Ruling Planet

The twenty-seven nakshatras divide the ecliptic into equal arcs of thirteen degrees and twenty minutes, each named for an asterism and ruled by a deity and a graha. They are older in the Indian tradition than the twelve rashis, appearing already in the Vedas, and they remain central to Jyotisha, especially for timing, compatibility and the finer reading of the Moon.

Each nakshatra has a presiding deity, a ruling planet, a symbol, and a set of qualities, and is further subdivided into four padas. The Moon's nakshatra at birth is particularly important and is the basis of the naming and the dasha calculation in much Indian practice.

The nakshatras run through Indian religious and astrological life: they set the starting planet of the Vimshottari dasha, underlie the gana temperaments used in marriage matching, and time auspicious moments in the muhurta tradition. Their antiquity and their link to the Moon's daily motion connect them to the lunar-mansion systems of the Arabic and Chinese worlds.

The atlas gives each nakshatra its arc, deity, ruling graha, symbol and qualities. The ganas built from them, and the Vimshottari dasha they anchor, are treated in their own categories.