What a nakshatra is
Divide the sidereal zodiac into 27 equal parts and you have the nakshatras, the lunar mansions. Each measures 13°20′, about the distance the Moon travels in a day, so the Moon visits one mansion after another through the month. The count starts at 0° Mesha with Ashwini and ends at 30° Meena with Revati.
Where the Rashi names the sign the Moon is in, the nakshatra narrows her place to a span of 13°20′, less than half a sign. Astrologers who ask for a birth star mean this: the nakshatra the Moon held at the moment of birth. The page for each one gives its span, the Rashi or Rashis it falls in and how it sits in the sequence.
Lords and the Vimshottari dasha
Every nakshatra has a lord, one of the nine grahas, assigned in a repeating order of Ketu, Venus, Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury. Nine lords over 27 mansions means each graha owns three, spaced nine apart: Ketu has Ashwini, Magha and Mula; Venus has Bharani, Purva Phalguni and Purva Ashadha.
The same order drives the Vimshottari dasha, a cycle of 120 years. Each graha’s period has a fixed length: Ketu 7, Venus 20, Sun 6, Moon 10, Mars 7, Rahu 18, Jupiter 16, Saturn 19 and Mercury 17 years. A person’s first period is that of the lord of the birth nakshatra, and the rest follow in the same sequence. The kundli calculator shows the nakshatra, its lord and the dasha periods for a date, time and place.
Deity, gana and nature
Each nakshatra also carries a presiding deity, named in Varahamihira’s Brihat Samhita and the Muhurta Chintamani, and a symbol that the later tradition uses. Beyond these, the sources sort the 27 into classes. By gana the mansions fall into three groups of nine: deva, manushya and rakshasa, the divine, human and demonic classes.
By nature the Muhurta Chintamani distinguishes seven classes, which choose the sort of work suited to a day when the Moon is in that mansion. Four are Dhruva (fixed), five Chara (movable), five Ugra (fierce), two Mishra (mixed), three Kshipra (swift), four Mridu (soft) and four Tikshna (sharp). These classes belong to muhurta, the choice of time, and the pages state which class each nakshatra holds.
Padas and name letters
Each nakshatra splits into four padas of 3°20′. Since 27 times four makes 108, the padas also match the navamsa division of the zodiac, and each is linked with one navamsa sign. A pada carries a syllable too, taken from the commentary on the Muhurta Chintamani, and families traditionally use it as the first sound of a child’s name. Because the Moon leaves a pada within hours, the minute of birth can change the syllable.
Nakshatras in Prashna and muhurta
In Prashna the nakshatra of the Moon at the moment of the question refines what the Rashi shows, and in muhurta the nakshatra of the day is weighed against the work to be done. In AstroGPT’s Vedic mode the chat reads a Prashna chart cast when you ask, and the Moon’s nakshatra at that minute is part of it.
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Ask AstroGPT: it casts the chart of the moment you ask and reads it by the traditional rules.