Pick your birth star above if you know it, or enter your birth date, time and place and this free tool finds it for you. You get one card for the star: where it lies in the zodiac, its ruling planet in the Vimshottari order, its deity, its gana, its yoni animal, its nadi, the four padas with their navamsa signs and name syllables, the birth-star tree, and the bird the Tamil tradition gives it. From birth details it also shows your own pada, and without a birth time it shows a card for every star the Moon passed through that day.
How it works
The 27 nakshatras divide the sidereal zodiac into equal parts of 13 degrees 20 minutes, each split into four padas of 3 degrees 20 minutes. From your birth details the tool finds the Moon’s sidereal position (Lahiri ayanamsa, NASA JPL DE440 tables) and reads off the star and the pada.
The lines on the card come from tables the whole site shares, so they match our other tools:
- the lord, deity, gana, yoni and nadi are those of the Nakshatra calculator and of the matching tools;
- the pada syllables are those of the Sanskrit Avakahada chakra, as used for naming;
- the navamsa sign of each pada follows from its place in the zodiac, nine padas to a sign;
- the tree is from the Nakshatra Van list of the Gujarat Forest Department, which plants one tree for each of the 27 stars and says the Hindu panchanga assigns them;
- the bird is the Tamil tradition as printed in M. Rangacharya’s Sothida Kalanjiyam (Chennai, 1908), p. 11. The card shows the Tamil word as printed, with a plain transliteration based on the one the University of Madras Tamil Lexicon uses, and adds an English name only where the Tamil Lexicon names the bird. Where it does not, the card gives the bird’s name in plain Latin letters, with the Tamil word in brackets as printed.
Reading the result
The card describes the star; it does not judge it. The gana, yoni and nadi are mainly used to compare two charts in kundli matching. The deity is the one the star is traditionally linked with, and the article for your star, linked from the card, tells its story. Nakshatra gardens (nakshatra van) plant the 27 trees together, and planting or caring for the tree of one’s birth star is a custom of respect for nature; it is not a remedy.
Where traditions differ
Lists of birth-star trees differ from region to region. The Gujarat list used here gives the same tree, Mesua ferrea (nagkesar), for Ashlesha, Vishakha and Anuradha. Other published lists differ. The list of the Nakshatravana grove at Sringeri, as given in the Wikipedia article Nakshatravana, names quite different trees for several stars, among them Jyeshtha, Moola, Purva Bhadrapada and Uttara Bhadrapada, and for many stars it gives more than one tree. Naming syllables also vary between regional traditions.
The birds differ between Tamil books too. Rangacharya (1908) gives நீர்காக்கை (nirkakkai), the little cormorant, for Bharani, where Maranakandi ennum Jothisha Sastiram (Chennai, 1938), p. 6, gives காகம் (kakam), the crow; other books differ for some other stars. The card follows Rangacharya and says so. For six stars, Ardra, Ashlesha, Purva Phalguni, Vishakha, Anuradha and Purva Ashadha, the card gives no English name rather than guess, and shows the bird’s name in plain Latin letters with the Tamil word in brackets, for example Anril (அன்றில்) for Ardra: for five of them the Tamil Lexicon does not name the bird in English, and for Purva Phalguni (பெண்கழுகு) it has no entry for the word itself. Two words are printed in a spelling the Lexicon lists a little differently, ராசாளி (Ashwini, listed as இராசாளி) and நீர்காக்கை (Bharani, listed as நீர்க்காக்கை), and their English comes from those entries.
What it does not do
It does not read the rest of your chart or make any prediction. For the full chart, use the free kundali; for the summary table printed kundalis carry, see the Avakhada chakra calculator.
Frequently asked questions
↳ What is my birth star?
It is the nakshatra the Moon was in at the moment of your birth, also called the janma nakshatra. The tool finds it from your birth date, time and place, or you can pick it from the list if you already know it.
↳ What is the tree of my nakshatra?
Each of the 27 stars has a tree in the nakshatra grove tradition. This card gives the tree from the Gujarat Forest Department's Nakshatra Van list, with its botanical name. Regional lists differ for several stars.
↳ What is the bird of my nakshatra?
The card gives the bird of the Tamil tradition, from M. Rangacharya's Sothida Kalanjiyam (Chennai, 1908), p. 11, in Tamil as printed there, with a plain transliteration and, where the Tamil Lexicon names it, the English. For example, Krittika's bird is மயில் (mayil), the peacock. Other Tamil books differ for some stars.
↳ What do gana, yoni and nadi mean?
They are traditional groups of the stars. Gana is temperament (Deva, Manushya or Rakshasa), yoni an animal symbol, and nadi one of three groups named after Vata, Pitta and Kapha. They are mainly used to compare two charts in matching, and none of them makes a star good or bad.
↳ Do I need my birth time?
Not if you already know your star: pick it from the list. From birth details, the time makes the pada exact. Without it the tool takes the Moon at midday and shows a card for each star the Moon was in that day.
↳ Is this the same as the Nakshatra calculator?
The two agree on the star, the pada and its traditional groups. This card adds the tree, the Tamil bird, all four padas of the star with their navamsa signs and syllables, and a pick-a-star option; the Nakshatra calculator focuses on your own pada.