Purva Bhadrapada nakshatra
Purva Bhadrapada (पूर्वा भाद्रपदा) is the twenty-fifth of the twenty-seven nakshatras, ruled by Jupiter.
The facts
- Number
- 25 / 27
- Ruling graha
- Jupiter
- Deity
- Aja Ekapada
- Symbol
- the front of a funeral cot
- Gana
- Manushya (human)
What Purva Bhadrapada means
Ruled by Jupiter with Aja Ekapada, the one-footed goat. Intense, idealistic and unworldly in a way that can be austere. This is the nakshatra of people who hold a principle further than is comfortable.
What a nakshatra is
Before the twelve-sign zodiac, India divided the sky into twenty-seven lunar mansions of 13 degrees 20 minutes each - roughly one day of the Moon's travel. The nakshatras are older than the rashis and carry more specific meaning.
The nakshatra the Moon occupied at your birth is your janma nakshatra. It is the most important single fact in a Vedic chart after the lagna: it gives the traditional first letter for naming a child, and it decides where your entire Vimshottari dasha sequence begins.
The four padas
Every nakshatra divides into four padas of 3 degrees 20 minutes. Which pada the Moon falls in refines the reading and decides the naming syllable - two people with the same nakshatra and different padas are read differently.