Uttara Ashadha nakshatra, 26°40' Sagittarius to 10°00' Capricorn.

Uttara Ashadha is the boundary-crosser of this stretch, the 21st nakshatra, running from 26°40' Sagittarius to 10°00' Capricorn. Its first pada sits in Sagittarius and padas 2 through 4 fall in Capricorn, so it is the only station here to span two signs. The Sun rules it, the Vishvadevas or universal gods preside and the elephant tusk with the planks of a bed is its symbol. Purva Ashadha before it argues from conviction under Venus and Shravana after it listens and preserves under the Moon, while Uttara Ashadha holds the register of victory that lasts, recognition built to endure. Sources: Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra Chapter 3, Phaladeepika Chapter 7, Sarvartha Chintamani.

Range, ruler, deity and classical attributes

Mythology and meaning

The Vishvadevas (the All-Gods) collectively represent the universal divine principle. Uttara Ashadha carries the final-victory register that endures: not the burst of initial triumph but the sustained recognition that lasts. The elephant-tusk symbol reflects durability; the bed-planks symbol reflects the foundation that sustains.

The classical reading walks the presiding deity, the symbol and the ruling planet together to derive the nakshatra's full register. Uttara Ashadha's register is shaped by all three: the deity sets the thematic register, the symbol provides the visual-mnemonic and behavioural anchor and the ruling planet anchors the Vimshottari major-period framework and the broader chart-side reading whenever the chart owner runs the ruler's mahadasha.

What Moon in Uttara Ashadha reads as

Natives born with the natal Moon in Uttara Ashadha carry sustained victory and lasting recognition as dominant register. The chart builds toward enduring outcomes, achieves recognition that lasts and operates with the dharmic authority that comes through consistent dharmic action. The Moon as the mental and emotional register absorbs the nakshatra's signature directly: the chart owner thinks, feels and habitually responds through the Uttara Ashadha register.

Classical professional registers commonly associated with this nakshatra include institutional leadership at senior level, political and senior-government axis, judicial and legal-system senior roles, religious institutional leadership, sustained career-building in established institutions, mentor and elder-statesman registers. The professional list is illustrative rather than deterministic. The nakshatra produces structural capacity; the chart owner's specific application depends on the broader chart, the dasha sequence and the natal house position of the Moon within the chart.

The four padas and per-pada navamsa signs

Each nakshatra divides into four padas of 3°20' arc each, mapping to the four navamsa signs starting from the position of the first pada. Pada-level reading qualifies the broad nakshatra register with the navamsa sign that the chart owner's Moon (or natal point) actually occupies. The four padas of Uttara Ashadha.

• Pada 1. Sagittarius / Jupiter: dharmic-authority through wisdom register.
• Pada 2. Capricorn / Saturn: institutional sustained-authority, structural-mastery axis.
• Pada 3. Aquarius / Saturn: progressive sustained authority, reform-through-endurance.
• Pada 4. Pisces / Jupiter: compassionate sustained authority, spiritual-axis lasting recognition.

The classical practice reads the pada-level register together with the natal Moon's navamsa sign for full nakshatra reading. The pada determines which navamsa sign the chart owner activates; the navamsa lord then participates in the broader chart reading as a parallel signature alongside the natal lord.

Sun rulership and the 6-year mahadasha

A native born with the natal Moon in Uttara Ashadha opens life in the Sun mahadasha. The 6-year window foregrounds Sun's karaka register: Sun's natural signification activates as the broad thematic frame for the opening phase of the life.

Combined with Uttara Ashadha's sustained-victory register, the opening Sun mahadasha period often produces early-life leadership-axis formation, principled-authority emergence and the dignified-public-role capacity for which this nakshatra is renowned.

The exact degree of the Moon within Uttara Ashadha fixes how much of the opening Sun mahadasha remained at birth. Moon at 0° of the nakshatra inherits the full 6-year period from birth. Moon at the closing degree of the nakshatra inherits only the residual fraction before the next mahadasha begins. The classical computation reduces this to days from the precise degree of Moon within the nakshatra range.

Born under Uttara Ashadha: what it sets in motion

The birth Moon in Uttara Ashadha carries one load-bearing fact ahead of any temperament reading: it sets the Sun as the first mahadasha, and the Sun runs 6 years, the shortest of the major periods after Ketu and Mars. This is why the birth nakshatra is the entry point of the whole map. The order that follows is fixed, the Moon for 10 years and then Mars for 7, each picking up from where the Sun leaves off.

The elapsed fraction of the nakshatra at birth sets how much of that short Sun opening is still owed. A Moon near the start of Uttara Ashadha, close to 26°40' Sagittarius in pada 1, inherits almost the full 6 years. A Moon three-quarters of the way through the arc, well into the Capricorn padas, has spent three-quarters of the period on the birth clock, so one quarter remains: one quarter of 6 years is 1.5 years, one year and six months. A Moon halfway through inherits 3 years. Because the Sun period is brief, a native born past its midpoint often moves into the 10-year Moon mahadasha early in life, and the exact balance reduces to days once the degree is known.

