Hasta nakshatra: traits, padas, lord and compatibility

Hasta is the thirteenth of the 27 nakshatras, spanning 10°00′ to 23°20′ of Kanya, ruled by the Moon in the Vimshottari order, with Savitar as its deity and the hand as its symbol. It is the nakshatra of skill: the hand that makes, mends, measures and gives.

This page covers the story behind its deity and symbol, its nature in matching terms, the four padas, the Moon in Hasta, the dasha a Hasta Moon is born into, work and relationships, compatibility, its use in muhurta, and a worked example. The panel above lists its traditional correspondences.

Savitar and the hand

Savitar is the Sun in its role as the one who rouses and sets things moving. The Vedic hymns picture him at dawn and dusk, stretching out his arms to wake the world to work and then to send it to rest, and they call him golden-handed. The best known verse addressed to him is the Gayatri mantra, a prayer that he should inspire the mind. So the deity of Hasta is the Sun not as a blazing king but as the impulse that gets a day's work started.

The symbol, the hand, follows naturally. The five stars of Hasta, in the constellation Western astronomers call Corvus, are read as the five fingers of an open hand. A hand is the most practical part of a person: it holds tools, writes, cooks, heals and counts money. It also opens to give and closes to keep.

Together the image is clear. Hasta's character is skill put to use: an idea turned into a made thing, energy turned into a finished task. Its natives tend to think with their hands, learn by doing and trust what they can test.

Nature: gana, yoni and nadi

Three traditional labels describe Hasta's temperament in matching:

• Gana: Deva. The deva gana is read as gentle, courteous and inclined to help. In Hasta this shows as an easy, obliging manner and a dislike of open conflict.
• Yoni: Buffalo. The buffalo is patient, strong and hard-working, an animal of the field rather than the hunt. It fits a star of steady, useful labour. Swati shares the same yoni.
• Nadi: Aadi. The first of the three nadis. In matching, the only question is whether two people share a nadi; Aadi is not better or worse than the others.

The strengths show as behaviour. Hasta natives are dexterous and quick to see how a thing works. They are witty and good company, often with a sharp eye for a joke. They solve practical problems without fuss, and they like to be useful.

The shadow side is the same skill reaching too far. A hand that is used to fixing things can try to fix people and situations that are not its to fix. Hasta natives can worry when events are out of their hands, and they may hold on to control, money or plans more tightly than they need to. In the words of this site's nakshatra table, the growth edge is trusting what cannot be controlled.

The four padas

All four padas of Hasta lie in Kanya, and they map to the first four navamsa signs:

Pada 1 (Kanya 10°00′ to 13°20′), Mesha navamsa. Mars's navamsa adds initiative and pace. This pada starts things with its hands quickly and likes physical, active skills.

Pada 2 (13°20′ to 16°40′), Vrishabha navamsa. Venus's navamsa adds steadiness, taste and a feel for materials. Mercury's exaltation point, 15° Kanya, falls in this pada, which tradition reads as sharp intelligence put to careful use.

Pada 3 (16°40′ to 20°00′), Mithuna navamsa. Mercury's own navamsa in Mercury's sign brings out wit, speech, trade and writing. Mercury's moolatrikona in Kanya, 16° to 20°, falls almost entirely here.

Pada 4 (20°00′ to 23°20′), Karka navamsa. The Moon's own navamsa in the Moon's nakshatra. This pada turns skill towards care: cooking, nursing, healing and looking after a household.

The naming tradition gives each pada a first syllable for a child's name: Pu, Sha, Na and Tha in the common list. It is a custom, and families use it, adapt it or ignore it. The nakshatras lesson gives the full table.

The Moon in Hasta (janma nakshatra)

A Moon in Hasta is in its own nakshatra and in a friend's sign, Kanya, ruled by Mercury. The tradition reads this as a comfortable placement: the mind (the Moon) works through the hands and through careful thought (Kanya).

In temperament, a Hasta Moon is observant and practical. It notices small things: a loose thread, a wrong figure, a friend's change of mood. It feels calmer when its hands are busy, and many Hasta natives settle their nerves by cooking, tidying, gardening or making something. Humour comes easily and often serves as a way of keeping difficult feelings light.

Because the Moon rules both the sign's emotional tone and the nakshatra, moods can move quickly, much as the Moon's phases do. A Hasta Moon may swing between confidence and worry over the same task in a day. The steadying habit is to finish one thing before taking up the next, and to let some outcomes go once the work is done.

Hasta can also be read as the nakshatra of the lagna or of any graha. When the lagna falls in Hasta, the same qualities show in manner: a capable, neat and helpful person whom others ask to sort things out.

The dasha at birth

The Vimshottari dasha begins from the Moon's nakshatra. A Moon in Hasta starts life in the Moon mahadasha, which lasts ten years in full. The Moon's dasha is read as a period shaped by home, mother, care and feeling, which for a child often means a childhood centred on family.

