Hasta Nakshatra (हस्त)

Hasta belongs to Savitr, the sun at dawn who rouses the world to action, invoked in the Gayatri mantra. Its symbol is a hand: the hand that makes, that gives, and that grasps. It is the nakshatra of skill.

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 Hasta:

Skilful hands and a ready wit: you are practical, resourceful and clever at making things work. Craft, healing and service suit you.

Hasta natives are clever with their hands and quick with their minds. They are practical, resourceful and witty, and they can turn almost anything into a skill. They are good at getting what they want, and sometimes too good at it.

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.

Crafts and the manual arts, healing and massage, commerce, writing, comedy, and any trade that rewards skill.

Helpful and attentive. They show love by doing things, and they need appreciation for it.

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 Hasta 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 Hasta 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 Hasta, your first mahadasha is the Moon's, which lasts 10 years in full. Only the part the Moon had not yet travelled through Hasta 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 buffalo. Both gana and yoni are among the eight factors (kootas) compared in traditional kundli matching. Hasta shares the buffalo yoni with Swati, the best yoni match. Its sworn enemy is the horse, the yoni of Ashwini and Shatabhisha, which scores no yoni points in matching.

In muhurta, the choosing of auspicious times, Hasta is classed as swift (kshipra): favoured for quick undertakings, trade, learning, medicine and short journeys.