What is a nakshatra?

A nakshatra is a mansion of the Moon. The sidereal ecliptic, the Moon's path measured from a fixed star rather than from the season, is divided into twenty-seven equal arcs. Each arc is 13 degrees and 20 minutes. 360 divided by 27 is that width. Each arc has a name. The Moon takes roughly a day to cross one, so a panchang can print "today's nakshatra," and a birth record can print another: the nakshatra the Moon occupied at the moment of birth. Same ruler. Two clocks.

This note names the twenty-seven, explains the quarter called a pada, and explains the 120-year count that starts from the birth nakshatra. It does not assign a personality to each name. Trait lists are a different kind of writing.

Today's nakshatra and the birth nakshatra

A panchang's nakshatra line answers: where is the Moon right now, at this place, for this civil day? A kundli's nakshatra answers: where was the Moon when this person was born? Confusing the two is easy, because the word is the same. A festival that says "do this in Pushya" means the day's Moon. A reading that says "your nakshatra is Pushya" means the birth Moon. They coincide only when the birth happened while the Moon was in that mansion.

The end time on a panchang is the instant the Moon leaves that arc, turned into the local clock. Near that instant, two cities can still be in different nakshatras for a short while only if their clocks and the printed rule differ. The Moon itself is one Moon. The usual disagreement of hours, when it happens, comes from drik versus vakya formulas, not from the definition of the arc.

The twenty-seven, in order

Ashwini, Bharani, Krittika, Rohini, Mrigashira, Ardra, Punarvasu, Pushya, Ashlesha, Magha, Purva Phalguni, Uttara Phalguni, Hasta, Chitra, Swati, Vishakha, Anuradha, Jyeshtha, Mula, Purva Ashadha, Uttara Ashadha, Shravana, Dhanishta, Shatabhisha, Purva Bhadrapada, Uttara Bhadrapada, Revati.

That order is fixed. After Revati the count returns to Ashwini. The names are a map of position. They are not, in this note, a map of character, luck, or marriage. Astro's locked method is this equal division on the Lahiri sidereal zodiac.

Pada, the quarter

Each nakshatra is split into four padas of 3 degrees and 20 minutes. A pada is a quarter of the mansion. It is used when a finer lunar position is wanted: in some matching rules, and when a reader wants to know how far the Moon has walked inside the nakshatra. It is still a position.

Four padas of 3 degrees 20 minutes make one nakshatra. Nine nakshatras make 120 degrees, a third of the circle. The whole circle is three such sets, which is why a nine-lord cycle, below, repeats three times around the twenty-seven.

A pada is a quarter of a nakshatra, 3 degrees and 20 minutes. The drawing does not name a nakshatra for today.

The count called Vimshottari

Vimshottari dasha is a 120-year period system used with a kundli. It starts from the birth nakshatra, not from today's nakshatra. The lords walk in a fixed order and then repeat: Ketu, Venus, Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury. Ashwini begins with Ketu. Bharani is Venus. Krittika is the Sun. Every ninth nakshatra has the same lord, so Magha is Ketu again, and so on around the wheel.

The year-lengths of those nine lords are 7, 20, 6, 10, 7, 18, 16, 19, and 17. Add them: 7 plus 20 is 27, plus 6 is 33, plus 10 is 43, plus 7 is 50, plus 18 is 68, plus 16 is 84, plus 19 is 103, plus 17 is 120. The table is how a period is counted. At birth, the Moon's position inside its nakshatra decides how much of the first period has already passed. The remainder is what is left of that lord's years. Later periods follow in order for their full lengths.

The dasha name is a label from a count. It does not say what will happen inside the period.

The nine lords repeat. One bead is marked only to show that a cycle has a current step, not to name anyone's period.

What this beta will and will not print

A birth nakshatra can be calculated from a saved date, time, and place. That calculation exists in beta. It has not been checked here against a set of pandit charts, so a label from it is a first reading of the sky, not a certified copy of a printed kundli. Today's nakshatra for a city waits on the panchang page, which is still empty. This note therefore names the mansions and the count, and it does not say where the Moon is this morning.

How the line looks on a sheet

On a printed day the nakshatra line is usually a name plus an end time. Read the name against the list above so a smudged letter does not become the neighbouring mansion. Then read the end time against sunrise. If the end is before sunrise, the morning already belongs to the next name. If the end is soon after sunrise, the day still opens on the old name and changes early. That is the same sunrise rule as the tithi, applied to a slower body.

The pada, when it is printed, is a number from one to four or a short mark beside the name. It tells you which quarter. It does not add a second personality. If the sheet also prints a dasha, check that the lord matches the birth nakshatra's lord in the nine-step order, not today's nakshatra. A dasha computed from the day's Moon is a different product, and it should not be pasted onto a birth.

A note on Astro is for understanding. It is a matter of belief and reflection. It is not a promise about health, death, money, or the law.

What Astro is, in this beta: https://astro.lawazia.tech/about