Birth star · Nakshatra 24 of 27
Shatabhisha Nakshatra शतभिषा
6°40′ Aquarius to 20°00′ Aquarius — in Aquarius. Ruled by Rahu. Symbol: an empty circle. Presiding deity: Varuna, keeper of cosmic law.
What Shatabhisha is
The zodiac is divided into twenty-seven nakshatras of 13°20′ each, and Shatabhisha is the twenty-fourth. Your birth star is the nakshatra the Moon occupied at the moment you were born — not the Sun, which is what a newspaper horoscope uses. That is why two people born on the same date can have different nakshatras: the Moon moves about 13°12′ a day, so it crosses a nakshatra boundary roughly every two and a quarter days.
How it tends to read
Shatabhisha means a hundred healers, and astrologers read it as the solitary problem-solver — the person who works out a cure nobody else was looking for. People with the Moon here are often genuinely independent thinkers and comfortable alone. There can be real difficulty letting others close. It tends to favour medicine, research and anything unorthodox.
Traditional readings describe tendencies, not events. A single placement is one line in a chart; the rest of the chart can support it or pull hard against it.
The practical consequence: your first mahadasha
This is the part most pages leave out, and it is the one with a real effect. In the Vimshottari system the lord of your Moon's nakshatra decides which planetary period you are born into. Shatabhisha is ruled by Rahu, so someone born under it begins life in a Rahu mahadasha of 18 years — already part-elapsed at birth, by exactly how far the Moon had travelled through the nakshatra. Every later period follows in the fixed sequence from there. So your birth star quietly sets the timing of your whole life map, which is why getting the birth time right matters more than most people expect.
The four padas
Each nakshatra divides into four quarters of 3°20′, and each quarter falls in a different navamsa (D9) sign. The navamsa is the chart Vedic astrologers read for inner strength and for marriage, so the pada is a genuinely different reading, not a footnote. These are computed with the same rule our paid reports use.
| Pada | Range | Navamsa sign |
|---|---|---|
| Pada 1 | 6°40′ Aquarius – 10°00′ Aquarius | Sagittarius navamsa |
| Pada 2 | 10°00′ Aquarius – 13°20′ Aquarius | Capricorn navamsa |
| Pada 3 | 13°20′ Aquarius – 16°40′ Aquarius | Aquarius navamsa |
| Pada 4 | 16°40′ Aquarius – 20°00′ Aquarius | Pisces navamsa |
Classical classifications
These are the values our own Guna Milan uses when matching two charts, so what you read here is what our Marriage Match would compute.
| Ruling planet (Vimshottari) | Rahu · 18 years |
|---|---|
| Deity | Varuna, keeper of cosmic law |
| Symbol | an empty circle |
| Gana | Rakshasa |
| Yoni | Horse (female) |
| Nadi | Adi |
| Keyword | the hundred healers |
Classical sources differ on some of these, particularly the yoni compatibility tables. Where traditions disagree we follow the reading our astrologer, Ritesh Sharma, works with, and we say so rather than presenting one tradition as the only one.
Is Shatabhisha actually your birth star?
Your Moon's nakshatra is calculated from your exact birth time and place, not from your date alone — two people born the same day can have different birth stars. Our Free Kundli works it out in a few seconds, along with your Lagna, Moon sign and the mahadasha you are running now.
All 27 nakshatras
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 Purva Bhadrapada Uttara Bhadrapada Revati