Nakshatras – Lunar Mansions
Twenty-seven lunar mansions of ancient India
Signs: 27 Origin: ~1500 BC Region: South Asian
The Signs
🐴
Ashwini (अश्विनी)
Moon longitude: 0°00′–13°20′ sidereal Aries. The Moon transits Ashwini for approximately 24 hours every 27.3 days. In the Vedic calendar, Ashwini corresponds to late April in solar terms. Nakshatra is determined by the Moon's position at the exact moment of birth — unlike solar signs, it changes daily.
♀
Bharani (भरणी)
Moon longitude: 13°20′–26°40′ sidereal Aries. The Moon transits Bharani for approximately 24 hours every 27.3 days. Nakshatra is determined by the Moon's position at the exact moment of birth — unlike solar signs, it changes daily.
🔥
Krittika (कृत्तिका)
Moon longitude: 26°40′ sidereal Aries – 10°00′ sidereal Taurus. The Moon transits Krittika for approximately 24 hours every 27.3 days. Nakshatra is determined by the Moon's position at the exact moment of birth — unlike solar signs, it changes daily.
🐂
Rohini (रोहिणी)
Moon longitude: 10°00′–23°20′ sidereal Taurus. The Moon transits Rohini for approximately 24 hours every 27.3 days. Nakshatra is determined by the Moon's position at the exact moment of birth — unlike solar signs, it changes daily.
🦌
Mrigashira (मृगशिरा)
Moon longitude: 23°20′ sidereal Taurus – 6°40′ sidereal Gemini. The Moon transits Mrigashira for approximately 24 hours every 27.3 days. Nakshatra is determined by the Moon's position at the exact moment of birth — unlike solar signs, it changes daily.
💎
Ardra (आर्द्रा)
Moon longitude: 6°40′–20°00′ sidereal Gemini. The Moon transits Ardra for approximately 24 hours every 27.3 days. Nakshatra is determined by the Moon's position at the exact moment of birth — unlike solar signs, it changes daily.
🏹
Punarvasu (पुनर्वसु)
Moon longitude: 20°00′ sidereal Gemini – 3°20′ sidereal Cancer. The Moon transits Punarvasu for approximately 24 hours every 27.3 days. Nakshatra is determined by the Moon's position at the exact moment of birth — unlike solar signs, it changes daily.
🌸
Pushya (पुष्य)
Moon longitude: 3°20′–16°40′ sidereal Cancer. The Moon transits Pushya for approximately 24 hours every 27.3 days. Nakshatra is determined by the Moon's position at the exact moment of birth — unlike solar signs, it changes daily.
🐍
Ashlesha (आश्लेषा)
Moon longitude: 16°40′–30°00′ sidereal Cancer. The Moon transits Ashlesha for approximately 24 hours every 27.3 days. Nakshatra is determined by the Moon's position at the exact moment of birth — unlike solar signs, it changes daily.
👑
Magha (मघा)
Moon longitude: 0°00′–13°20′ sidereal Leo. The Moon transits Magha for approximately 24 hours every 27.3 days. Nakshatra is determined by the Moon's position at the exact moment of birth — unlike solar signs, it changes daily.
🛏️
Purva Phalguni (पूर्व फाल्गुनी)
Moon longitude: 13°20′–26°40′ sidereal Leo. The Moon transits Purva Phalguni for approximately 24 hours every 27.3 days. Nakshatra is determined by the Moon's position at the exact moment of birth — unlike solar signs, it changes daily.
🤝
Uttara Phalguni (उत्तर फाल्गुनी)
Moon longitude: 26°40′ sidereal Leo – 10°00′ sidereal Virgo. The Moon transits Uttara Phalguni for approximately 24 hours every 27.3 days. Nakshatra is determined by the Moon's position at the exact moment of birth — unlike solar signs, it changes daily.
✋
Hasta (हस्त)
Moon longitude: 10°00′–23°20′ sidereal Virgo. The Moon transits Hasta for approximately 24 hours every 27.3 days. Nakshatra is determined by the Moon's position at the exact moment of birth — unlike solar signs, it changes daily.
💫
Chitra (चित्रा)
Moon longitude: 23°20′ sidereal Virgo – 6°40′ sidereal Libra. The Moon transits Chitra for approximately 24 hours every 27.3 days. Nakshatra is determined by the Moon's position at the exact moment of birth — unlike solar signs, it changes daily.
🌱
Swati (स्वाती)
Moon longitude: 6°40′–20°00′ sidereal Libra. The Moon transits Swati for approximately 24 hours every 27.3 days. Nakshatra is determined by the Moon's position at the exact moment of birth — unlike solar signs, it changes daily.
⚡
Vishakha (विशाखा)
Moon longitude: 20°00′ sidereal Libra – 3°20′ sidereal Scorpio. The Moon transits Vishakha for approximately 24 hours every 27.3 days. Nakshatra is determined by the Moon's position at the exact moment of birth — unlike solar signs, it changes daily.
