The Study of Jyotisha · Chapter 13 of 54 · Part Two · The building blocks

#The nakshatras in a chart

#Back to the stars

Chapter 4 introduced the nakshatras as divisions of the sky. This chapter puts them to work in a birth chart. In Indian practice the nakshatras are used for four main jobs:

1. The birth star — the Moon's nakshatra at birth — describes the person's temperament and is the basis of names, matching and the Vimshottari periods.
2. Each planet's nakshatra adds a layer of meaning to its sign and house.
3. The lord of a planet's nakshatra colours what the planet gives — a habit of the later tradition.
4. The nine-fold count of taras from the birth star sorts all the nakshatras into favourable and unfavourable ones for that person, which is used in choosing days and reading transits.

#The birth star

The Moon's nakshatra at birth, the janma nakshatra, is the single most personal fact in an Indian chart. Ask anyone in India their nakshatra and they will name it, as people in the West name their "Sun sign". Varahamihira gives a chapter to the person born with the Moon in each nakshatra (Brihat Jataka XVI). His translator adds a note at the end of the chapter: the effects come to pass fully only if the Moon is strong.

Here are those portraits in short paraphrase. As with the sign portraits of Chapter 7, read them as the tradition's sketches of temperament. A few are harsh; where that is so, the paraphrase says so plainly, because a student should know what the text says — and should also know that no sketch describes a whole person.

Notice how often the portrait echoes the nakshatra's deity or nature from Chapter 4. Pushya, ruled by Brihaspati, the teacher of the gods, gives learning in the scriptures. Magha, ruled by the ancestors (Pitris), gives devotion to the ancestors. Svati, ruled by the wind, gives a mild, flexible nature suited to trade. Revati, ruled by Pushan the nourisher, gives a well-formed body and a generous nature. Chitra, ruled by the divine craftsman, loves colour and beauty. Use these links to remember the portraits.

#How the birth star is used

The birth star does far more than describe temperament:

• Names. Each pada has a syllable traditionally used to begin a child's name (the Names page of this website gives them, with their history).
• Marriage matching. Most of the eight factors of the common matching system are worked out from the two partners' birth stars (Chapter 41).
• The planetary periods. The lord of the birth star decides which Vimshottari period a person is born in, and how much of it remains (Chapter 22).
• Choosing days. The day's nakshatra is compared with the birth star (the tara count, below).
• Rituals. Many families keep a birthday by the nakshatra rather than the calendar date: the day each year when the Moon returns to the birth star in the birth month.

#The nakshatras of the lagna and the planets

Every point in the chart is in some nakshatra, not just the Moon. Later astrologers add the nakshatra of each planet and of the lagna to the reading. The reasoning is simple: the sign tells you the planet's broad setting; the nakshatra, a smaller piece of sky with its own deity and nature, refines it.

Example. In the example chart of Chapter 6:

Check one of these yourself with the method of Chapter 4. The lagna at 1°50′ Libra is 181°50′ = 10,910′. 10,910 ÷ 800 = 13 remainder 510, so the 14th nakshatra, Chitra; 510 ÷ 200 = 2 remainder 110, so pada 3.

Some things a reader might notice:

• The birth star is Rohini, ruled by the Moon itself, with the Moon strong in Taurus. Varahamihira's portrait for Rohini — truthful, clean, sweet-spoken, of firm views — sits well with the steady Moon in Taurus.
• Jupiter, Venus and Ketu are all in Pushya, the nakshatra of Brihaspati, the gods' teacher. Jupiter in Pushya is the teacher in the teacher's own star.
• The lagna is in Chitra, the star of Tvashtri, the divine craftsman, at the boundary between Virgo and Libra — the very star that defines the Lahiri ayanamsa (Chapter 2).

#The star lord: reading a planet through its nakshatra

A later development, especially strong in South India and in the modern KP system (Chapter 43), is to say that a planet gives the results of the lord of the nakshatra it occupies. In the example, Jupiter is in Pushya, ruled by Saturn; so on this view Jupiter's results are coloured by Saturn — by its houses and condition in the chart.

This is not a rule of Varahamihira or of the main body of the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra; it belongs to the later tradition, and different schools use it in different ways. It is mentioned here because you will meet it constantly in modern books and software, often printed as a "star lord" or "nakshatra lord" column like the last column of the table above. Use it, if you use it, as one refinement among many, and know where it comes from.

