Nakshatra 17 of 27
Anuradhaఅనూరాధ
Devotion that keeps its shape under pressure.
- Ruling planet
- Saturn
- Deity
- Mitra, god of friendship and of covenants
- Symbol
- A lotus, a staff
- Gana
- Deva (divine)
- Nature
- Mridu — tender
- Sidereal span
- Vrischika 3° 20′ – 16° 40′
About Anuradha
Anuradha means 'following Radha', and the nakshatra is about devotion — the steady, disciplined kind rather than the ecstatic kind. Its deity is Mitra, who presides over friendship and over covenants honoured across distance and difficulty. Under Saturn it becomes the placement of the person who stays: in a friendship, in an organisation, in a practice, long after enthusiasm has worn off. Its symbol, the lotus, grows in mud and is not stained by it.
What it traditionally favours
Devotional practice, deepening friendships, organisational and group work, travel with companions, and long-term commitments.
The four padas
Every nakshatra is divided into four quarters called padas, each three degrees twenty minutes wide. The pada refines the reading: two people born under the same nakshatra but in different padas are held to differ meaningfully, because each pada falls in a different navamsa and so carries a different sub-influence.
The pada also decides the first syllable of a child's name. Where the moon stood at birth gives the nakshatra; which quarter of it gives the syllable. The four syllables below are in pada order — a child born in the first pada takes the first, and so on. This is the naming convention used at namakaranam across most of southern India.
- 1Na3° 20′ →
- 2Ni6° 40′ →
- 3Nu10° 00′ →
- 4Ne13° 20′ →