# Ashlesha Nakshatra: The Serpent’s Embrace, 4 Padas, and True Remedies

> Ashlesha Nakshatra explained: the Serpent deity, Mercury’s rule, four padas, nine planets, marriage, career, muhurta, and remedies in Vedic astrology.

Source: https://astroshala.com/ashlesha-nakshatra/  
Author: Ekant Sharma  
Updated: 2026-10-29  

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Kadrū, wife of the sage Kaśyapa, asked for a thousand serpent sons; her sister-wife Vinatā asked for two sons stronger than all of them. The sisters wagered on the colour of Uccaiḥśravas’s tail, the white horse from the churned ocean, and the loser would serve the winner. Kadrū ordered her sons to hang from the white tail as black hairs. She cursed those who refused to burn in a king’s serpent sacrifice. Vinatā lost and served her sister until Garuḍa, her son, bought her freedom with the nectar of immortality. The *Mahābhārata* tells it in the *Ādi Parva*: a mother’s grip that wins the wager and binds her own children.

Ashlesha Nakshatra is the ninth lunar mansion of Vedic astrology, spanning 16°40′ to 30°00′ of Cancer, ruled by Mercury, with the Serpents (*Sarpāḥ*) as its presiding deities. Its name, *Āśleṣā*, comes from the Sanskrit root *ā-śliṣ*, “to clasp” or “to embrace”. That embrace is the asterism’s whole teaching. A coil can hold something safe, and the same coil can squeeze the life out of it. This article follows one question through the texts, the padas, the planets, and three famous charts: when the serpent embraces, is it holding or squeezing, and what in the chart decides which?

## What Is Ashlesha Nakshatra?

Hindu astrology divides the zodiac twice: into twelve signs (*rāśi*) of 30° each, and into twenty-seven lunar mansions (*nakṣatra*) of 13°20′ each. Nine mansions fill exactly four signs, so the two divisions share a boundary only at 0° Aries, 0° Leo, and 0° Sagittarius. Ashlesha ends at one of those three points. It fills the last 13°20′ of Cancer, and at 0° Leo it hands the zodiac over to Magha, the asterism of the ancestors, ruled by Ketu.

Fix the arrangement before going further, because everything else in Ashlesha follows from it. The Moon rules Cancer, Mercury rules the asterism, and the Serpents are its presiding deities. In the Vimśottarī scheme of planetary periods (*daśā*), Mercury’s period lasts 17 years. Hence, a native born with the Moon early in Ashlesha begins life with most of a Mercury period still to run, and one born at its close begins almost at once with Ketu’s seven years.

The Vimśottarī order also explains Ashlesha’s place in the sequence. The twenty-seven asterisms run in three rounds of nine, each round following the same nine star lords from Ketu to Mercury. Ashlesha is the ninth asterism and the last of the first round; Jyeshtha closes the second round and Revati the third. All three are Mercury’s, all three close a water sign, and all three hand over to a Ketu asterism. The student who has read [Jyeshtha Nakshatra: Meaning, Traits, Padas and Marriage](https://astroshala.com/jyeshtha-nakshatra/) will recognise the family, and tradition treats all six asterisms at those three junctions as [gandamoola nakshatra](https://astroshala.com/gandamoola-nakshatra/) births with particular care.

The Vedic texts spell the name *Āśreṣā*, with an *r*, and the classical astrologers write *Āśleṣā*; both come from the same root of clasping. In the sky, most modern identifications place Ashlesha’s stars in the head of the Hydra, the long water serpent that follows the Crab across the southern sky; some older readers took a star of Cancer itself. The image works as an analogy: the Hydra’s head rises first, and its body uncoils behind it for hours, and Ashlesha, like that head, marks where the serpent of the zodiac begins to show itself.

In the *Bṛhat Saṁhitā*, Varāhamihira groups Ashlesha with Ardra, Jyeshtha, and Mula as the four sharp asterisms (*tīkṣṇa*), fit for decisive, severing work. Its naming syllables, used for the first sound of a child’s name, are Dī, Dū, De, and Do, one for each quarter.

