Anuradha nakshatra: Saturn's star in Scorpio, what the texts say and how to check yours

Anuradha is the seventeenth nakshatra, the middle of the three stars that share Scorpio's first half-and-more. Saturn rules it in the Vimshottari scheme, so a Moon in Anuradha opens life in a Saturn Mahadasha of 19 years. It is also, by count, the star this app likes best for starting things: it is the only nakshatra on all six of the muhurat engine's activity lists. This page sets out what the classical books in the app's library say about Anuradha, with chapter and page, and every figure comes from running the engine.

It belongs to a 27-page series laid out the same way throughout, so Anuradha can be read beside Vishakha before it and Jyeshtha after it. Its sign is described on the Scorpio (Vrishchika) page. How the engine computes positions is on the methodology page, and the books are listed on the sources page.

Where Anuradha sits: the arc, the padas and the engine's facts

Anuradha is the 17th of the 27 nakshatras. Each nakshatra is 13°20' of the sidereal zodiac, 360 degrees divided by 27, and this app measures them from 0° Aries in the Lahiri (Chitrapaksha) frame. So Anuradha runs from Scorpio 3°20' to Scorpio 16°40', wholly inside Scorpio. A planet is "in Anuradha" when its sidereal longitude falls inside that arc. When someone says "my nakshatra is Anuradha", they mean the Moon was there at birth: the Janma Nakshatra. The Moon moves about 13 degrees a day, so it crosses a nakshatra boundary inside most birth dates, and the nakshatra calculator reports the star at both ends of the birth date when no time is given. The difference between a rashi and a nakshatra is set out separately, as is why two apps can name two different stars for the same birth.

Anuradha lies wholly inside Scorpio, so a Moon there is always a Scorpio Moon, with Mars as sign lord and Saturn as star lord. Scorpio is the Moon's sign of fall: BPHS Ch. 3 Sl. 49-50 puts the Moon's exaltation in Taurus, deepest at 3 degrees, and its fall in the seventh sign at the same degree. Scorpio 3° lies in Vishakha, twenty arc-minutes before Anuradha begins, so an Anuradha Moon is in its fall sign but already past the deepest point. The app's dignity reading labels the Moon debilitated by sign throughout Scorpio; how much that weighs is a matter for the rest of the chart.

Inside the star the engine draws nine unequal sub-divisions, one for each Vimshottari lord, each as wide as that lord's share of the 120-year cycle, and the first belongs to Anuradha's own lord, Saturn. These sub-lords matter most for points that move fast through the sky, above all the Ascendant, which is why the sub-lord needs a birth time to the minute. The sub-lord calculator prints this same table for your own Moon:

What the classical texts say about Anuradha

Three books in this app's library speak about Anuradha directly. Jyotisha-Siddhanta-Sara (Rama R. Rao, 1994) gives every nakshatra a description in Ch. IV; the corpus copy is a scan with no text layer, so the pages cited below were read as images. Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (BPHS) uses Anuradha as a counting point and a member of groups rather than describing it. Saravali names Anuradha in a Raja Yoga for Mars, and Advanced Predictive Astrology singles out a Moon in Anuradha for one rising sign. The readings are reported as the texts give them, with the same omissions the engine makes: the caste label each nakshatra carries in Jyotisha-Siddhanta-Sara is not repeated, nor are its predictions about appearance and marriage.

Jyotisha-Siddhanta-Sara, Ch. IV (pp. 87-104)

Entry 17, spelt Anuraadha, describes the star as "in the form of a serpent, composed of seven stars", with Mitra as its presiding deity. The people born under it "are friendly, valiant, fond of the company of sadhus, heads of parties, ministers and drivers; things associated with them are vehicles and all types of crops." (The small printed figure beside the entry in the scanned edition looks like an umbrella rather than a serpent; the text, not the figure, is what is reported here.)

The prose reading is brief: the person "will be rich, will live in foreign lands, will be unable to bear hunger and disposed to wander from place to place". The sloka and its translation give a different picture, the one the engine uses: "a celebrity and is always in a festive mood. He overcomes his enemies and he is talented in fine arts. He is deeply and differently affected by prosperity and calamity." The engine renders this as "a natural celebrity, festive in spirit, talented in the arts, and deeply moved by life's highs and lows".

