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Find your birth Nakshatra and Rashi

Your Nakshatra is the lunar mansion the Moon was passing through at the moment you were born. Enter your birth date, time and city and you will get the Nakshatra, its pada, your Moon sign (Rashi), and the naming syllable that goes with it.

The Moon moves about one Nakshatra every day, so the date matters most — but the time decides your pada, and near a boundary it decides the Nakshatra too.

What a Nakshatra actually is

Vedic astrology divides the sky into 27 Nakshatras of 13°20' each. Where Western astrology asks which of twelve signs the Sun was in, the Vedic system asks which of these twenty-seven the Moon was in — which is why two people born the same month can have very different charts.

Each Nakshatra is divided again into four padas of 3°20'. The pada refines the reading, decides the naming syllable, and feeds the Navamsa (D9) chart used in marriage matching.

Why your Nakshatra shows up in matching

Three of the eight kootas in Ashtakoot matching are read directly from the Nakshatra: Gana (temperament), Nadi (constitution) and Yoni (instinctive compatibility). Nadi alone is worth 8 of the 36 points, which is why it is the first thing an astrologer checks.

Questions people ask

How do I find my Nakshatra by date of birth?

Enter your birth date, exact time and city above. The Moon's position is calculated from ephemeris data for that moment, and the Nakshatra is the 13°20' segment of the zodiac it was passing through.

What is the difference between Nakshatra and Rashi?

Rashi is your Moon sign, one of twelve 30-degree signs. Nakshatra is finer: one of twenty-seven segments of 13°20'. Each Rashi contains a little over two Nakshatras, so the Nakshatra tells you considerably more.

Can I find my Nakshatra without a birth time?

Mostly. The Moon takes about a day to cross one Nakshatra, so the date usually settles it. The time decides your pada, and if you were born near a boundary it decides the Nakshatra itself — so an approximate time is worth entering.

What is the naming syllable used for?

In the Namakaran ceremony a child is given a name beginning with the sound assigned to the pada the Moon occupied at birth. Each Nakshatra has four such sounds, one per pada.