Free Nakshatra Calculatorमुफ़्त नक्षत्र कैलकुलेटर

A date alone is not enough for a birth star. Here is a real case. A baby born in Mohali on 12 March 2024 at 2:20 PM has the Moon in Revati, pada 3, so the traditional name sound is "Cha". Look at what the next few hours change:

Forty-six minutes moved the name sound; six hours moved the Nakshatra, the Rashi and the planetary period the child is born into. So take the time from the birth certificate or the hospital discharge sheet, not a family memory of "around evening". The place matters too: it fixes the time zone and the clock rules in force on that date (India used a one-hour "War Time" between 1942 and 1945, for example), which turns your local time into the exact moment the Moon is measured.

Nakshatra and its number

The mansion's name, and where it sits in the cycle from Ashwini (1) to Revati (27). This is the star a priest asks for in a puja sankalp.

Pada (1 to 4)

Which quarter of the mansion the Moon was in. Each pada is 3°20′ wide and carries one sound for naming; astrologers also use it to place the Moon in the Navamsa (D9) chart.

Meaning and symbol

The literal meaning of the name and the picture tradition gives it. Swati's "young shoot swaying in the wind" is read as flexibility and independence; Rohini's chariot as growth and comfort.

Ruling deity

The Vedic deity who presides over the star. Some families offer that deity's prayer, or simply visit a temple, on the day each month when the Moon returns to their star.

Ruling planet

One of the nine planets, in a fixed repeating order. It also decides the first Mahadasha (planetary period) of your life, explained below.

Gana

A temperament group: Deva (gentle), Manushya (human, balanced) or Rakshasa (fierce, self-protective). It is one of the points checked in marriage matching. Rakshasa does not mean a bad person; it describes a strong, independent nature.

Guna

The quality of the star: Sattva (calm, clear), Rajas (active, driven) or Tamas (steady, inward).

Moon sign

The Rashi that contains your star. Each Rashi holds two and a quarter Nakshatras, so the star is the finer detail inside the sign.

Name letter and first dasha (shown under your result)

The sound for your pada from the traditional table, and a quick range for how much of the first planetary period was left at birth.

In many Indian homes the first question after a birth is "which star?", because the star's pada gives the first sound of the baby's name. All 108 padas have one sound each, listed in the table below. A practical way to do it:

1. Get the exact birth time from the hospital, to the minute.
2. Find the Nakshatra and pada with the calculator above. The result shows all four sounds of your star and highlights yours.
3. Shortlist by sound, not by English spelling. "Cha" covers Chaitanya, Charvi and Chandan; Krittika's first pada "A" covers Aarav and Ananya.
4. Pick the day. Namkaran is traditionally held on the 11th or 12th day after birth, though families differ; if you want a favourable date, check the Shubh Muhurat finder.

If the sound does not suit you, tradition already has an answer: the Nakshatra name is used in rituals and the sankalp, while the everyday name can be anything the family loves. Some families also use the wider list of sounds for the whole Rashi. A few sounds, such as "Ng" (ङ) or "Na" (ञ), almost never start a name; families then take the nearest common sound or the Rashi list.

Common mistakes: choosing the letter from the Western sun sign; rounding the birth time to the hour; trusting a printed letter chart without checking the pada; and assuming the name decides the child's luck. The tradition is about beginning with an auspicious sound, not about fixing the future.

Spans are in the sidereal zodiac. Sounds are the traditional Avakahada Chakra list; small regional differences exist.

Vedic astrology times the chapters of life with the Vimshottari dasha, a 120-year cycle of nine planetary periods in a fixed order: Ketu 7 years, Venus 20, Sun 6, Moon 10, Mars 7, Rahu 18, Jupiter 16, Saturn 19 and Mercury 17. You are born into the period of your Nakshatra's ruling planet, and how much of it is left depends on how far the Moon had already travelled through the star.

The pada gives a quick range: born in pada 1, between three-quarters and all of the period remains; pada 2, half to three-quarters; pada 3, a quarter to a half; pada 4, less than a quarter. The Mohali baby above (Revati, pada 3) starts life in Mercury's 17-year period with 4.85 years left, and then moves into Ketu's seven years. The exact balance and every later period appear in the full Kundli.

When two families compare horoscopes, the standard Ashtakoota method gives up to 36 points. Four of its eight parts come straight from the two birth stars: Tara (3 points), Yoni (4), Gana (6) and Nadi (8). That is 21 of the 36 points. The other 15 come from the two Moon signs. This is why two people with the same Rashi can still get very different scores.

Nadi carries the most weight. When both stars share the same Nadi (Adi, Madhya or Antya), that part traditionally scores zero. Classical texts also list exceptions, so a zero in Nadi is a reason for a closer look by an experienced astrologer, not an automatic no. Gana works similarly: Deva with Deva scores fully, while some mixed pairs score less. To see both charts scored together, use Kundli Matching.

Six stars sit where a water sign meets a fire sign: Ashwini, Ashlesha, Magha, Jyeshtha, Mula and Revati. Many families mark a birth in these stars with a simple shanti puja, usually done when the Moon returns to the same star about 27 days later. Six of 27 stars means roughly one baby in five is born under one of them, including the Mohali baby above. It is a custom of blessing, not a verdict on the child. If your family follows it, a local pandit can do it simply; if not, nothing in this result says the child's life is affected.

Your local birth time is converted to universal time using the time-zone rules for your birthplace on that date. The engine then computes the Moon's sidereal longitude with the Lahiri ayanamsa, divides it by 13°20′ to get the Nakshatra and by 3°20′ to get the pada, and looks up the star's classical deity, symbol, lord, gana and guna. No astrologer edits the answer; the same input always gives the same result.

A personal reading is worth it when you were born within about half an hour of a pada or star change and the name really matters to the family (an astrologer can check the birth time against life events), when Nadi or Gana raises a doubt in matching, or when you are fixing a big muhurat such as a wedding or griha pravesh.