Two qualifications in the chapter apply. Page 92 says the readings "will fully come to pass only if the moon is powerful", which for Anuradha is a real question, since the Moon is in its fall sign here. And page 91 makes the star's class a timing rule: "During the period of a planet situated in a particular star, effects will be felt according to the above characteristics." Anuradha is one of the four soft stars, with Mrigashira, Chitra and Revati.

Anuradha is the Sthithi (preservation) member of the triad it forms with Vishakha and Jyeshtha (p. 88), so the durithamsa caution the chapter attaches to the last padas of Laya stars does not touch it. It is not in the chapter's list of downward-looking stars, and it is not one of the Gandanta stars the chapter names on p. 87.

BPHS: Anuradha as a deity, a count and a group

BPHS lists Anuradha seventeenth (Santhanam's list after Ch. 3 Sl. 6), and Ch. 6 Sl. 24-26 names the seventeenth nakshatra deity Mitr. Here the two books agree outright: Mitra in Jyotisha-Siddhanta-Sara, Mitr in BPHS.

Anuradha is a counting point in Ch. 46. Panchottari Dasha (Sl. 29-30) "is considered suitable for those, whose Lagn is Kark and also in the Kark Dvadashamsa", and its rule begins: "Count from Anuradha up to the Janm Nakshatr and divide the number by 7." A Moon in Anuradha counts 1, which gives the first lord in Panchottari's order, the Sun, for 12 years; the engine returns the same. For anyone with that rising sign and twelfth-part, every Moon's Panchottari is measured from this star.

Anuradha also sits in two groups. Shastihayani (Sl. 40-41), for charts with the Sun in the Lagna, gives Swati, Vishakha and Anuradha to Budh, 6 years. Kalachakra (Sl. 56-58) puts Vishakha, Anuradha and Jyeshtha in the Apsavya chakra, and Sl. 77 lists Anuradha with Mrigashira, Ardra, Purvaphalguni, Uttaraphalguni, Jyeshtha, Dhanishtha and Shatabhisha as stars whose padas take "the same, as for Mrigashira". The pada table's Deha and Jiva columns come from the Mrigashira padas in Sl. 78-81.

For the Moon as a graha, and for what a fallen Moon is classically held to mean, see the Moon in Vedic astrology page; for Saturn, the star's lord, the Saturn page.

Saravali and Advanced Predictive Astrology

Saravali Ch. 35 Sl. 164: "If Mars is in Aswini, or Anuradha, or Dhanishta, a Raja Yoga is formed. This applies only, if the said planet is in Vargothama Navansa, or in exaltation Rasi simultaneously." Mars in Anuradha is in Scorpio, its own sign, so the exaltation route is closed; only the vargottama route is open. Running the engine's navamsa over Anuradha's padas shows that only the fourth pada, Scorpio 13°20' to 16°40', has Scorpio as its navamsa. So in this app's terms Saravali's condition for Mars in Anuradha is met in the fourth pada alone.

Advanced Predictive Astrology (Vol. II, p. 27) makes a specific case for one rising sign. For an Aquarius native "the Moon in Scorpio will act as a Raj Yoga planet and will yield very good results in her major period although she is debilitated in Scorpio", and "the Moon's position in Scorpio especially in the constellation of Anuradha, is highly significant provided a benefic like Jupiter (or even Venus) is in a Kendra from Lagna or in association with the Moon." This is a modern author's reading, stated with conditions, and the book offers it without a classical citation. It also files Anuradha in its Pitta group of humour-producing stars (p. 225).

Where the sources disagree

On the deity the books agree. Inside Jyotisha-Siddhanta-Sara the prose and the sloka describe different things, a wanderer who cannot bear hunger in one, a festive, artistic, much-affected person in the other, but they do not contradict each other; the engine carries only the sloka. On the form, the text says serpent while the printed figure looks like an umbrella.

