Nakshatra Finder: Janma Nakshatra, Pada & Naming Syllable by DOB

What a nakshatra finder tells you

A nakshatra finder locates the Moon at your birth against the 27 lunar mansions (nakshatra) of the sidereal zodiac and tells you which one you were born under, and in which quarter (pada). That birth star (janma nakshatra) is the value that decides the Nadi, Gana, Yoni, Rajju and Tara kootas in marriage matching, the syllable your name traditionally starts with, and the planetary period (Vimshottari dasha) that was running when you were born. Most calculators return the name and stop. This one returns everything a matching astrologer would write down at the first meeting.

The calculation uses the Lahiri ayanamsa, the sidereal reference used by the Rashtriya Panchang and by almost every panchang printed in India, so the result will agree with what a traditional astrologer computes. No login, no phone number, no email. When you have your nakshatra, the “Match with partner” button drops both of you straight into the free kundali matching calculator, and the Sahita app on Google Play gives the same report in 11 Indian languages for parents who prefer to read it in their own script.

How to use this nakshatra finder

1. Enter your date of birth as recorded on the birth certificate or hospital slip. Births just after midnight are the usual source of a wrong date.
2. Enter the local time of birth. The Moon crosses a pada boundary roughly every six hours, so the time matters more here than it does for the rashi. Type the clock time as it was; the tool applies the correct time zone for the place.
3. Pick the place of birth from the autocomplete list of 14,000+ Indian towns and talukas, or any major city abroad.
4. Read the result: janma nakshatra, pada, rashi, the nakshatra lord, and the matching attributes (Gana, Yoni, Nadi, Varna, Rajju), plus the four naming syllables for the nakshatra with the one for your pada highlighted. Press “Match with partner” to carry the result into a full 36-guna check.

Your result explained: nakshatra, pada, rashi and lord

The sidereal zodiac is 360 degrees. Divide it by 27 and each nakshatra spans 13°20′. Divide each nakshatra by four and each pada spans 3°20′. Because a rashi is 30 degrees, every rashi contains exactly nine padas, or two and a quarter nakshatras, which is why some nakshatras straddle two signs and why the tool reports both the nakshatra and the rashi rather than assuming one from the other. The rashi calculator shows the Moon-sign side of the same result in more detail.

• Janma nakshatra. The lunar mansion the Moon occupied. Twenty-seven names from Ashwini to Revati; the table below lists them all.
• Pada. Which of the four quarters. Pada determines the naming syllable, the Navamsa (D9) sign of the Moon, and in some traditions whether a nakshatra dosha applies at all.
• Rashi. The Moon sign that contains that pada, used for Bhakoot, Graha Maitri and Varna.
• Nakshatra lord. One of nine planets in a fixed repeating order (Ketu, Venus, Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury). This is the planet whose Vimshottari mahadasha you were born into.

The nakshatra details used in marriage matching: Gana, Yoni, Nadi, Varna and Rajju

This is the block that distinguishes a matching tool from a naming tool. Each of these attributes is fixed by the nakshatra alone, and together they account for 20 of the 36 gunas in Ashtakoot matching, plus the Rajju check that South Indian porutham treats as a veto.

• Nadi (8 points). Aadi, Madhya or Antya, cycling through the 27 in a fixed pattern. Same Nadi for both partners is Nadi Dosha, the highest-weighted single flag in the system. Check two nakshatras directly on the nadi dosha calculator, and read how Nadi Dosha works in kundali matching for the three classical cancellations.
• Gana (6 points). Deva, Manushya or Rakshasa temperament. Deva with Rakshasa is the pair that scores zero; the rest score partially or fully.
• Yoni (4 points). One of fourteen animals (horse, elephant, sheep, serpent, dog, cat, rat, cow, buffalo, tiger, deer, monkey, mongoose, lion). Natural enemies such as cat and rat score zero.
• Varna (1 point). Assigned by the rashi containing the nakshatra.
• Rajju. Not one of the 36 gunas but a hard rule in the ten-porutham system. Nakshatras fall into five body groups (Pada, Kati, Nabhi, Kantha, Sira); the same group for bride and groom is Rajju dosha. Our comparison of South Indian 10 porutham vs 36 guna explains why a couple can pass one system and fail the other.