The balance at birth depends on how far through Hasta the Moon had travelled. Take the fraction of the nakshatra still to run and multiply it by ten years. A Moon at the very start of Hasta gives almost the full ten years; a Moon near its end gives only a few months. After the Moon come Mars (7 years), Rahu (18) and Jupiter (16). The Moon's graha page describes its mahadasha, and the Vimshottari lesson shows the whole cycle.

Work and money

Hasta is drawn to work where skill can be seen and measured. Common inclinations, not instructions:

• Crafts and making: tailoring, carpentry, jewellery, design, cooking, any trade where the hands are the tool.
• Healing and care: nursing, physiotherapy, massage and the practical side of health work.
• Precise work: accounts, editing, data, repair, engineering and anything that needs attention to detail, which Kanya supplies.
• Trade and communication: selling, teaching, writing and work that needs a quick wit.

With money, Hasta is careful and resourceful, good at making a little go far and at earning through more than one skill. The working habit is to let savings work for a goal rather than to hold them only for security.

Relationships

In relationships Hasta is helpful, attentive and playful. Love is shown through acts: making the tea, fixing the tap, remembering the appointment. Hasta natives enjoy a partner who appreciates competence and shares a sense of humour.

The friction comes from control. A Hasta partner may plan, check and correct more than the other person wants. Learning to ask before helping, and to accept a partner's way of doing things even when it is not the most efficient, makes Hasta's relationships easier and warmer.

Compatibility

For a partner born in each of the 27 nakshatras, this table shows the four nakshatra-based kootas against a Hasta Moon:

Tara counts from one birth star to the other and back. A count that leaves 3, 5 or 7 after dividing by 9 is unfavourable. Tara gives 3 points if both directions are favourable, 1.5 if one is. Under this rule no pair scores zero; for Hasta, nine stars give the full 3, including Krittika, Rohini, Uttara Phalguni, Chitra and Shravana.

Yoni compares the two animals. The buffalo scores 4 of 4 with Hasta and Swati, 3 with the elephant, sheep and cow stars (such as Bharani, Pushya and Uttara Phalguni), and 0 with the horse stars, Ashwini and Shatabhisha, the traditional enemy pair.

Gana compares temperament. A deva Hasta scores well with deva and manushya stars, and 1 of 6 with rakshasa stars such as Chitra and Vishakha, a difference of style rather than of worth.

Nadi scores 0 of 8 when both stars share a nadi. Hasta's Aadi nadi is shared by Ashwini, Ardra, Punarvasu, Uttara Phalguni, Hasta itself, Jyeshtha, Mula, Shatabhisha and Purva Bhadrapada. Tradition calls this Nadi dosha, and schools differ on the exceptions that cancel it.

These four are part of the eight-koota Ashtakoot method, and the eight kootas are only part of a full chart comparison. No nakshatra pairing is a verdict on two people. The Ashtakoot lesson explains all eight.

Hasta in muhurta

In muhurta, the choice of a time to begin, the nakshatras are grouped into classes. Hasta belongs to the swift (kshipra) group, with Ashwini and Pushya. Swift nakshatras are traditionally chosen for work that should start quickly and move freely: opening a shop or trade, beginning study or teaching, starting travel, taking up medicine, and skilled handwork such as making jewellery or art.

The day's nakshatra is one of the five limbs of the panchang, and a full muhurta also weighs the tithi, weekday and the chart of the moment. The muhurta lesson explains the method.

A worked example

Take a Moon at 17°30′ Kanya. This is an illustrative position, not a real person.

1. Nakshatra. Uttara Phalguni ends at 10°00′ Kanya and Hasta runs from 10°00′ to 23°20′, so 17°30′ is in Hasta. In whole-zodiac terms, Kanya begins at 150°, so the Moon is at 167°30′, and 167°30′ ÷ 13°20′ = 12.56, which places it in the thirteenth nakshatra.
2. Pada. The distance into Hasta is 17°30′ − 10°00′ = 7°30′. Pada 1 runs to 3°20′, pada 2 to 6°40′ and pada 3 to 10°00′, so 7°30′ falls in pada 3, which in Kanya runs from 16°40′ to 20°00′.
3. Navamsa. Hasta's padas map to Mesha, Vrishabha, Mithuna and Karka, so pada 3 places this Moon in Mithuna navamsa.
4. Syllable. The common syllable for Hasta pada 3 is Na.
5. Birth dasha. Hasta's lord is the Moon, ten years. The Moon has covered 7°30′ of 13°20′, that is 450′ of 800′, or 0.5625 of the nakshatra. The balance is (1 − 0.5625) × 10 = 4.375 years, about 4 years and 4½ months of Moon mahadasha remaining at birth. Mars follows for seven years.

The reading: a Hasta Moon's practical skill, given a Mercurial edge by the Mithuna navamsa and by Kanya itself, so talk, trade and writing come as easily as handwork. The growth edge is still Hasta's: trusting what cannot be controlled.

The previous nakshatra is Uttara Phalguni and the next is Chitra.

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