The engine's Deva gana and Deer yoni for Anuradha have no source in this library, as its header admits. Its decision to put Anuradha on every muhurat list is likewise the code's: Jyotisha-Siddhanta-Sara's "soft" class is not tied to activities in the pages read, and BPHS gives no muhurat lists. A reader comparing this app with another should expect other lists to differ.

The four padas of Anuradha

Each nakshatra splits into four padas of 3°20', and each pada is one navamsa, so the 108 padas of the zodiac walk through the twelve signs nine times. BPHS Ch. 46 Sl. 87-88 gives the rule as arithmetic: take the number of nakshatras already passed, divide by 3, multiply the remainder by 4, add the pada, and count that many signs from Aries. For Anuradha's first pada: 16 nakshatras have passed, 16 divided by 3 leaves 1, times 4 is 4, plus 1 is 5, and the 5th sign from Aries is Leo. The engine's computeNavamsa, which uses the sign-based rule from Jyotisha-Siddhanta-Sara Ch. II, returns Leo too. The Navamsa calculator shows the whole D9 chart, and the Navamsa article explains why it needs an accurate birth time.

Anuradha begins a group of three stars at Leo in the navamsa count, so its padas run Leo, Virgo, Libra and Scorpio. The fourth pada, Scorpio 13°20' to 16°40', is vargottama: Scorpio in both the birth chart and the navamsa. That is the pada where Saravali's Raja Yoga condition for Mars is met, and where a Moon is in its fall sign in both charts. The other three padas put the Moon in a different D9 sign, with the Sun, Mercury and Venus as D9 dispositors in turn.

All four padas lie in one sign, and Anuradha's edges, Scorpio 3°20' and 16°40', fall well inside it, so neither a Gandanta junction nor a sign change is ever in question. The pada and sub-lord, though, can change within a few minutes of birth time; the sub-lord table above shows Saturn's own slice at the start of the star and Jupiter's at its end.

The Kalachakra columns follow BPHS Ch. 46 Sl. 78-81 for the Mrigashira pattern. In the first pada Cancer is Deha and Pisces Jiva; in the second, Taurus and Gemini; in the third, Capricorn and Gemini; in the fourth, Aries and Sagittarius. The text then lists, for each pada, the nine signs whose lords run the Kalachakra periods in order. The app computes Kalachakra from these same rows, with the balance at birth and dated periods, on the alternate dashas calculator and the Kundali screen.

Jyotisha-Siddhanta-Sara's 22nd-star rule, described under muhurat below, gives Purva Phalguni as the vainasika star for an Anuradha native. Like the durithamsa caution it is reported, not applied: the engine has no step that reads the birth star when it scores a window.

Anuradha and the dasha sequence

BPHS Ch. 46 Sl. 12-14 finds the first Vimshottari dasha by counting from Krittika to the birth star and dividing by nine; the remainder picks a lord from the sequence Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Ketu, Venus. Counting Krittika as 1, Anuradha is 15; 15 divided by 9 leaves 6, and that is Saturn. The engine reaches the same lord from its own table. Sl. 15 gives Saturn 19 years. A Moon in Anuradha therefore starts life in a Saturn Mahadasha, and Sl. 16 says how much of it remains: the part of the nakshatra the Moon has still to cross, as a share of the whole, times 19 years.

Run on a sample birth of 1 January 2000 with the Moon a quarter of the way into Anuradha, the engine leaves three quarters of the Saturn period, 14.25 years, and dates the next periods from there:

What a Saturn period is classically held to bring is on the Saturn Mahadasha page and the Saturn in Vedic astrology page; the Vimshottari dasha calculator gives your own dates, and the sub-periods article explains why those dates move when the birth time moves. The Saturn period is long, 19 years, and the Sade Sati calculator is a separate thing: it follows transiting Saturn against the Moon sign, Scorpio here, not the dasha.