🪷
Anuradha (अनुराधा)
Moon longitude: 3°20′–16°40′ sidereal Scorpio. The Moon transits Anuradha for approximately 24 hours every 27.3 days. Nakshatra is determined by the Moon's position at the exact moment of birth — unlike solar signs, it changes daily.
☂️
Jyeshtha (ज्येष्ठा)
Moon longitude: 16°40′–30°00′ sidereal Scorpio. The Moon transits Jyeshtha for approximately 24 hours every 27.3 days. Nakshatra is determined by the Moon's position at the exact moment of birth — unlike solar signs, it changes daily.
🌿
Mula (मूल)
Moon longitude: 0°00′–13°20′ sidereal Sagittarius. The Moon transits Mula for approximately 24 hours every 27.3 days. Nakshatra is determined by the Moon's position at the exact moment of birth — unlike solar signs, it changes daily.
🌊
Purva Ashadha (पूर्वाषाढा)
Moon longitude: 13°20′–26°40′ sidereal Sagittarius. The Moon transits Purva Ashadha for approximately 24 hours every 27.3 days. Nakshatra is determined by the Moon's position at the exact moment of birth — unlike solar signs, it changes daily.
🏆
Uttara Ashadha (उत्तराषाढा)
Moon longitude: 26°40′ sidereal Sagittarius – 10°00′ sidereal Capricorn. The Moon transits Uttara Ashadha for approximately 24 hours every 27.3 days. Nakshatra is determined by the Moon's position at the exact moment of birth — unlike solar signs, it changes daily.
👂
Shravana (श्रवण)
Moon longitude: 10°00′–23°20′ sidereal Capricorn. The Moon transits Shravana for approximately 24 hours every 27.3 days. Nakshatra is determined by the Moon's position at the exact moment of birth — unlike solar signs, it changes daily.
🥁
Dhanishta (धनिष्ठा)
Moon longitude: 23°20′ sidereal Capricorn – 6°40′ sidereal Aquarius. The Moon transits Dhanishta for approximately 24 hours every 27.3 days. Nakshatra is determined by the Moon's position at the exact moment of birth — unlike solar signs, it changes daily.
⭕
Shatabhisha (शतभिषा)
Moon longitude: 6°40′–20°00′ sidereal Aquarius. The Moon transits Shatabhisha for approximately 24 hours every 27.3 days. Nakshatra is determined by the Moon's position at the exact moment of birth — unlike solar signs, it changes daily.
⚔️
Purva Bhadrapada (पूर्व भाद्रपद)
Moon longitude: 20°00′ sidereal Aquarius – 3°20′ sidereal Pisces. The Moon transits Purva Bhadrapada for approximately 24 hours every 27.3 days. Nakshatra is determined by the Moon's position at the exact moment of birth — unlike solar signs, it changes daily.
🐉
Uttara Bhadrapada (उत्तर भाद्रपद)
Moon longitude: 3°20′–16°40′ sidereal Pisces. The Moon transits Uttara Bhadrapada for approximately 24 hours every 27.3 days. Nakshatra is determined by the Moon's position at the exact moment of birth — unlike solar signs, it changes daily.
🐟
Revati (रेवती)
Moon longitude: 16°40′–30°00′ sidereal Pisces. The Moon transits Revati for approximately 24 hours every 27.3 days. Nakshatra is determined by the Moon's position at the exact moment of birth — unlike solar signs, it changes daily.
History & Origins
The nakshatras are the genuinely ancient sky of India — older than the twelve zodiac signs, and unlike them, entirely homegrown. They are the lunar mansions: the twenty-seven (in some texts twenty-eight) star-groups the Moon passes through as it circles the sky once a month. And they are old: the nakshatras are named already in the Rig Veda and the Atharva Veda, the oldest layers of Sanskrit scripture.
How old, exactly, the stars themselves may tell us. The lists often begin with Krittika — the Pleiades — and Krittika marks the start because, when the system was fixed, it rose due east at the spring equinox. Precession has since moved the equinox on, and scholars reading that shift backward place the origin of the nakshatra tradition somewhere around 2000 BC or earlier. This is astronomy of real antiquity, indigenous to the subcontinent.
The nakshatras are a lunar system, and that sets them apart from the solar zodiac. Your nakshatra is the mansion the Moon stood in at your birth, not the Sun's sign — a different and older way of reading the sky. Each has its own deity, symbol and nature, and the count is genuinely lunar: twenty-seven mansions for the roughly twenty-seven days the Moon takes to return to the same star. (A twenty-eighth, Abhijit, "the victorious," was later set aside to keep the round number.)
So this is one of the real ones. Where the twelve rashi signs of Indian astrology were imported from the Greeks in the early centuries AD, the nakshatras were here long before — a native Vedic astronomy that Indians never stopped using, still central to naming children, fixing weddings and choosing auspicious days across South Asia today. The nakshatra we give you is a genuinely ancient Indian sign, not a borrowed one.