Readers who read charts for others will find a few short asides marked “In consultation” throughout this article: a question or check to use with a client, set apart from the main text.

### Ashlesha Nakshatra: Deity, Symbol, and Classifications

| Attribute | Classical designation | What it means in practice | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Span | 16°40′ to 30°00′ Cancer | The closing third of the Moon’s own sign, ending at the junction with Leo | Standard sidereal division (Lahiri) |
| Star lord | Mercury (Budha); Vimśottarī period 17 years | Speech, calculation, and discrimination working inside an emotional sign | Vimśottarī scheme |
| Deity | The Serpents (Sarpāḥ) | Guardianship, hidden knowledge, poison and its cure | *Bṛhat Saṁhitā* 98.4 to 5 |
| Symbol | A coiled serpent | The clasp that protects or constricts | Traditional reading |
| Gana | Rākṣasa | Self-reliant, defensive temperament; scored in matching | Matching tables |
| Yoni | Cat (male) | Hostile to the rat, Magha’s yoni | Matching tables |
| Nāḍī | Antya (last) | Scored in matching | Matching tables |
| Naming syllables | Dī, Dū, De, Do | First syllable of the birth name, by pada | Common practice |
| Muhurta class | Tīkṣṇa (sharp) | Decisive, severing work; not marriage or housewarming | *Bṛhat Saṁhitā* 98.7 |
| Face direction | Adhomukha (downward) | Digging, foundations, work below ground | Muhurta lists |
| Gandamoola | All four padas | One pacification rite after birth | Practitioner majority |

## The Serpents in the Veda and the Epic

The nakshatra lists of the Black Yajurveda name the Serpents as Ashlesha’s deity, and Varāhamihira’s table of asterism lords repeats the assignment. The same Yajurveda carries a short hymn to the serpents, the Sarpa Sūkta, whose first verse salutes the serpents of earth, air, and sky. It is recited in serpent worship, including rites for Ashlesha:

Sarpa Sūkta, Taittirīya Saṁhitā 4.2.8

नमो अस्तु सर्पेभ्यो ये के च पृथिवीमनु ।
ये अन्तरिक्षे ये दिवि तेभ्यः सर्पेभ्यो नमः ॥

namo astu sarpebhyo ye ke ca pṛthivīm anu |
ye antarikṣe ye divi tebhyaḥ sarpebhyo namaḥ ||

**Meaning:** Salutations to the serpents who dwell upon the earth; to those serpents who dwell in the mid-air and in the heavens, salutations.

The same verse stands in the *Vājasaneyi Saṁhitā* (13.6) of the White Yajurveda. In temple use, it is often preceded by *Oṁ*, which belongs to the liturgy rather than to the Saṁhitā text.

The hymn’s next two verses widen the circle: serpents in the bright realms of the sky and in the rays of the Sun; serpents who make their home in the waters; serpents among the trees; and serpents lying in hollows and burrows. For an asterism in a water sign, the line about the waters matters. The serpent of Indian story is never only the cobra in the field. It is the guardian coiled around buried treasure, the nāga who guards springs and wells, the coil that holds the earth, and the venom a physician turns into medicine.

Varāhamihira’s own list for Ashlesha keeps every one of those faces. In his chapter on what each asterism governs, he places under Ashlesha the dealers in perfumes, roots, fruits, reptiles, serpents, and poison; those who cheat others of their property; those who trade in pod grains; and those skilled in every kind of medicine.

The verdict is hard, and it should be read as written, not softened. It also contains its own answer. The hand that handles poison also prepares the antidote; the same knowledge that can cheat can cure. Ashlesha does not choose between them. The chart does.

The Purāṇas supply a second story that astrologers use to read the asterism. The *Viṣṇu Purāṇa* tells how Soma, the Moon, grew proud after his great sacrifice and carried off Tārā, wife of Bṛhaspati, the preceptor of the gods. The gods and demons fought over her until Brahmā made Soma return her. Tārā returned pregnant, and when both husbands claimed the radiant child, she named Soma the father. Brahmā called the boy Budha, the wise one: Mercury.