Ashtottari is the 108-year system BPHS Ch. 46 Sl. 17-20 offers as an alternative "when Rahu is not in Lagn, in any other Kendr, or Trikon to the Lord of the Lagn". It assigns stars in alternating runs of four and three from Ardra. Anuradha opens Mercury's run of three, Anuradha, Jyeshtha and Mula, so an Anuradha Moon starts in a Mercury period of 17 years. Sl. 21-22 gives a benefic's period a third per star, so Anuradha carries the first third: at the very start of Anuradha nothing of Mercury's period has elapsed, and at its end a third has. Jyotisha-Siddhanta-Sara Ch. V (p. 120) prints the same grouping as a table. The app computes Ashtottari from the Moon's exact position, with the balance at birth and every period dated, on the alternate dashas calculator and the Kundali screen.

The engine does compute six other nakshatra-based systems from the same chapter, each with its own starting star and condition. For a Moon in Anuradha (sampled at the middle of the star) the alternate dashas calculator returns:

Panchottari is the line that belongs to this star: it is the only system in the table counted from Anuradha, and for an Anuradha Moon the count is 1, the Sun, 12 years. Vishakha, the star before, is the last in that count, and Jyeshtha, the star after, is second. The alternate dashas calculator shows the condition beside each system, because Panchottari is meant only for a Cancer Ascendant in the Cancer Dwadasamsa.

Anuradha in compatibility and muhurat

Ashtakoot matching, the 36-point Guna Milan the match tool runs, reads four of its eight kootas from the two Moon nakshatras: Tara, Yoni, Gana and Nadi. The engine places Anuradha in the Deva gana, the Madhya nadi and the Deer yoni. Its own header is candid that none of the classical books it works from contains the Ashtakoot rules, no nakshatra gana list and no koota point scale, so these tables are carried as they are rather than cited. One partial anchor exists: Advanced Predictive Astrology (p. 225) prints "Humour Producing Asterisms" in three groups of nine, Vata, Pitta and Kapha, and that grouping coincides star for star with the engine's Aadi, Madhya and Antya nadis. Anuradha sits in its Pitta group. The book does not call this Nadi koota, and this page does not claim it does.

Two people with the Moon in Anuradha score 28 of 36 in the engine: full marks on seven kootas and 0 of 8 on Nadi, because the same star always means the same nadi. The other stars sharing Anuradha's Madhya nadi, and so also scoring 0 on Nadi against it, are Bharani, Mrigashira, Pushya, Purva Phalguni, Chitra, Purva Ashadha, Dhanishta, Uttara Bhadrapada. On Yoni, Jyeshtha shares the Deer and scores the full 4; the engine treats the Dog as the Deer's enemy, so Ardra and Mula score 0; every other pairing scores 2.

Tara counts from each partner's star to the other's. The engine marks a count as unfavourable when it leaves 3, 5 or 7 after division by 9, and BPHS Ch. 44 Sl. 15-21 does name the 3rd, 5th and 7th stars from the birth star Vipat, Pratyak and Vadh, though in a chapter on longevity this page does not reproduce. Counted forward from Anuradha, the unfavourable stars are Ashwini (12), Krittika (14), Mrigashira (16), Magha (21), Uttara Phalguni (23), Chitra (25), Mula (3), Uttara Ashadha (5), Dhanishta (7). The score is 3 when both directions are clear, 1.5 when one is, and 0 when neither is. The compatibility feature shows every koota with its points, so a low total can be traced to the factor behind it.

For choosing a time, the muhurat feature and the muhurat calculator add 16 points to a window when the transiting Moon is in a star on the activity's list and take 6 away when it is not. Anuradha is on the Marriage, Business launch, Property purchase, Travel, New job, Investment lists. Across all six lists only Anuradha appears every time; Rohini, Hasta, Uttara Phalguni and Uttara Ashadha appear on five. Jyotisha-Siddhanta-Sara classes Anuradha soft (p. 91) but gives no activity list in the pages read, so the engine's choice cannot be checked against a source here. Jyotisha-Siddhanta-Sara (p. 89) also calls the 22nd star from one's birth star the vainasika nakshatra, "to be avoided for auspicious events"; for a Anuradha native that is Purva Phalguni. The engine does not apply that rule.

