What is a nakshatra?
A nakshatra is one of 27 equal divisions of the zodiac — 13°20′ each — and 'your' nakshatra is simply the one the Moon occupied when you were born.
2-minute read · plain language
The lunar zodiac
The Moon crosses the whole zodiac in about 27.3 days — close to one nakshatra per day. The 27 nakshatras (Aśvinī through Revatī) are the Moon's own zodiac, older in usage than the twelve signs for many Indian purposes.
Padas
Each nakshatra splits into four padas of 3°20′. The pada refines everything from the traditional name-syllable to the navāṁśa position.
Why it matters
Your janma nakshatra anchors the Vimśottarī daśā clock — the 120-year planetary-period system — and carries the traditional attributes (gaṇa, nāḍī, yoni) used in matching. It is the most personal single data point in a kundli after the ascendant.
The honest part
Which nakshatra the Moon occupied at your birth is exact, checkable astronomy. The attributes attached to each nakshatra are tradition — meaningful within the system, and honestly presented as the tradition's voice rather than as measurable fact.
Common questions
Why do I need my birth time for this?
The Moon moves about 13° a day — one whole nakshatra. A date alone can straddle two nakshatras; the time settles it.
Is my nakshatra the same as my rāśi?
No. The rāśi is the sign (one of 12) holding your Moon; the nakshatra is the finer star-division (one of 27) inside the zodiac. Both come from the same Moon position.
Where do these fall in your chart? AstroAmrit maps every sky event onto your own birth chart — which house it touches, which of your planets it meets — with every claim cited to the computation behind it.
See these in your chart →How this table was computed
AstroAmrit is a glass box: every number on this page is reproducible from the stated method. These are astronomical facts, not predictions. Times are instants of the event's global maximum or exact crossing; your local civil date can differ by one day depending on timezone.