Astrologers read the planetary friendships through that birth; the Purāṇa tells the story, and the reading is theirs. In the natural scheme of planetary friendship (*naisargika maitrī*), the Moon counts Mercury a friend, while Mercury counts the Moon an enemy. The father reaches for the son; the son keeps his distance from a father he did not choose. In Ashlesha, Mercury rules the asterism inside the Moon’s own sign. The feeling mind keeps reaching for the intellect, and the intellect keeps watching from the doorway.

## The Embrace: Ashlesha Character and Temperament

Tradition describes the Ashlesha native, with the Moon or the ascendant in this asterism, first of all as a noticer. Mercury in a water sign reads tone, hesitation, and what was left unsaid, and files it away. The native seldom announces what has been seen. People call this secrecy; it is closer to the snake in the grass, perfectly still, counting. Five strands of character are usually drawn from that stillness, and each can hold or squeeze. How strongly any of them shows depends on the whole chart.

**Watchfulness.** Mercury rules discrimination and the Moon rules feeling, and here the discriminator is the guest in the feeler’s house. The result is a mind that tests every emotion before trusting it. Strong and well aspected, this gives a judgement of people that others find uncanny: the friend who warned you about the business partner a year before the money vanished. Afflicted, the testing never ends, and every kindness may be read as a move in a game.

Speech with two edges. Mercury is speech, and in the asterism of the Serpents, speech tends to be exact, economical, and capable of a sting. The native often says less than is known and chooses the moment to say it. Well placed, this makes the careful drafter, the negotiator, the doctor who gives hard news gently. When Mars or Rahu afflicts it, it turns a remark into something the target remembers for years.

**Possession and guardianship.** Cancer keeps the home, the family line, and the larder. The serpents of Indian story keep treasure, coiled round buried pots of gold in temple courtyards and village legends alike. Put the two together and the native tends to guard what is theirs with great persistence: a family business, a parent’s house, a child’s future, a body of knowledge. The guarding is real protection. The danger is the coil that tightens round the very thing it protects: the parent who cannot let the grown son choose his own bride, the partner who checks the phone.

**The quiet exit.** Insulted or betrayed, the Ashlesha native rarely shouts. Mars, the planet of open conflict, is debilitated in Cancer and reaches its lowest point within Ashlesha itself, so open confrontation does not come naturally. The coil loosens, the native withdraws, and the boundary is redrawn further out. The other person may discover only later that they have been left, sometimes years later, when an inheritance is read, or an invitation never comes.

**Worry that will not settle.** Mercury analysing the Moon’s feelings can turn a mood over and over without finishing it, like the stomach churning a meal eaten in anger. Ayurveda would recognise the airy, restless humour (*vāta*) in this. Sleep comes late; meals are skipped; the mind keeps chewing after the stomach has stopped. The constructive side is stamina for detailed, patient work that would bore anyone else.

The student would do well to note what decides each strand, because the asterism alone decides none of them. Mercury’s own dignity and aspects decide how clean the judgement is. Jupiter’s aspect on the Moon tends to soften suspicion into discernment. Saturn or Mars on the Moon tightens the coil. The dasha running decides when each strand shows.

### Ashlesha Nakshatra: Holding or Squeezing

| Difficult expression | Constructive expression | What decides it in the chart |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Suspicion that reads every kindness as a move | Accurate judgement of people and motives | Mercury’s dignity and aspects; Jupiter’s aspect on the Moon |
| Control that squeezes those it means to protect | Steady guardianship of family, money, or knowledge | The fourth house and its lord; Saturn’s and Mars’s influence on the Moon |
| Knowledge hoarded as a weapon | Knowledge used as medicine: research, healing, counsel | The tenth house and its lord; the dasha running; conduct |

### Ashlesha Nakshatra Appearance and Eyes

Tradition credits Ashlesha with a steady, appraising gaze, and eyes are the most often-named feature: a look that seems to stay on the face a moment longer than politeness allows. A supple, wiry build is also reported. Treat both as reported tradition, not as rules. The rising sign (*lagna*) and the planets on it shape appearance far more than the Moon’s asterism, so the description holds best where the ascendant itself falls in Ashlesha, as in Indira Gandhi’s chart later in this article.

