Nakshatra, another common name is constellation. In simple words, we say a nakshatra is a group of stars forming different shapes in the limitless sky.

Now, how this science of stars is relevant to our lives. We have 28 nakshatras in the divine sky.

Let’s start with a beautiful story on nakshatras.

The beautiful daughters of Raja Daksha: These 28 nakshatras are the 28 beautiful daughters of Raja Daksha. All the 28 daughters are married to the god “Moon”. Raja Daksha married his daughters to moon on one promise that god Moon will take care of all the daughters very dearly and equally.
God moon started to catch up with each wife(nakshatras) daily. Now god Moon started showing interest in one of his favourite wives Rohini (name of one of the Nakshatras) and now started spending his quality time with her. This made all the other 27 wives unhappy & jealous of their sister Rohini. Now, all the other 27 wives approached their father Raja Daksha, and father cursed the god moon. Because of the curse, god moon started dying and becoming non vital. Later seeing the condition of their husband, they all requested their father to nullify the curse. Raja Daksha explained his daughters it is impossible to remove the curse completely, but he can help his daughters by modifying the curse that moon will disappear to reappear every month. This is what we call and see the waxing and waning phases of moon in the sky. When moon visits or spend time with each of his wives i.e. moon in those nakshatras, this brings a different change in our minds and our thought processes and of course our varying moods!

As we are discussing Moon here, would like to emphasise that moon is our mind, our mann. Mind or Mann is very hard to control, this is like a dancing monkey on the tight rope. Now, we will come to Astrology part of Nakshatras.

There are 27 Nakshatras, and giving their names as follows:

No	English Name	Devanagari Name
1.	Ashvini/Aswini	अश्विनी
2.	Bharani	भरणी
3.	Krittika/Krithika	कृत्तिका
4.	Rohini	रोहिणी
5.	Mrigashirsha	मृगशीर्ष
6.	Ardra	आर्द्रा
7.	Punarvasu	पुनर्वसु
8.	Pushya	पुष्य
9.	Ashlesha	आश्ळेषा/आश्लेषा
10.	Magha	मघा
11.	Purva Phalguni	पूर्व फाल्गुनी
12.	Uttara Phalguni	उत्तर फाल्गुनी
13.	Hasta	हस्त
14.	Chitra	चित्रा
15.	Swati	स्वाति
16.	Vishakha	विशाखा
17.	Anuradha	अनुराधा
18.	Jyeshtha	ज्येष्ठा
19.	Mula	मूल
20.	Purva Ashadha	पूर्वाषाढा
21.	Uttara Ashadha	उत्तराषाढा
22.	Shravana	श्रवण
23.	Dhanishtha	श्रविष्ठा/धनिष्ठा
24.	Shatabhisha	शतभिषक्/शततारका
25.	Purva Bhadrapada	पूर्वभाद्रपदा/पूर्वप्रोष्ठपदा
26.	Uttara Bhadrapada	उत्तरभाद्रपदा/उत्तरप्रोष्ठपदा
27.	Revati	रेवती

One planet rule three nakshatras each.

We will discuss the 28^th Nakshatra “Abhijit “in our next topic, we do have a beautiful story related this very auspicious nakshatra. Abhijit Nakshatra has no ruling planet.

In this following pattern, we are going to discuss 27 nakshatras and their charans.

Charan means a step or a subset or a foot. We have four charans in a single nakshatra. Here as we had discussed moon remains in one nakshatra for a single day and these charans viz a viz represents four subsets of a day e.g. midnight, sunset, midday and sunrise.

One Zodiac comprised of 360 degrees. And is divided into 12 signs which extends or expands over 30 degrees. And then it is also subset into 27 equal parts each comprised of 13 degrees 20minutes.

Now, we divide each Nakshatra part i.e. 13degres 20 minutes into four charans of 3 degrees 20 minutes each. With this we are done with the Mathematics of a zodiac.

Each Nakshatra has a definite shape, a rule planet, a ruling deity, a varna, a gana.

Analysis of a chart, we study each planets nakshatra placement to study the quality of mind and its impact on that area of our life.

I say “Nakshatras are the genes of one’s chart”.

Very important, the placement of moon in which nakshatra at the birth brings that energy in one’s mind & soul. And the person lives with that energy through out his life. This is called as Birth star or in Hindi Janma Nakshatra.

This Birth star has a great influence on the nature and the persona of a person, we in Hindu Dharma, we consider the birth star compatibility of two persons for the purpose of matching kundlis for marriage.

Ill be adding more info in my next article on nakshatra. stay connected!