#The nine taras

A system used in muhurta and in transit reading sorts the 27 nakshatras into nine groups according to their distance from the birth star. Count from the birth star (as 1) to any other nakshatra, divide the count by 9, and look at the remainder. The groups are called taras ("stars"):

So, counting from one's own birth star, the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th and 9th nakshatras (and the 11th, 13th, 15th, 17th, 18th, and the 20th, 22nd, 24th, 26th, 27th) are favourable; the 3rd, 5th and 7th (and the 12th, 14th, 16th, 21st, 23rd, 25th) are unfavourable; and the 1st, 10th and 19th are the "birth" group.

Example. The birth star is Rohini (4). On a day when the Moon is in Hasta (13), count from Rohini to Hasta: Rohini is 1, Mrigashira 2, … Hasta is 13 − 4 + 1 = 10. 10 ÷ 9 = 1 remainder 1 → Janma tara, a "birth" day — traditionally a day for caution in beginning new things. On a day with the Moon in Pushya (8): 8 − 4 + 1 = 5 → Pratyak, unfavourable. With the Moon in Magha (10): 10 − 4 + 1 = 7 → Naidhana, the most avoided. With the Moon in Hasta's neighbour Chitra (14): 14 − 4 + 1 = 11 → remainder 2 → Sampat, favourable.

The tara system belongs to the muhurta tradition, and Chapter 39 shows how it is combined with the other factors of a good day. It is a typical example of how Jyotisha builds a rule from simple counting: there is nothing here but the nine-fold rhythm of the planetary lords from Chapter 4, applied from the birth star.

#A note on fear and the nakshatras

Some nakshatras and some parts of nakshatras have frightening reputations in popular astrology: births in Mula, Ashlesha or Jyeshtha, or in the gandanta zones of Chapter 4, are said to bring misfortune to a parent or relative, and families are sometimes advised to perform expensive rituals. The classical texts do contain rules of this kind, and Chapter 44 of this course discusses them as history. But notice what Varahamihira actually wrote about these stars in his chapter on the nakshatras: the person born in Mula is "proud, rich, happy, harmless to others, of firm views"; in Jyeshtha, "cheerful and virtuous"; and even for Ashlesha he describes only character, not misfortune to others (Brihat Jataka XVI.5, 10). A nakshatra is a description of temperament in the oldest horoscopic text, not a curse. Never let a family be frightened about a child's birth star.

#Summary

• The birth star (the Moon's nakshatra) describes temperament (Brihat Jataka XVI) and is the basis of names, matching, the Vimshottari periods and the choice of days.
• Varahamihira's portraits often echo each nakshatra's deity; they come to pass fully only when the Moon is strong.
• The nakshatras of the lagna and of each planet add detail to their signs.
• Reading a planet through the lord of its nakshatra (the "star lord") is a later development, central in modern South Indian and KP practice.
• The nine taras, counted from the birth star, sort the nakshatras into favourable and unfavourable ones for that person; they are used in muhurta and transits.
• In the oldest text the "feared" stars are described as temperaments, not misfortunes.

#Exercises

1. Find the nakshatra and pada of: 10°00′ Aries; 23°20′ Taurus; 15°00′ Aquarius. Give each one's lord.
2. Someone's birth star is Uttara Phalguni (12). Which tara is a day with the Moon in Shravana (22)? In Ashvini (1)?
3. In the example chart, which planet is the nakshatra lord of the lagna? Where is that planet placed?
4. Compare Varahamihira's portrait of the Moon in Rohini (this chapter) with his portrait of the Moon in Taurus (Chapter 7). What do they share?

Answers: 1. 10°00′ Aries = 600′ → Ashvini, pada 4 (600 ÷ 200 = 3 r 0 → the start of pada 4), lord Ketu. 23°20′ Taurus = 53°20′ = 3,200′ → 3,200 ÷ 800 = 4 r 0 → the start of Mrigashira (5), pada 1, lord Mars. 15°00′ Aquarius = 315° = 18,900′ → 23 r 500 → Shatabhisha (24), pada 3, lord Rahu. 2. Count from Uttara Phalguni to Shravana: 22 − 12 + 1 = 11 → remainder 2 → Sampat (favourable). To Ashvini: count on past Revati: 27 − 12 + 1 + 1 = 17 → remainder 8 → Mitra (favourable). 3. Mars, the lord of Chitra; it is in its own sign Aries in the 7th house. 4. Both describe a steady, pleasing, well-liked person of good appearance and firm character.