### Ashlesha Men

An Ashlesha man tends to keep to his own counsel early and for a long time. He listens in meetings, speaks late, and is often right about who will fail. Mercury gives him wit, sometimes cutting, and the Moon’s sign gives him a strong attachment to home and mother, which he rarely shows in public. He is usually more loyal than he looks and less forgiving than he says.

At work he is drawn to positions where information passes through his hands: accounts, records, audits, the second chair beside the decision-maker. He builds slowly and dislikes being hurried by people who have not done the reading. Money matters to him less as display than as safety, and he often keeps a reserve no one else in the family knows about.

The difficulty is control. When Mars or Saturn afflicts the Moon, the protective instinct can turn into managing the people around him: the father who must approve every decision, the manager who trusts no report he hasn’t checked himself. When Jupiter aspects the Moon or the ascendant, that same watchfulness serves others well, and such men often become the adviser everyone quietly consults.

*In consultation:* ask about his mother and his money in the same sitting. In many Ashlesha charts the two are bound together through the fourth house, and his attitude to one explains his anxiety about the other.

### Ashlesha Women

An Ashlesha woman usually brings strong self-reliance into every relationship. She notices more than she says, keeps an inner room of thought she does not open on demand, and often becomes the person who holds a family’s security: the accounts, long-term plans, property papers, and the children’s education. Her strength is persistence. She does not easily give up on a person, a project, or a grievance.

In work, she tends to excel where precision and discretion are both needed: medicine, pharmacy, law, finance, teaching that demands rigour, and any role that handles confidential matters. Colleagues rely on her memory for detail and her refusal to gossip. People often underestimate her early on because she doesn’t advertise herself, and they overestimate her coldness. After all, she never explains her silences.

Friction arises when others read that reservedness as coldness, or when a husband or his family tries to manage her time and opinions. She is less likely to argue than to withdraw, and the withdrawal can be misjudged as consent. When Jupiter or Venus is strong, the protective grip becomes devotion to family and real skill at managing people; when the Moon is afflicted, worry and suspicion can run the household.

None of this follows from the asterism alone. The ascendant, the Moon’s condition, Venus, and the seventh house decide how far these traits show in any one woman’s life.

## Ashlesha in Marriage: Embrace or Grip

Ashlesha Nakshatra marriage turns on the same clasp. The native loves by holding on: loyalty is real, and so is the wish to know where the partner is, what was said, and why. A partner who values steadiness finds a guardian; a partner who needs room may feel watched. In Ashlesha Nakshatra female marriage life in particular, the pattern described above tends to hold: she keeps an inner room closed, runs the household’s security, and withdraws rather than argues, so the marriage suffers most when her silence is taken for agreement.

In eight-factor matching (*aṣṭakūṭa*, scored out of 36), Ashlesha carries the rākṣasa gana, the male cat yoni, and the antya nāḍī. The cat is hostile to the rat, the yoni of Magha and Purva Phalguni, so a match with the very next asterism starts with a yoni conflict. The [nakshatra gana in the matchmaking](https://astroshala.com/nakshatra-gana-horoscope-matchmaking-kundli-milan-in-vedic-astrology/) article explains how the gana score is counted, and [Jyeshtha Nakshatra Marriage and Compatibility](https://astroshala.com/jyeshtha-nakshatra-marriage/) works through full examples for the sister asterism.

Some families still hold that an Ashlesha bride brings trouble to her mother-in-law. This is a regional custom, not a teaching of the Hora texts, and no marriage should be refused on the bride’s asterism alone. The seventh house and its lord, Venus, Jupiter, the navamsa, and the dashas running at the time decide a marriage. The nakshatra supplies one layer of it.

Is your match holding or squeezing?

A koota score is one factor among many. A Matchmaking Analysis with Remedies reads both charts in full: the 36-point ashtakoota score, factor by factor, with each dosha checked against its exceptions, Mangal dosha, the navamsa, and the dashas you will run after marriage.

