Ashwini nakshatra

Span

0°00′ Aries to 13°20′ Aries

Ruling planet

Ketu (Vimshottari dasha of 7 years)

Deity

The Ashwini Kumaras

Symbol

A horse’s head

Nature

Kshipra (swift)

Gana

Deva (godly)

Yoni (animal)

Horse

Nadi

Adi (Vata)

The meaning of Ashwini

Ashwini (अश्विनी) is the 1st of the 27 nakshatras. Its presiding deity is the Ashwini Kumaras, the twin horsemen, physicians of the gods, who bring help swiftly, and its symbol is a horse’s head. In Jyotish the deity of a nakshatra is the key to its nature: what the deity does, the nakshatra does.

It is ruled by Ketu, so a person whose Moon is in Ashwini begins life in the Ketu dasha. The other two nakshatras ruled by Ketu are Magha and Mula; together they share something of Ketu’s character.

Good for: Kshipra work

In the muhurta texts Ashwini is a kshipra (swift) nakshatra, favoured for trade, learning, medicine, travel and enjoyment. When the Moon passes through Ashwini (about once every 27⅓ days) it is a good day for those kinds of beginnings.

The junction between Revati’s last pada and Ashwini’s first is gandanta, a knot where a water sign meets a fire sign; births and beginnings there are traditionally given extra care.

The four padas

Each nakshatra divides into four padas of 3°20′. Each pada falls in a navamsa sign, and each has the traditional first syllable used for naming a child born in it.

In marriage matching

In guna milan, Ashwini is of Deva gana, horse yoni and Adi nadi. Two partners with the same nadi lose all eight points of nadi koota. Match two charts.

Find your birth nakshatra · Aries (Mesha) · Chapter 5: the 27 nakshatras

Sources: Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra and Phaladeepika for the signs, planets and houses; Muhurta Chintamani for the nakshatra classes and the guna milan attributes. Wording is our own.