The 27 Nakshatras

The nakshatras are the 27 lunar mansions of the sidereal zodiac, each 13°20′ wide, from Ashwini at 0° Aries to Revati at the end of Pisces. The Moon passes through one roughly every day, and the one it occupied at your birth is your janma nakshatra — the basis of your Vimshottari dasha, your naming syllable and much of kundli matching.

A rashi is a 30° sign; a nakshatra is a 13°20′ star-division. There are twelve rashis and twenty-seven nakshatras, so most nakshatras sit inside one rashi and nine of them straddle two. Your Moon sign is the rashi; your birth star is the nakshatra; both come from the same Moon position.

Each nakshatra has a Vimshottari lord — Ketu, Venus, Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, repeating from Ashwini. The lord of your birth nakshatra rules the first mahadasha of your life and colours how the Moon expresses itself in your chart.

Classical classifications used in kundli matching. Gana (Deva, Manushya, Rakshasa) compares temperament; nadi (Adi, Madhya, Antya) compares constitution and carries the heaviest weight in Ashtakoota; yoni is the animal symbol used to compare physical compatibility. Each nakshatra page lists all three.

Today’s tara bala for people born under that star (whether the day is favourable), the Moon’s next passage through the nakshatra, the Sun’s yearly passage, and where the nakshatra’s lord stands today — all computed from the same sidereal ephemeris as our charts, at sunrise.