---
type: Concept
bundle: jyotisha-kala
bundle_version: 0.12.0
id: nakshatra
title: Nakṣatra
iast: Nakṣatra
devanagari: नक्षत्र
description: 'One of the 27 lunar mansions: equal 13°20′ arcs of the ecliptic the Moon crosses in about a day, India’s oldest working celestial coordinate grid; NOT a star sign, NOT a constellation image, NOT a personality type.'
darshana:
- Jyotiṣa
text_source: Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa; Bṛhat Saṃhitā
reception_note: 'Heavily commercialized as birth-star personality content and marriage-matching point scores. This file documents the calendrical and ritual senses; it makes no claims about compatibility scoring or personality typing.'
tags:
- nakshatra
- lunar-mansion
- panchanga
- calendrics
- jyotisha
not:
- term: 'a zodiac sign or star sign'
  why: 'There are 27 nakṣatras of 13°20′ against 12 rāśis of 30°: two different divisions of the same circle, lunar and solar respectively. Translating nakṣatra as “star sign” collapses the two coordinate systems the almanac keeps rigorously apart.'
  instead: 'Render nakṣatra as lunar mansion and keep the Sanskrit term.'
- term: 'a constellation image'
  why: 'Each nakṣatra is anchored by a marker star or asterism (its yogatārā), but the nakṣatra itself is the equal ARC of the ecliptic, not the star picture. The arc is what the computation uses.'
- term: 'a personality type'
  why: 'Birth-star personality readings are a commercial overlay. The classical system dates rituals, names the Moon’s position, and seeds the daśā count; it does not type people.'
related:
- /concepts/rashi.md
- /concepts/tithi.md
- /concepts/panchanga.md
- /concepts/ayanamsha.md
timestamp: '2026-07-09'
okf_version: '0.2'
license: CC BY-SA 4.0
---

# Nakṣatra -- नक्षत्र

**Not:** a zodiac sign or star sign, a constellation image, a personality type

## What It Actually Means

The 27 nakṣatras divide the ecliptic into equal arcs of 13°20′, each named for its marker star or asterism: Aśvinī through Revatī. The Moon crosses roughly one per day, which made the system India’s working celestial coordinate grid from the Vedic period onward: the Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa computes with it, ritual texts date observances by it, and the almanac still lists the Moon’s nakṣatra daily. It is a lunar system, older in Indian usage than the twelve solar rāśis and independent of them. The commercial layer of birth-star readings rides on the calendrical system but is not it.

## Audience Metaphor

Mile markers on a ring road: 27 equal arcs the Moon drives past, about one a night. Asking which nakṣatra is asking which marker the Moon is passing, not which billboard picture stands near it (the star figure), and not which of twelve highway districts it is in (the rāśis).

## Citations

1. Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa computing lunar and solar positions by nakṣatra -- see [references/lagadha-vedanga-jyotisha.md](../references/lagadha-vedanga-jyotisha.md)
2. Bṛhat Saṃhitā on the nakṣatra apparatus in the saṃhitā tradition -- see [references/brihat-samhita.md](../references/brihat-samhita.md)
