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In short
The Janma Nakshatra, or birth star, is the nakshatra the Moon occupied at the moment of birth. BPHS Ch. 46 starts the Vimshottari dasha from it and sets the balance of the first period by how far the Moon had gone through it. This app computes it from the Moon's sidereal longitude and uses it for the dashas and a short temperament line.
What the term means
Janma Nakshatra is the birth star: the nakshatra the Moon was in when a person was born. Every graha has a nakshatra, and so does the Ascendant, but "your nakshatra" or "birth star" means the Moon's. Its quarter, the pada, is usually given with it.
Where the term comes from
BPHS uses it as the key to the dashas. Ch. 46 Sl. 12-14 count the nakshatras "from Kritika to the Janm Nakshatr" and divide by nine; the remainder names the lord of the first Vimshottari period. Sl. 16 sets how much of that period is left at birth from the share of the Moon's stay in the Janma Nakshatra that has already passed. The Ashtottari scheme in the same chapter also counts to the birth star, and Ch. 45 Sl. 30-37 uses "the birth asterism", glossed as the star the Moon occupies, in a planetary-state calculation.
How this app uses it
- The engine finds it by dividing the Moon's sidereal longitude by 13°20'. In the 19 January 1985, 11:14 IST, New Delhi chart the Moon is in Mula, pada 4, and Mula's lord is Ketu.
- That starts the Vimshottari dasha. The Moon had covered most of Mula, so only a short part of Ketu's seven years remained: the engine ends it on 28 May 1985 (UTC) and Venus's twenty years follow. The engine measures the share by arc covered, where BPHS words it as time.
- The nakshatra calculator adds a one-line temperament description for the birth star, paraphrased from Jyotisha Siddhanta Sara as the engine's comments record, with that source's caste classification left out entirely.
Pages that use this term
- Moon sign and nakshatra - "birth star" and "nakshatra" as the same thing.
- Mula Nakshatra - the birth star in the example above.
- Revati Nakshatra - one of the nakshatra pages read as a Janma Nakshatra.
- Nakshatra calculator - your birth star, pada and lord.
- Vimshottari dasha calculator - the periods it sets in motion.
Related terms
- Dasha balance - the part of the first period left at birth.
- Star lord - the graha that rules the birth star.
- Janma Rashi - the Moon's sign at birth.
- Tara koota - the matching factor counted between birth stars.
Nakshatra (Birth Star)
Which of the 27 nakshatras held your Moon, with its pada and ruling lord.
This date is sent only to compute the answer. Nothing is stored, no account is created, and no email is asked for.