The remaining nakshatra-based kootas, Tara (3 points) and Vashya (2 points), need both nakshatras or both rashis together, so they appear once you run the pair through the matching tool. The Ashtakoota article on Wikipedia lists all eight kootas with their weights if you want an independent reference.

All 27 nakshatras: rashi span, lord, Gana and Nadi

Use this table to check your result, or to look up a partner’s attributes when you only know their nakshatra name. Degrees are sidereal (Lahiri), measured within the rashi.

#	Nakshatra	Rashi span	Lord	Gana	Nadi
1	Ashwini	Mesha 0°00’–13°20′	Ketu	Deva	Aadi
2	Bharani	Mesha 13°20’–26°40′	Venus	Manushya	Madhya
3	Krittika	Mesha 26°40′ – Vrishabha 10°00′	Sun	Rakshasa	Antya
4	Rohini	Vrishabha 10°00’–23°20′	Moon	Manushya	Antya
5	Mrigashira	Vrishabha 23°20′ – Mithuna 6°40′	Mars	Deva	Madhya
6	Ardra	Mithuna 6°40’–20°00′	Rahu	Manushya	Aadi
7	Punarvasu	Mithuna 20°00′ – Karka 3°20′	Jupiter	Deva	Aadi
8	Pushya	Karka 3°20’–16°40′	Saturn	Deva	Madhya
9	Ashlesha	Karka 16°40’–30°00′	Mercury	Rakshasa	Antya
10	Magha	Simha 0°00’–13°20′	Ketu	Rakshasa	Antya
11	Purva Phalguni	Simha 13°20’–26°40′	Venus	Manushya	Madhya
12	Uttara Phalguni	Simha 26°40′ – Kanya 10°00′	Sun	Manushya	Aadi
13	Hasta	Kanya 10°00’–23°20′	Moon	Deva	Aadi
14	Chitra	Kanya 23°20′ – Tula 6°40′	Mars	Rakshasa	Madhya
15	Swati	Tula 6°40’–20°00′	Rahu	Deva	Antya
16	Vishakha	Tula 20°00′ – Vrishchika 3°20′	Jupiter	Rakshasa	Antya
17	Anuradha	Vrishchika 3°20’–16°40′	Saturn	Deva	Madhya
18	Jyeshtha	Vrishchika 16°40’–30°00′	Mercury	Rakshasa	Aadi
19	Moola	Dhanu 0°00’–13°20′	Ketu	Rakshasa	Aadi
20	Purva Ashadha	Dhanu 13°20’–26°40′	Venus	Manushya	Madhya
21	Uttara Ashadha	Dhanu 26°40′ – Makara 10°00′	Sun	Manushya	Antya
22	Shravana	Makara 10°00’–23°20′	Moon	Deva	Antya
23	Dhanishta	Makara 23°20′ – Kumbha 6°40′	Mars	Rakshasa	Madhya
24	Shatabhisha	Kumbha 6°40’–20°00′	Rahu	Rakshasa	Aadi
25	Purva Bhadrapada	Kumbha 20°00′ – Meena 3°20′	Jupiter	Manushya	Aadi
26	Uttara Bhadrapada	Meena 3°20’–16°40′	Saturn	Manushya	Madhya
27	Revati	Meena 16°40’–30°00′	Mercury	Deva	Antya

The lord column repeats every nine rows because the Vimshottari sequence has nine planets. The Nadi column repeats every three, but as a wave (Aadi, Madhya, Antya, Antya, Madhya, Aadi) rather than a simple cycle, which is why people who try to work it out by counting usually get it wrong. Individual guides such as Rohini nakshatra marriage compatibility go deeper into one star at a time.

