Pushya is the eighth of the 27 nakshatras, occupying sidereal Cancer from 3 degrees 20 minutes to 16 degrees 40 minutes. Its ruling planet is Saturn, its presiding deity is Brihaspati, the guru and priest of the gods, and its symbol is the cow's udder, the plainest possible picture of nourishment. The name comes from a root meaning "to nourish" or "to flourish", and the classical tradition counts Pushya among the most auspicious of all the nakshatras. A person born with the Moon in this span has Pushya as their janma nakshatra, or birth star, and is read as nourishing, dutiful, and devoted, caring for others first. Their Vimshottari dasha, the planetary timeline of life, opens in a Saturn period.
This page goes deep on Pushya alone. If you want the system itself explained, why there are 27 nakshatras and how padas and lords work, start with the nakshatras and come back.
Pushya at a glance
The quick facts first. Everything in this table is unpacked in the sections that follow.
| Attribute | Pushya |
|---|---|
| Position | 3°20′ to 16°40′ Cancer (Karka) |
| Order | 8th of 27 |
| Ruling planet (lord) | Saturn |
| Deity | Brihaspati, guru of the gods |
| Symbol | Cow's udder |
| Marker stars | Gamma, Delta, and Theta Cancri, beside the Beehive cluster |
| Gana (temperament) | Deva (godly) |
| Nature | Kshipra (light, swift) |
| Starting dasha | Saturn mahadasha, 19 years |
Where Pushya sits in the sky
Pushya occupies the heart of Cancer and is one of the nakshatras contained entirely within a single sign. Its marker stars are the modest triangle of Gamma, Delta, and Theta Cancri, flanking the soft glow of the Beehive cluster, Praesepe, which the old astronomers read as a manger between two donkeys: feeding imagery written straight into the sky.
The degree range carries a famous strength. Jupiter's point of deepest exaltation, 5 degrees of Cancer, falls inside Pushya's first pada. Jupiter exalted in the Moon's own sign, inside the star of the gods' own guru, is the cleanest picture Vedic astrology has of wisdom well supported, and it is part of why the star's reputation stands so high.
The deity, the symbol, and the myth
Pushya's presiding deity is Brihaspati, the priest and preceptor of the gods, the one the gods themselves consult. He stands for sacred knowledge, good counsel, and ritual done correctly: wisdom in its institutional, dependable form. An older name for the star, Tishya, appears in the early texts and carries the sense of "auspicious".
The symbol is the cow's udder, and it needs no decoding: milk, the first food, given daily and freely. Read deity and symbol together and Pushya's character is complete. This is nourishment with wisdom behind it, the teacher who also feeds you, the household that runs on quiet competence. Where its neighbour Punarvasu brings the light back, Pushya puts a roof over it and serves dinner.
The personality of a Pushya Moon
Classical descriptions of Pushya, consistent across the Brihat Jataka and the Phaladeepika, sketch a person of composed mind and good fortune: calm, learned, dutiful, comfortable, and well regarded. The portrait is one of the gentlest the texts give any star, and the deva gana classification underlines it.
Because the Moon in Jyotish is the mind, the birth star colours the inner life above all. A Pushya Moon thinks in responsibilities: who needs what, what must be provided, what the right order of things is. These are the people others instinctively bring problems to, the reliable centre of a family or a team. Teaching, medicine, food, counselling, ministry, and administration are all classic Pushya fields, anywhere care is delivered through structure.
The structure is Saturn's contribution, and it has its heavier side; the tradition is plain about it. Duty can shade into self-neglect, the carer who never sits down to eat, and the love of right order into rigidity or quiet moralising. None of this is a verdict. The standard reading is that Saturn's discipline is exactly what makes the nourishment dependable, and that a Pushya native who learns to receive care as well as give it has the star's whole promise. The Moon's condition as dispositor shows how easily that lesson comes.
The four padas of Pushya
Each nakshatra divides into four padas of 3 degrees 20 minutes, and each pada corresponds to one navamsa sign, which is how the birth star plugs into the ninth divisional chart. Pushya's padas run from Leo to Scorpio in the navamsa.
| Pada | Degrees of Cancer | Navamsa sign | Flavour |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3°20′ to 6°40′ | Leo | The provider in charge; contains Jupiter's deepest exaltation degree |
| 2 | 6°40′ to 10°00′ | Virgo | The quiet server: care delivered through skill and detail |
| 3 | 10°00′ to 13°20′ | Libra | The host: nourishment through partnership and fairness |
| 4 | 13°20′ to 16°40′ | Scorpio | The deepest carer: loyalty and protection in hard weather |
The first pada deserves its note: 5 degrees of Cancer, Jupiter's degree of deepest exaltation, falls within it. A Jupiter placed there combines its strongest sign position with Pushya's own themes of counsel and care, and the classics single the combination out as exceptionally fortunate.
Pushya in muhurta: the favourite star for beginnings
Muhurta is the Vedic practice of choosing a good moment to begin something, and in it Pushya holds a singular reputation: the day the Moon transits Pushya is treated as favourable for nearly every undertaking, from study to commerce to ceremony. The star's kshipra, light, classification adds speed to the blessing.
One classical exception is always quoted with it: marriage. The tradition specifically sets Pushya days aside for weddings while recommending them for almost everything else, a rule the muhurta texts state without softening. For anyone with Pushya as a birth star, none of this restricts you; it concerns choosing dates for events, and your janma nakshatra is a separate matter entirely.
Pushya and your dasha timeline
The lord of the birth star opens the Vimshottari dasha, the 120-year cycle of planetary periods laid out in the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra. For Pushya that lord is Saturn, so a Pushya birth begins inside a Saturn mahadasha of 19 years, the longest period after Venus. A Moon at the very start of Pushya leaves nearly all 19 years to run; a Moon near 16 degrees of Cancer leaves only a sliver before the Mercury period begins.
The sequence that follows is fixed for everyone: Saturn, then Mercury (17 years), Ketu (7), Venus (20), Sun (6), Moon (10), Mars (7), Rahu (18), Jupiter (16), and around again. What differs is where you enter the wheel, and that is set entirely by your birth star and the Moon's progress through it. If you have not calculated yours, the find your nakshatra page does it from your birth date, time, and place.
Pushya in compatibility matching
In guna milan, the koota matching used for marriage, several of the 36 points are scored directly from the two birth stars. Pushya enters that arithmetic as a deva (godly) gana star of light temperament, and its pairings score differently against manushya and rakshasa gana stars. A full match also weighs nadi, yoni, and the Moon-sign relationship between the charts.
No single nakshatra makes or breaks a match, and the classical method never reads one star in isolation; the count runs across eight kootas precisely so that no one factor dominates. If you want to see a full 36-point calculation for two charts, the kundli matching tool runs the whole table.
Pushya in the classics
The attributions on this page are the stable, named ones: the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra carries the nakshatra scheme and the Vimshottari sequence seeded from the birth star, while the Brihat Jataka and the Phaladeepika describe the temperament of those born under each star. For Pushya they agree on the essentials: a calm mind, learning, virtue, and comfort.
Reading further is best done sideways and upward: sideways to Punarvasu, the star before Pushya whose returning light this star settles into a home, and upward to the 27-nakshatra map, where the whole wheel is laid out in one table. To see where your own Moon falls, run a free birth chart and find the nakshatra column.