Anuradha Nakshatra (अनुराधा)

Anuradha belongs to Mitra, the god of friendship and alliances, partner of Varuna. Its symbol is a lotus, which grows from mud into the light. It is the nakshatra of devotion and of friendship that endures.

Your janma (birth) nakshatra is the one the Moon occupied when you were born. It is read as the clearest picture of the mind and temperament. When the Moon is in Anuradha:

Devoted and loyal, you build friendships and organisations that last. You work well with others, even in foreign or difficult settings, and succeed through cooperation.

Anuradha natives are loyal, friendly and devoted. They make friends easily and keep them, cooperate well in groups, and do well far from home. Their lives often involve difficulty early on, and success through persistence later.

The nakshatra is one layer of a chart. The sign the Moon is in, the planets aspecting it and the rest of the chart all change how these traits show.

Organisations and teams, diplomacy, research, mathematics, travel and foreign work, and spiritual practice.

Devoted and loyal, and among the most faithful of the nakshatras.

Each nakshatra is divided into four padas (quarters) of 3°20′. Each pada falls in a navamsa sign, which colours the nakshatra with that sign's temperament. This is why two people born in the same nakshatra can read quite differently.

In the naming tradition (namakarana) followed across India and Nepal, a child's name begins with the syllable of the pada the Moon occupied at birth. For Anuradha the four syllables are:

You need the pada, not just the nakshatra, so the birth time matters. A few panchangs differ by a syllable, so families often follow the one their priest uses. Find the nakshatra and pada for a birth.

The average guna milan score between Anuradha and each other nakshatra, taken over every Moon position in both and counted either way round. A real match depends on the exact padas and on who is the bride, so use these as a guide and check the exact pair.

The Vimshottari dasha, the most widely used timing system in Vedic astrology, starts from the Moon's nakshatra. If you were born with the Moon in Anuradha, your first mahadasha is Saturn's, which lasts 19 years in full. Only the part the Moon had not yet travelled through Anuradha remains at birth: a Moon early in the nakshatra leaves most of the period to run, and a Moon near its end leaves little.

Calculate your own dasha periods with exact dates, down to the prana dasha.

Deva gana, the "divine" temperament: gentle, idealistic and generous by nature.

Its yoni, the animal that stands for a nakshatra's instinctive nature, is the deer. Both gana and yoni are among the eight factors (kootas) compared in traditional kundli matching. Anuradha shares the deer yoni with Jyeshtha, the best yoni match. Its sworn enemy is the dog, the yoni of Ardra and Mula, which scores no yoni points in matching.

In muhurta, the choosing of auspicious times, Anuradha is classed as soft (mridu): favoured for the arts, friendship, romance, music and adornment.