Uttara Ashadha is the twenty-first of the 27 nakshatras, spanning 26 degrees 40 minutes of Sagittarius to 10 degrees of Capricorn. Its ruling planet is the Sun, its presiding deities are the Vishvadevas, the universal gods who uphold what is right, and its symbol is an elephant's tusk. The name means "the later invincible one": where Purva Ashadha is the early victory, this is the lasting one, won slowly and kept permanently. A person born with the Moon in this span has Uttara Ashadha as their janma nakshatra, or birth star, and is read in the classical tradition as principled, patient, and dignified. Their Vimshottari dasha, the planetary timeline of life, opens in a Sun period of 6 years.
This page goes deep on Uttara Ashadha alone. For how the 27 stars, padas, and lords work as a system, start at the guide to all 27 nakshatras and come back.
Uttara Ashadha at a glance
The fixed facts first, each unpacked in the sections below.
| Attribute | Uttara Ashadha |
|---|---|
| Position | 26°40′ Sagittarius to 10°00′ Capricorn |
| Order | 21st of 27 |
| Ruling planet (lord) | Sun |
| Deity | The Vishvadevas, the universal gods |
| Symbol | Elephant's tusk; also the planks of a bed |
| Marker stars | Stars of the archer (around Sigma Sagittarii, Nunki) |
| Gana (temperament) | Manushya (human) |
| Nature | Dhruva (fixed, steady) |
| Starting dasha | Sun mahadasha, 6 years |
Where Uttara Ashadha sits in the sky
Uttara Ashadha is one of the nakshatras that crosses a sign border: its first quarter closes Sagittarius and its remaining three open Capricorn. Its marker stars lie in the body of the archer, around the bright star Nunki, just east of the bow that marks Purva Ashadha.
The crossing has a practical consequence. An Uttara Ashadha Moon in the first pada is a Sagittarius Moon under Jupiter's sign rulership, while the same birth star in padas two to four gives a Capricorn Moon under Saturn's. The star's core character holds across the border, but the sign lord changes the backdrop, expansive in the first quarter, structural in the rest.
The Vishvadevas, the tusk, and victory that lasts
Uttara Ashadha's presiding deities in the Vedic nakshatra tradition are the Vishvadevas, the universal gods invoked together as upholders of dharma, the right order of things. Its symbol is an elephant's tusk: strength that grows slowly over a lifetime, is carried with calm, and does not bend. Some texts give the planks of a bed instead, the firm base on which rest is possible.
The pairing with the Sun as planetary lord completes the design. The Sun in Jyotish signifies the soul, authority, and constancy, and under it the Ashadha pair's invincibility changes character: where Venus-ruled Purva Ashadha wins by charm and flow, Sun-ruled Uttara Ashadha wins by being right and staying the course. The classics call this the final victory, the one that does not need defending afterward because it was built on integrity.
The personality of an Uttara Ashadha Moon
Classical descriptions, set out in the Brihat Jataka, sketch the Uttara Ashadha native as upright, deliberate, and quietly authoritative: a person who commits late, having weighed everything, and then cannot be moved. With the Moon as the mind in Jyotish, this Moon feels obligations as binding and treats its own word as a finished contract.
The strengths are those of the long game. These are natural stewards and finishers, drawn to work whose results outlive them: institutions, law, governance, long research, anything where patience is the active ingredient. The dhruva, or fixed, classification names exactly this steadiness, and the Sun's lordship adds a self-respect that rarely needs an audience.
The shadow the texts note follows from the same shape: deliberation can read as coldness, fixity can outstay a position that deserved abandoning, and the high inner standard turns easily on the self. The tradition's pairing is characteristically practical: the star's own Vishvadevas embody counsel taken in company, and an Uttara Ashadha chart is at its best when its principles are tested in conversation rather than guarded in silence. Maturity suits it; the texts read this star as one that improves steadily with age.
The four padas of Uttara Ashadha
Each nakshatra divides into four padas of 3 degrees 20 minutes, each mapped to a navamsa sign, which links the birth star to the ninth divisional chart. Uttara Ashadha's padas run from Sagittarius to Pisces in the navamsa, and the first two carry a distinction worth knowing.
| Pada | Degrees | Navamsa sign | Flavour |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 26°40′ to 30°00′ Sagittarius | Sagittarius | Vargottama; conviction at its broadest and most philosophical |
| 2 | 0°00′ to 3°20′ Capricorn | Capricorn | Vargottama; the pure builder, principle made structure |
| 3 | 3°20′ to 6°40′ Capricorn | Aquarius | The reformer; duty extended to the collective |
| 4 | 6°40′ to 10°00′ Capricorn | Pisces | The sage; principle softened by compassion |
Both the first and second padas are vargottama: a planet there occupies the same sign in the birth chart and the navamsa, Sagittarius doubled in pada one and Capricorn doubled in pada two. The tradition reads vargottama as a reinforced placement, a signature written twice, and it is uncommon for one nakshatra to hold two such quarters back to back. They are the steadiest stretch of an already steady star.
Uttara Ashadha, Abhijit, and the 28th star
Some traditions recognise a 28th nakshatra, Abhijit, "the victorious", and it is carved out of this part of the sky: the final portion of Uttara Ashadha together with an opening sliver of Shravana. Abhijit's use is specialised, belonging mainly to muhurta, the choosing of auspicious times, where the Abhijit window near midday is prized.
For birth charts, dasha calculation, and compatibility matching, the standard count of 27 applies. A Moon in this span is read as Uttara Ashadha (or Shravana past 10 degrees of Capricorn), its dasha runs from the Sun as lord, and its koota points score from the standard table. If a calculator shows Abhijit, it is using the muhurta convention.
Uttara Ashadha 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 Uttara Ashadha that lord is the Sun, so a birth here begins inside a Sun mahadasha of 6 years, the shortest period of the nine.
The short opening means most Uttara Ashadha births enter the 10-year Moon period in childhood, with the balance at birth proportional to the Moon's progress through the star. The fixed sequence runs Sun, Moon (10 years), Mars (7), Rahu (18), Jupiter (16), Saturn (19), Mercury (17), Ketu (7), Venus (20), and around again. The find your nakshatra page calculates your star, pada, and opening balance from your birth details.
Uttara Ashadha in compatibility matching
In guna milan, the koota matching used for marriage, several of the 36 points are scored from the two birth stars. Uttara Ashadha enters as a manushya gana star, the human temperament class, which pairs comfortably across the gana table, and its dhruva fixity is read as a stabilising contribution to a household.
No single star settles a match: the count runs across eight kootas, weighing nadi, yoni, gana, and the Moon-sign relationship between the charts together, precisely so that nothing is judged in isolation. The kundli matching tool runs the complete 36-point table for two charts.
Uttara Ashadha 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 describes the temperament of those born under each star, Uttara Ashadha's marked by uprightness and endurance.
Read sideways next: Purva Ashadha before it is the other half of the invincible pair, and Shravana after it turns Capricorn toward listening and learning. The whole wheel sits in one table at the 27-nakshatra map, and a free birth chart shows where your own Moon falls.