everyday Indian practice than the Sun sign of Western astrology. Each pada is associated with a syllable, and many Hindu families choose a child's name beginning with the syllable of the birth pada, a custom tied to the naming ceremony (nāmakaraṇa). People also observe their birth star each month or year with prayers or temple visits, especially in South India.

In arranged marriages the horoscopes of the couple are compared by the aṣṭakūṭa method, which awards up to thirty-six points across eight factors. Several of these, including tārā, yoni, gaṇa and nāḍī, derive from the two partners' nakshatras; a "nāḍī fault," when both share the same nāḍī, is traditionally regarded as serious. Practice and interpretation vary between regions and families, and many couples now treat matching as one consideration among others.

Many festivals are fixed by nakshatra rather than by lunar day. Onam in Kerala falls on Thiruvonam (Śravaṇa) in the month of Chingam; Kārttikai Dīpam in Tamil Nadu is celebrated when the full moon is in Kṛttikā; Thaipusam falls under Puṣya (Pūsam); and the Ārudrā Darśanam of Śiva Naṭarāja is kept under Ārdrā. In parts of South India Krishna's birthday is reckoned by the Rohiṇī nakshatra rather than by the lunar day.

Lunar Mansions in Other Cultures§

India is not the only culture to divide the Moon's path into mansions. Chinese astronomy has twenty-eight lodges (xiu), which also appear in the Chinese almanac described in our article on the Tong Shu. Pre-Islamic Arabs used a system of star risings and settings associated with rain, and Arabic astronomy developed twenty-eight lunar mansions (manāzil al-qamar). In medieval astral magic the Arabic mansions were used to time the making of talismans, as in the Picatrix.

Whether these systems share a common origin, perhaps in Mesopotamia, or developed independently from the same observable fact, the Moon's daily motion among the stars, has been debated since the nineteenth century. The lists differ in their stars and starting points, and Arabic sources show Indian influence in some details, but there is no consensus about their ultimate relationship.

Frequently asked questions§

What is a nakshatra?§

A nakshatra is one of the twenty-seven lunar mansions of Indian astronomy, a segment of 13°20′ of the sidereal zodiac identified by a star or star group. The Moon passes through about one nakshatra each day.

How do I find my birth nakshatra?§

It is the nakshatra in which the Moon stood at the time and place of birth, calculated in the sidereal zodiac. Astrologers and almanacs work it out from the birth data; this site's Vedic horoscope page also calculates it.

Why are there sometimes 28 nakshatras?§

Some Vedic lists, such as that in the Atharvaveda, include Abhijit, associated with the star Vega, as a twenty-eighth mansion. In the classical system of equal 13°20′ divisions only twenty-seven are used, though Abhijit still appears in some electional and ritual contexts.

Which nakshatra rules which planet?§

The rulers follow a repeating sequence of nine: Ketu, Venus, the Sun, the Moon, Mars, Rāhu, Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury, beginning with Aśvinī. The ruler of the Moon's nakshatra at birth determines the first period of the Vimśottarī daśā.

Sources and further reading§