Nakshatra 22 of 27
Shravanaశ్రవణం
Listening — knowledge received rather than seized.
- Ruling planet
- Moon
- Deity
- Vishnu, the preserver
- Symbol
- An ear, three footprints
- Gana
- Deva (divine)
- Nature
- Chara — movable
- Sidereal span
- Makara 10° 00′ – 23° 20′
About Shravana
Shravana means 'hearing', and the nakshatra belongs to the whole shruti tradition: knowledge that is transmitted by being listened to, from teacher to student, unbroken. Its three footprints are Vishnu's three strides across the worlds. This is the placement of the scholar, the counsellor and the person others tell things to, and it carries a real gift for learning by attention rather than by argument.
What it traditionally favours
Study and learning, listening and counselling, music, beginning any course of instruction, and travel undertaken to learn.
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.
- 1Ju10° 00′ →
- 2Je13° 20′ →
- 3Jo16° 40′ →
- 4Gha20° 00′ →