[See the Matchmaking Analysis](https://astroshala.com/product/matchmaking-analysis-with-remedies/)

## Ashlesha Nakshatra Padas and Their Navamsas

Each asterism divides into four quarters (*pada*) of 3°20′, and each quarter falls in one sign of the ninth divisional chart (*navāṁśa*, D-9), which shows how a placement matures and how much inner strength stands behind it. Two facts govern Ashlesha’s padas before any description. First, no part of Ashlesha is vargottama, because Cancer’s own navamsa falls at 0° to 3°20′, in Punarvasu; nor does Ashlesha hold either of Cancer’s two pushkara navamsas, which also lie earlier in the sign. Second, the four navamsa lords are Jupiter, Saturn, Saturn, and Jupiter, and Mercury, the star lord, stands very differently with each: Jupiter counts Mercury an enemy, while Saturn counts Mercury a friend.

![Ashlesha Nakshatra padas, navamsas, and the gandanta junction with Magha](https://i0.wp.com/astroshala.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/ashlesha-nakshatra-padas-junction-diagram.webp?resize=1020%2C574&ssl=1)

*The four Ashlesha padas, their navamsas, Mars’s deepest debilitation at 28° Cancer, and the junction with Magha.*

The Moon, the sign lord, has its own relationships with those navamsa lords, and they run the other way. Jupiter counts the Moon a friend; Saturn counts the Moon an enemy. So in the first and last padas the sign lord is warmed, and the star lord is strained, and in the two middle padas the star lord is at ease while the sign lord is chilled. That crossing pattern is the key to reading any Ashlesha placement by pada.

| Pada | Span in Cancer | Navamsa (lord) | Naming syllable | Navamsa dignities to note |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | 16°40′ to 20°00′ | Sagittarius (Jupiter) | Dī | Jupiter in its own navamsa |
| 2 | 20°00′ to 23°20′ | Capricorn (Saturn) | Dū | Mars exalted; Jupiter debilitated; Saturn in its own |
| 3 | 23°20′ to 26°40′ | Aquarius (Saturn) | De | Saturn in its own navamsa |
| 4 | 26°40′ to 30°00′ | Pisces (Jupiter) | Do | Venus exalted; Mercury debilitated; Jupiter in its own |

### Ashlesha Pada 1: Sagittarius Navamsa (16°40′ to 20°00′)

Jupiter rules this navamsa, and Jupiter is exalted in Cancer and counts the Moon a friend. The first quarter therefore tempers Mercury’s watchfulness with judgement, faith in principle, and a wish to teach. The tension lies between Jupiter and the star lord: Jupiter counts Mercury an enemy, so the native can argue doctrine more readily than live it, and can be sharp with those less learned. Jupiter here sits in its own navamsa, which further strengthens it.

Natives of this quarter are often drawn to law, teaching, religion, and advisory work, where judgement is paid for. Of the four quarters, this is the one where the serpent most often holds rather than squeezes, provided Jupiter itself is well placed in the birth chart. Queen Elizabeth II’s Moon falls here.

*In consultation:* check Jupiter in the D-9 before reading this pada. Strong Jupiter makes it the gentlest of the four; a weak one leaves the sermon without wisdom.

### Ashlesha Pada 2: Capricorn Navamsa (20°00′ to 23°20′)

Saturn rules this navamsa. Saturn counts Mercury a friend and the Moon an enemy, so the intellect gains discipline while the feelings go colder. The native is careful with money, slow to trust, and often rises through patient work inside an institution: a ministry, a bank, a hospital. The difficulty is a reserve that may harden into isolation in middle age.

Two navamsa dignities make this quarter unusual. Mars, debilitated in Cancer, is exalted in the Capricorn navamsa, so a Mars here is weak on the surface and strong underneath. Jupiter, exalted in Cancer, is debilitated in the Capricorn navamsa, the reverse case. Saturn here sits in its own navamsa, as Indira Gandhi’s Saturn does.

*In consultation:* never judge Mars or Jupiter in this pada from the birth chart alone. The navamsa reverses each, and the reversal usually shows in the second half of life.

### Ashlesha Pada 3: Aquarius Navamsa (23°20′ to 26°40′)

Saturn rules this navamsa again, now in its airy sign. This is the most inquisitive of the four quarters, drawn to research, unusual knowledge, and systems other people ignore: pharmacology, forensic accounts, old manuscripts, software. The native can be an outsider in the family, valued for what they know more than for warmth, and is often happiest working alone.

