Vishakha is the sixteenth of the 27 nakshatras, spanning 20 degrees 00 minutes of Libra to 3 degrees 20 minutes of Scorpio. Its ruling planet is Jupiter, its presiding deity is the joint pair Indra and Agni, and its symbol is a triumphal archway, the decorated gate a victor passes through. The name means "forked" or "two-branched", and the star carries an older second name, Radha, "the delightful". A person born with the Moon in this span has Vishakha as their janma nakshatra, or birth star, and is read in the classical tradition as ambitious, focused, and determined, fixed on a goal until it is won. Their Vimshottari dasha, the planetary timeline of life, opens in a Jupiter period.
This page goes deep on Vishakha alone. For the system itself, why there are 27 stars and how padas and lords work, start with the guide to all 27 nakshatras and come back.
Vishakha at a glance
The quick facts first. Every row in this table is unpacked in the sections below it.
| Attribute | Vishakha |
|---|---|
| Position | 20°00′ Libra to 3°20′ Scorpio |
| Order | 16th of 27 |
| Ruling planet (lord) | Jupiter |
| Deity | Indra and Agni, ruling jointly |
| Symbol | Triumphal archway |
| Marker stars | The bright stars of Libra, the scales |
| Gana (temperament) | Rakshasa (fierce) |
| Nature | Mishra (mixed) |
| Starting dasha | Jupiter mahadasha, 16 years |
Where Vishakha sits in the sky
Vishakha is one of the nakshatras that crosses a sign border. Its first three quarters occupy the final third of Libra, and its fourth quarter opens Scorpio. Its stars are the bright stars of Libra, the scales, which older Indian astronomy saw as a forked or two-branched figure, the likely source of the name.
The split position matters in practice. A Vishakha Moon in padas one to three is a Libra Moon, at home in a Venus-ruled sign of partnership and weighing. A Vishakha Moon in pada four is a Scorpio Moon, which the classics treat as debilitated by sign. The pada section below covers what that means and how the tradition reads it without alarm.
Indra, Agni, and the gateway of victory
Vishakha's presiding deity in the Vedic nakshatra tradition is a pair: Indra, the king of the gods, and Agni, the god of fire, ruling the star together. The tradition reads the pairing as power joined to will, authority supplied with fuel. The symbol completes the picture: a triumphal archway, the gate built for a winner to walk through.
Put deity and symbol together and the theme is unmistakable. Vishakha is the star of the campaign, the long push toward a chosen prize. The fork in its name is often read as a parted branch or a crossroads: a choice of aim, after which everything bends toward the chosen branch. Jupiter as lord adds purpose and conviction to the push, so the ambition is rarely aimless. It wants a goal worth winning.
The personality of a Vishakha Moon
In the classical tradition the Vishakha native is sketched as determined, persuasive, and energetic, someone who fixes on an objective and holds course. Because the Moon is the mind in Jyotish, a Vishakha Moon feels its goals strongly, measures progress constantly, and is happiest mid-pursuit, with the archway visible ahead.
The strengths are obvious in work and study: stamina for long projects, comfort with competition, the ability to recruit others to a cause. Jupiter's lordship inclines the ambition toward growth, teaching, and causes larger than the self.
The same drive has a heavier side, and the tradition is candid about it: single-mindedness can shade into impatience with slower people, and the focus on the prize can crowd out the present. The standard reading is that the rest of the chart, especially a well-placed Jupiter and Venus, supplies the balance, and that Vishakha mellows notably once a worthy long-term aim is found. The fierce energy needs a gate worth marching toward; given one, it is among the most productive placements in the wheel.
The four padas of Vishakha
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. Vishakha's padas run from Aries to Cancer in the navamsa.
| Pada | Degrees | Navamsa sign | Flavour |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20°00′ to 23°20′ Libra | Aries | The most competitive quarter; ambition pursued head-on |
| 2 | 23°20′ to 26°40′ Libra | Taurus | The builder; steady accumulation toward the goal |
| 3 | 26°40′ to 30°00′ Libra | Gemini | The strategist; wins through words, alliances, and timing |
| 4 | 0°00′ to 3°20′ Scorpio | Cancer | The most intense quarter; ambition fused with deep feeling |
The fourth pada deserves its own note. It is the only part of Vishakha inside Scorpio, where the Moon is debilitated by sign, and the Moon's point of deepest debilitation, 3 degrees of Scorpio, falls within this very quarter. The classics do not read this as a doom; they read it as an emotional intensity that needs conscious channels. The standard checks are the condition of Mars, the sign's lord, and the cancellation rules called neecha bhanga, which a full chart reading applies before any conclusion is drawn. Many charts with this Moon show exactly the depth and resolve that hard goals require.
Vishakha 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 Vishakha that lord is Jupiter, so a Vishakha birth begins inside a Jupiter mahadasha of 16 years. The balance remaining at birth is proportional to how far the Moon had moved through the star.
A Moon at the very start of Vishakha leaves nearly the full 16 years of Jupiter; a Moon near 3 degrees of Scorpio leaves only a sliver before the Saturn period begins. The sequence after Jupiter is fixed for everyone: Saturn (19 years), Mercury (17), Ketu (7), Venus (20), Sun (6), Moon (10), Mars (7), Rahu (18), and around again. If you have not calculated yours, the find your nakshatra page does it from your birth date, time, and place.
Vishakha 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. Vishakha enters that arithmetic as a rakshasa gana star, the temperament class the texts call fierce, which scores differently against deva and manushya stars. The label describes intensity of nature, not character or worth.
No single nakshatra makes or breaks a match. The classical method counts across eight kootas precisely so that no one factor dominates, and gana mismatches are routinely offset by strong scores elsewhere, especially the Moon-sign relationship between the charts. To see a full 36-point calculation for two charts, the kundli matching tool runs the whole table.
Vishakha 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. Vishakha's joint deity and victory symbolism are consistent across the tradition.
Reading further is best done sideways and upward: sideways to Vishakha's neighbours, Swati before it and Anuradha after it, whose gentler temperaments make Vishakha's drive stand out clearly, and upward to the 27-nakshatra map, where the whole wheel sits in one table. To see where your own Moon falls, run a free birth chart and find the nakshatra column.