Checking Anuradha in your own chart

1. 1.Open the nakshatra calculator with your birth date and, if you have it, time and place. It returns the Moon's star, its pada and its lord. Without a time it also shows the star at 00:00 and 23:59, so you can see whether Anuradha held all day.
2. 2.Check the pada against the table above. The pada fixes the Moon's navamsa, which the Navamsa calculator shows in full.
3. 3.If your Moon is within a few arc-minutes of a sub-lord boundary, the sub-lord calculator prints the distance to the next one. An error of a few minutes in the birth time can move it.
4. 4.Open the Vimshottari dasha calculator to see the Saturn balance at birth and every period after it.
5. 5.Look at the whole chart in the birth chart calculator. A star describes the Moon's placement; the houses, the Ascendant and the other planets are read from the full chart.
6. 6.For matching, enter both birth details in the match tool; it computes both stars itself, so nothing has to be typed in by name.

If your Moon is in Anuradha, check the pada first: the fourth pada changes both the navamsa reading and Saravali's Mars condition. The kundali feature shows the star with the full chart, and the unknown birth time article explains what can be settled from the date alone.

Common misreadings of Anuradha

• "Anuradha is a debilitated star." Debilitation belongs to a planet in a sign, not to a star. The Moon is in its fall sign anywhere in Scorpio, including Anuradha, but other planets in Anuradha are not debilitated by being there.
• Being on all six muhurat lists does not make every Anuradha day good for everything. The nakshatra factor is worth +16 or -6; the Moon's house from your chart, the tithi, paksha, weekday, Rahu Kaal and your personal day all move the score as well.
• Saravali's Raja Yoga for Mars in Anuradha needs Mars to be vargottama, which in this app means the fourth pada only. Mars elsewhere in Anuradha does not meet the condition the verse states.
• Advanced Predictive Astrology's praise of an Anuradha Moon is for an Aquarius Ascendant with a benefic in a kendra. It is not a general statement about every Anuradha Moon.
• Panchottari is not "the Anuradha dasha". It counts from Anuradha for everyone who qualifies, and it qualifies only for a Cancer Ascendant in the Cancer Dwadasamsa.

Questions about Anuradha

Which sign is Anuradha nakshatra in?

Scorpio, entirely: Scorpio 3°20' to 16°40' in the sidereal zodiac the engine uses.

Who is the lord of Anuradha?

Saturn, with a Vimshottari period of 19 years. The deity, Mitra in Jyotisha-Siddhanta-Sara and Mitr in BPHS, is a separate thing. See the Saturn Mahadasha page for what the period is held to bring.

Is the Moon weak in Anuradha?

It is in Scorpio, its sign of fall, though past the deepest point at Scorpio 3°, which lies in Vishakha. The engine labels it debilitated by sign. Jyotisha-Siddhanta-Sara adds that its nakshatra readings come to pass fully only when the Moon is strong.

Which pada of Anuradha is vargottama?

The fourth, Scorpio 13°20' to 16°40', whose navamsa is also Scorpio. The other three padas fall in Leo, Virgo and Libra navamsas.

What gana, nadi and yoni does the app give Anuradha?

Deva gana, Madhya nadi and the Deer yoni, shared with Jyeshtha. The engine's header notes that no classical book in this library contains these Ashtakoot tables.

Why is Anuradha on every muhurat list in the app?

That is how the engine's ACTIVITY_RULES table is written; it is the only star on all six. The books in this library give no muhurat lists to compare it with.

Does Anuradha have its own dasha system?

Not its own, but Panchottari Dasha in BPHS Ch. 46 counts from Anuradha. It applies only to a Cancer Ascendant in the Cancer Dwadasamsa, and for an Anuradha Moon it begins with the Sun.

Is the Saturn Mahadasha of an Anuradha Moon the same as Sade Sati?

No. The Mahadasha is a period fixed at birth by the Moon's star. Sade Sati is a transit: the engine defines it as transiting Saturn in the 12th, 1st or 2nd sign from the natal Moon, which for an Anuradha Moon means Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius. The Sade Sati calculator dates the transit; the Vimshottari calculator dates the period. They can overlap or not.

What does an Anuradha-Anuradha match score?

28 of 36 in the engine: full marks on seven kootas and 0 on Nadi. The match tool lists every koota so the cause is visible.