Uttara Bhadrapada is the twenty-sixth of the 27 nakshatras, spanning 3 degrees 20 minutes to 16 degrees 40 minutes of sidereal Pisces. Its ruling planet is Saturn, its presiding deity is Ahir Budhnya, the serpent of the deep who dwells at the foundation of the cosmic ocean, and its symbol is the back legs of a funeral cot; many lists also picture a serpent in water. The name means "the latter auspicious feet", the second half of the pair it forms with Purva Bhadrapada. A person born with the Moon here has Uttara Bhadrapada as their janma nakshatra, or birth star, and is read as wise, calm, and deep. Their Vimshottari dasha, the planetary timeline of life, opens in a 19-year Saturn period.
This page goes deep on Uttara Bhadrapada alone. For the system itself, why there are 27 nakshatras and how padas and lords work, start with the guide to all 27 nakshatras and come back.
Uttara Bhadrapada at a glance
The quick facts first. Everything in this table is unpacked in the sections that follow.
| Attribute | Uttara Bhadrapada |
|---|---|
| Position | 3°20′ to 16°40′ Pisces (Meena) |
| Order | 26th of 27 |
| Ruling planet (lord) | Saturn |
| Deity | Ahir Budhnya, the serpent of the deep |
| Symbol | Back legs of a funeral cot; a serpent in water |
| Marker stars | Algenib (Gamma Pegasi) and Alpheratz (Alpha Andromedae) |
| Gana (temperament) | Manushya (human) |
| Nature | Dhruva (fixed, steady) |
| Starting dasha | Saturn mahadasha, 19 years |
Where Uttara Bhadrapada sits in the sky
Uttara Bhadrapada occupies the early middle of Pisces, entirely within the one sign, so every Moon born here is also a Pisces Moon. Its marker stars are Algenib and Alpheratz, the two bright stars of the trailing edge of the Great Square of Pegasus, completing the figure that Purva Bhadrapada begins.
The lordships layer in a way the tradition finds eloquent. Pisces belongs to Jupiter, the expansive teacher among the nine planets, while the star itself belongs to Saturn, the patient disciplinarian. A Moon here answers to both: Jupiter's breadth of sympathy carried in Saturn's steady vessel. That blend, wisdom joined to discipline, is the shortest accurate description of the star.
Ahir Budhnya, the serpent of the deep
Uttara Bhadrapada's presiding deity is Ahir Budhnya, "the serpent of the depths", an ancient figure of Rudra's retinue who dwells at the bottom of the cosmic ocean and upholds the foundation of the world. He is benevolent, hidden, and immensely strong, power that supports rather than strikes.
The symbols carry the same stillness. The back legs of the funeral cot complete what Purva Bhadrapada's front legs begin, the settled end of a crossing rather than its anxious start. The serpent in water lies coiled and unmoving, holding its strength in reserve. Read together, deity and symbol describe depth as a virtue: the capacity to stay calm, hold weight, and keep what matters safe at the bottom where storms do not reach.
The personality of an Uttara Bhadrapada Moon
Classical descriptions, set out in the Brihat Jataka, sketch the Uttara Bhadrapada-born as virtuous, composed, generous, and happy in family life, a temperament the texts treat as one of the gentlest in the wheel. The signature gift is depth that does not advertise: people come to this native for counsel and leave steadier than they arrived.
Because the Moon in Jyotish is the mind, the birth star colours the inner life above all. An Uttara Bhadrapada Moon tends to feel deeply and show little, to forgive slowly arrived-at conclusions even more slowly, and to do its best work in long arcs: research, healing, teaching, institution-building, contemplative practice. The dhruva, or fixed, nature the muhurta texts assign this star is the same quality applied to time. Success here tends to compound and arrive late, and to last when it does.
The heavier register is stillness overgrown: calm can settle into inertia, privacy into withdrawal, and patience into a melancholy that mistakes itself for wisdom. The tradition pairs the affliction with its management in the same breath: Saturn's own remedy is structure and service, regular work that moves the depth outward, and Jupiter's lordship of the sign keeps the temperament supplied with warmth. The rest of the chart, especially the Moon's dispositor, fills in the balance.
The four padas of Uttara Bhadrapada
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 feeds the ninth divisional chart. Uttara Bhadrapada's padas run from Leo to Scorpio in the navamsa, all four keeping the Pisces Moon sign.
| Pada | Degrees of Pisces | Navamsa sign | Flavour |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3°20′ to 6°40′ | Leo | The quiet leader: depth that ends up in charge without seeking it |
| 2 | 6°40′ to 10°00′ | Virgo | The analyst: precision in service, the healer's method |
| 3 | 10°00′ to 13°20′ | Libra | The counsellor: balance, fairness, and ease with people |
| 4 | 13°20′ to 16°40′ | Scorpio | The mystic: the deepest waters, intuition and inner work |
No pada here is vargottama, but the spread is worth reading: the navamsa signs run from the most outward expression to the most inward, so the quarter refines how visibly the star's depth operates. When you look up your nakshatra, note the pada with it.
Uttara Bhadrapada 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 Bhadrapada that lord is Saturn, so a birth here begins inside a Saturn mahadasha of 19 years, the second-longest period in the cycle. The balance at birth is proportional: early in the star leaves most of it, late in the star leaves little.
A long Saturn opening is traditionally read as a serious childhood that builds endurance early, with the reward structure Saturn always uses: slow, then solid. The fixed sequence continues with Mercury (17 years), Ketu (7), Venus (20), Sun (6), Moon (10), Mars (7), Rahu (18), and Jupiter (16). To find your own entry point and the balance remaining, the find your nakshatra page calculates both from your birth details.
Uttara Bhadrapada in compatibility matching
In guna milan, the koota matching used for marriage, several of the 36 points come from the two birth stars. Uttara Bhadrapada counts as a manushya gana star, the human temperament class, scoring comfortably with deva and manushya stars in the gana koota. Its Moon sign for the sign-based kootas is always Pisces.
The full match also counts nadi, yoni, and the rest of the eight kootas, and no single star or factor decides the result; the method spreads its points wide by design. To run the complete 36-point table for two charts, use the kundli matching tool.
Uttara Bhadrapada in the classics
The attributions on this page are the stable, named ones: the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra carries the 27-star scheme and the Vimshottari sequence seeded from the birth star; the Brihat Jataka describes the temperament of those born under each star, Uttara Bhadrapada's among the most kindly drawn. The old texts are brief, and this page keeps to what they agree on.
Reading further is best done sideways and upward: sideways to its hotter twin, Purva Bhadrapada, and to Revati after it, the gentle star that closes the whole wheel; upward to the 27-nakshatra map for the full table. To see where your own Moon falls, run a free birth chart and find the nakshatra column.