Naming syllables by nakshatra pada

Each of the 108 padas has a traditional first syllable (the Avakahada Chakra), and the naming ceremony (namakarana) picks a name starting with the syllable of the child’s birth pada. The tool shows all four syllables for your nakshatra and marks the one for your pada. A few examples: Ashwini is Chu, Che, Cho, La; Rohini is O, Va, Vi, Vu; Magha is Ma, Mi, Mu, Me; Revati is De, Do, Cha, Chi. So a child born in Rohini’s third pada would traditionally be given a name beginning with “Vi”, such as Vikram or Vidya.

Two cautions. First, the syllable is a naming custom, not astrology; a child named Vikram is not made Rohini by the name. Second, the reverse method, working out somebody’s nakshatra from the first letter of their name, only works if that family followed the custom, which many modern families do not. When birth details are genuinely lost, the kundli matching by name tool uses this table openly and shows the assumed nakshatra before scoring; our guide to janmakshar matching covers the naming-letter tradition in detail.

Your dasha at birth: how the nakshatra sets the Vimshottari clock

The Vimshottari dasha system divides a 120-year cycle among nine planets: Ketu 7 years, Venus 20, Sun 6, Moon 10, Mars 7, Rahu 18, Jupiter 16, Saturn 19, Mercury 17. The mahadasha running at birth is the one ruled by your nakshatra lord, and how much of it remains is proportional to how far the Moon still had to travel through the nakshatra. A Moon at the very start of Rohini (Moon-ruled, 10 years) gives nearly the full ten years of Moon dasha; a Moon at the end of Rohini gives only a few months before Mars dasha begins.

This is why the pada and the exact degree matter beyond naming. Two people born in the same nakshatra but different padas can be several years apart in their dasha timeline. The Sahita Vivaha Matching app prints the dasha balance at birth alongside the matching report so you can see which period both partners are in at the proposed wedding date. Our career by nakshatra guide uses the same lord-and-dasha logic outside the marriage context.

How sure is the result? Pada and nakshatra boundaries vs birth time

The Moon covers one nakshatra in roughly 24 hours and one pada in roughly six. If your recorded birth time is “about 10 in the morning” and the Moon crossed from Hasta into Chitra at 11:15 that day, your Nadi flips from Aadi to Madhya and your Gana from Deva to Rakshasa, which can move a match by 14 gunas. If the Moon was mid-nakshatra, an hour either way changes nothing that matching uses, though it may still change the pada and therefore the naming syllable and Navamsa sign.

The tool shows the Moon’s degree inside the nakshatra so you can judge this yourself: anything within about a degree of a boundary deserves a second look at the birth record. For families with no reliable time, the kundli matching without birth time mode computes the Moon at both ends of a window (morning, day, evening or night) and shows both scores with the changeover time, instead of silently assuming noon as most sites do. Read birth time unknown: can we still match? for what is and is not recoverable.

What other nakshatra calculators get wrong, and the 28th nakshatra

Some of the highest-ranking nakshatra tools return a “zodiac sign”, a “birthstone” and a “Chinese year of birth” beside your janma nakshatra. Those three are not part of jyotish. The zodiac sign they show is the Western tropical Sun sign, which uses a different reference frame (offset by about 24 degrees from the sidereal zodiac in 2026) and a different planet (the Sun rather than the Moon), so it will not even match the rashi printed on the same page.

Birthstones are a Western jeweller’s convention and the Chinese zodiac is a different tradition altogether. Others promise “lucky name and lucky number” from numerology, or route every result into a temple pooja. Ignore all of that; the nakshatra, pada, lord and the five matching attributes are the classical output.

On the “27 or 28” question: the older Vedic scheme had 28 nakshatras including Abhijit, a short segment (roughly the last quarter of Uttara Ashadha and the first sliver of Shravana, about 276°40′ to 280°54′ sidereal) that was later dropped so that the 27 remaining stars divide the zodiac evenly. Abhijit survives in muhurta (Abhijit muhurta at midday is still used for auspicious starts) but it is not used in Ashtakoot or porutham matching, because every matching table is built on the 27-fold division.

