Nakshatra 5 of 27
Mrigashiraమృగశిర
The gentle searcher — always scenting for something better.
- Ruling planet
- Mars
- Deity
- Soma, the moon and the sacred draught
- Symbol
- A deer's head
- Gana
- Deva (divine)
- Nature
- Mridu — tender
- Sidereal span
- Vrishabha 23° 20′ – Mithuna 6° 40′
About Mrigashira
The deer's head is a symbol of searching: the animal lifts its head, scents the air, and moves on. Mrigashira is the nakshatra of seeking — for knowledge, for a partner, for the right place to settle — and of the restlessness that comes with never quite arriving. Its deity is Soma, and it carries a soft, refined, slightly elusive quality. Classified mridu, tender, it is one of the gentlest nakshatras in the muhurta scheme.
What it traditionally favours
Travel and exploration, research and study, shopping, courtship, artistic and design work, and gentle beginnings of every kind.
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.
- 1Ve23° 20′ →
- 2Vo26° 40′ →
- 3Ka30° 00′ →
- 4Ki33° 20′ →