The Sun's karaka register frames that opening stretch. The Sun mahadasha overview sets out what the 6 years foreground once Uttara Ashadha starts them running.

This span in the 2026 to 2028 sky

Uttara Ashadha is the one station in this group that a slow transit actually reaches in the window, and it reaches only part of it. Rahu enters Capricorn on 27 December 2026 and holds the sign until 15 July 2028, walking the Capricorn degrees that carry Uttara Ashadha padas 2 through 4 with Ketu opposite in Cancer. Pada 1, the Sagittarius quarter from 26°40' to 30°, takes no node and no other slow planet: Jupiter runs through Cancer then Leo then Virgo and Saturn holds Pisces then Aries, both clear of this arc. So the nodal overlay is real but partial, sitting on the Capricorn three-quarters of the nakshatra and leaving the Sagittarius pada untouched.

Classical practice pairs that signal with its limit. Rahu amplifies and unsettles the themes of the degrees it occupies, and the reading depends on which house the Capricorn padas fall in for a given chart, so the transit is a house-specific overlay rather than a blanket verdict on everyone born here. Alongside the node, the fast bodies keep their cycle: the transiting Moon crosses the arc for about a day every 27.3 days and the transiting Sun, the lord itself, passes once a year for about 13.7 days as it moves from late Sagittarius into early Capricorn around the middle of January. The Capricorn neighbour that shares this Rahu chapter is Shravana, which the node reaches in full.

Transit reading: when slow planets cross Uttara Ashadha

Beyond the natal-Moon reading, the Uttara Ashadha nakshatra carries reading-significance whenever slow planets transit through its 13°20' arc. Saturn at approximately 2.5 years per sign passes through Uttara Ashadha once every 29.5 years. Jupiter at approximately 13 months per sign passes through annually within each 12-year cycle. Rahu and Ketu at approximately 18 months per sign pass through every 18 years.

Transit Jupiter through Uttara Ashadha provides a benefic overlay on the nakshatra's themes for the duration of the Jupiter transit. Transit Saturn through Uttara Ashadha provides a structural-pressure overlay, often producing the consolidation or restructuring of the nakshatra's themes in the chart owner's life. Transit Rahu or Ketu through Uttara Ashadha provides an amplification or dissolution overlay depending on which node is transiting and which house the nakshatra occupies on the chart.

Computed windows, 2024 to 2040

Every pass of Saturn, Jupiter and Rahu through Uttara Ashadha's 13°20' span in this period. Sidereal positions from the Swiss Ephemeris with the PVRN Rao True Pushya ayanamsha and the mean node, the same engine that computes every chart on this site. Separate rows are separate passes, produced by retrograde motion.

Compatibility attributes and Ashtakoota implications

Uttara Ashadha carries gana classification manushya (the temperamental class layer, with three values: deva for divine, manushya for human, rakshasa for intense), varna classification kshatriya (the functional class layer), yoni classification mongoose (the animal-axis compatibility marker) and nadi classification kapha (the Ayurvedic constitutional axis). These attributes feed Ashtakoota compatibility scoring used in classical Vedic matchmaking. The cluster documents these for reference, not as a forward-call mechanism.

Where Uttara Ashadha sits in the 27-step sequence

In the fixed 27-step sidereal nakshatra sequence, Uttara Ashadha is the 21st nakshatra. The Moon traverses one nakshatra in approximately 24 hours (the lunar daily motion of approximately 13°10' per day matched against the 13°20' nakshatra arc). The nakshatra boundaries are therefore time-sensitive at the daily and even hourly level: birth time accuracy is the prerequisite for accurate nakshatra identification.

Calibration status

The article documents the classical Uttara Ashadha-nakshatra reading as set out in BPHS Chapter 3 (nakshatra significations), Phaladeepika Chapter 7 and Sarvartha Chintamani. The presiding-deity reading, the symbol-interpretation, the four-pada-per-navamsa framework and the gana-varna-yoni-nadi compatibility attributes are presented as the tradition's own framework. The Tempora calibrated signature library (Note 005) does not currently include nakshatra-specific event signatures. Calibrating nakshatra placements against a labelled chart-corpus is open work.

FAQ

This article was prepared by Tempora Research as an informational piece in the Nakshatra cluster. Methodology, calibrated lift figures and reconciliation entries are documented in Tempora's research-publishing standards and reproducible against the public engine. Internal audit log maintained. This article does not constitute medical, financial, legal or professional advice. First published 2026-05-29 by Tempora Research.