If a calculator tells you your birth star is Abhijit, note it as a curiosity and use Uttara Ashadha or Shravana, whichever the 27-scheme gives, for matching. The Wikipedia page on nakshatra has the historical background.

Nakshatra doshas people ask about: Moola, Ashlesha, Jyeshtha, Magha

Six nakshatras, the Gandanta stars at the water-fire junctions (Ashlesha, Jyeshtha, Revati and the following Magha, Moola, Ashwini), attract more anxious searches than the other twenty-one put together. The classical texts do attach specific observances to births in them, particularly Moola and Ashlesha, and many families still perform a shanti puja. What the texts do not say is that a person born in these stars cannot marry or will harm a spouse; that is folk exaggeration, and it is the reason we wrote a dedicated guide for each.

• Moola nakshatra marriage effects: which padas the texts single out and what the shanti actually addresses.
• Ashlesha nakshatra and marriage: the “sarpa” reputation and the in-law folklore, examined.
• Jyeshtha nakshatra marriage: the eldest-sibling rule and how it is applied in practice.
• Magha nakshatra marriage and career: the Ketu-ruled royal star and the Pitru connection.

The tool does not flag any nakshatra as inherently bad, because that is not how matching works: every star scores well against some partners and poorly against others. Related worries about two partners sharing a star are answered in the truth about same-nakshatra marriage. If a specific pairing concerns you, the fastest resolution is to run the actual match in the free Sahita app and read which kootas pass and which cancellation rules apply, rather than deciding on the name of the star alone.

Frequently asked questions

What is janma nakshatra?

Janma nakshatra is the lunar mansion, one of 27 equal 13°20′ segments of the sidereal zodiac, that the Moon occupied at the moment of your birth. It is also called the birth star or, in Tamil and Telugu, janma natchathiram or janma nakshatram. It fixes your Nadi, Gana, Yoni and Rajju for matching, your naming syllable, and the Vimshottari dasha running at birth.

How is nakshatra calculated?

The tool converts your local birth time to Universal Time using the birthplace’s time zone, computes the Moon’s longitude from an ephemeris, subtracts the Lahiri ayanamsa to move from the tropical to the sidereal zodiac, then divides the result by 13°20′ for the nakshatra and by 3°20′ for the pada. Rashi is the same sidereal longitude divided by 30 degrees.

What is pada in Vedic astrology?

Pada means “quarter”. Each nakshatra is split into four padas of 3°20′, giving 108 in total. The pada decides the naming syllable, the Moon’s Navamsa (D9) sign, and, for nakshatras that straddle two rashis such as Krittika or Punarvasu, which rashi the Moon is actually in. Matching kootas use the whole nakshatra; naming and some dosha rules use the pada.

Why is my birth time important in finding nakshatra?

The Moon moves through one nakshatra in about a day and one pada in about six hours. If your birth fell within an hour or two of a nakshatra boundary, an error in the recorded time changes the nakshatra and with it the Nadi and Gana used in matching. The tool shows the Moon’s degree inside the nakshatra so you can see how close to a boundary you are.

How are nakshatra, pada and rashi connected?

All three are read from the same sidereal Moon longitude. A rashi is 30 degrees and holds nine padas, so two and a quarter nakshatras fit in each sign. Ashwini, Bharani and the first pada of Krittika are in Mesha; the remaining three padas of Krittika are in Vrishabha, and so on. Knowing the nakshatra and pada therefore fixes the rashi, but knowing only the nakshatra does not always.

What is the 28th nakshatra, Abhijit?

Abhijit is a short segment between the end of Uttara Ashadha and the start of Shravana that older texts counted as a 28th nakshatra. It was dropped from the equal 27-fold division that all matching tables use, so no Ashtakoot or porutham koota has an Abhijit row. It remains important in muhurta: the Abhijit muhurta around local midday is one of the most used windows for beginning auspicious work.

Related reading: Ashwini nakshatra and love marriage, Revati nakshatra girl marriage, Bharani nakshatra girl marriage.