Krittika Nakshatra (कृत्तिका)

Krittika is the Pleiades, the six nurses who raised Kartikeya, the war god, and its deity is Agni, the sacred fire. Fire purifies and cuts away, and it carries offerings to the gods. In the oldest Vedic lists Krittika was the first of the nakshatras, not Ashwini.

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 Krittika:

A sharp, purifying mind that cuts through pretence. You are principled and protective and hold yourself and others to high standards. The same sharpness can turn caustic; warmth makes it a gift.

Krittika gives a sharp mind and a sharp tongue. These are people of standards: they see what is wrong and say so, and they protect those in their care fiercely. Beneath the edge they are nurturing, as the Krittikas were to Kartikeya, but they show it through action rather than softness.

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.

Military and police work, cooking and anything with fire or metal, criticism and editing, surgery, and leadership where hard decisions are needed.

Protective and dependable, but they can be critical. They do best with a partner who values plain speaking and does not take sharpness as rejection.

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 Krittika 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 Krittika 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 Krittika, your first mahadasha is the Sun's, which lasts 6 years in full. Only the part the Moon had not yet travelled through Krittika 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.

Rakshasa gana. The name sounds harsh, but it describes intensity rather than wickedness: an independent, strong-willed and self-protective temperament.

Its yoni, the animal that stands for a nakshatra's instinctive nature, is the sheep. Both gana and yoni are among the eight factors (kootas) compared in traditional kundli matching. Krittika shares the sheep yoni with Pushya, the best yoni match. Its sworn enemy is the monkey, the yoni of Purva Ashadha and Shravana, which scores no yoni points in matching.

In muhurta, the choosing of auspicious times, Krittika is classed as mixed (mishra): a blend of sharp and mild, workable for ordinary and practical matters.