Saturn in this quarter occupies its own navamsa, and Mercury, a friend to Saturn, feels at home in Saturn’s air sign. The coil here is intellectual: the risk is knowledge hoarded rather than shared, and the remedy is a student, an apprentice, or a published book that lets the knowledge out.

### Ashlesha Pada 4: Pisces Navamsa (26°40′ to 30°00′)

The last quarter is the most charged. It sits at the water-and-fire junction with Magha, Ketu’s asterism of the ancestors, and holds Mars’s deepest point of debilitation, 28° Cancer. Within the junction zone (*gaṇḍānta*) most practitioners use- the last pada of the Mercury asterism and the first pada of the Ketu asterism- this whole quarter lies inside it. In the navamsa, Jupiter rules, Venus is exalted, and Mercury is debilitated, so the star lord itself is weakest here while devotion and compassion are strongest.

The quarter is traditionally associated with one decisive inner turn in life: a renunciation, a conversion, or a break with the old family way, which can look from outside like a snake leaving its skin whole on the path. Both Mahatma Gandhi’s Moon and Indira Gandhi’s ascendant fall in this pada.

*In consultation:* note how close a pada-4 Moon or ascendant lies to 30°. The nearer the junction, the more the birth time decides which side of it the native stands on.

A few minutes can move a pada.

Near the end of Ashlesha, a small birth-time error can shift the Moon or ascendant across a pada, or across the junction into Magha. A Birth Time Rectification tests candidate times against seven to ten dated events from your life, using dashas and transits, and gives the time that best explains them.

[See Birth Time Rectification](https://astroshala.com/product/birth-time-rectification/)

## Why Ashlesha Is a Gandamoola Nakshatra

Keep two terms apart before reading anything about Ashlesha births. *Gaṇḍamūla* names the six asterisms at the three water-to-fire junctions: Ashlesha and Magha, Jyeshtha and Mula, Revati and Ashwini. It covers all four padas of Ashlesha. *Gaṇḍānta* names the junction zone itself, and schools measure it in three widths: the whole asterism; the last pada of the Mercury asterism with the first pada of the Ketu asterism, which the majority of practitioners use; or only the final degree or a few *ghaṭikā* on either side of 0° Leo.

Common practice is to perform one pacification rite (śānti) for a gandamoola birth when the Moon first returns to the birth asterism about 27 days after birth, and to hold it effective for any later return. A family should not be persuaded to pay for repeated ceremonies out of fear, and the gandamoola label says nothing on its own about the child’s life; the full chart decides that.

The full doctrine, with the three widths side by side and the tables tradition attaches to each pada, is set out in [Gandamoola Nakshatras: What It Means and What It Doesn’t](https://astroshala.com/gandamoola-nakshatra/).

## The Nine Planets in Ashlesha

In Ashlesha, every planet works through two masters at once: Mercury, which rules the asterism, and the Moon, which rules the sign. Read the star lord’s condition first, then the occupant’s relationship with both masters, then the pada. A planet that both masters welcome tends to be held; a planet that one of them distrusts tends to be squeezed. Readers will usually arrive here with one planet in mind, so each entry stands on its own.

### Mercury in Ashlesha

Mercury here is the star lord in its own asterism, yet in the sign of a planet it counts an enemy, so it is at home and not at home at once. Speech is exact and can cut; the native asks the one question that exposes a weak argument, and remembers the answer for years. Mercury’s strength depends heavily on the pada. In Padas 2 and 3, Saturn’s navamsas, Mercury is among friends and the intellect becomes patient and methodical. In Pada 4, Mercury falls into its sign of debilitation in the navamsa. Its cleverness tends to grow anxious and intuitive rather than logical, and it becomes prone to second-guessing.

Mercury never strays more than about 28° from the Sun, so a Mercury in Ashlesha usually has the Sun nearby, and is often combust. A combust Mercury in Ashlesha tends to think well and explain badly. Strong, aspected by Jupiter, and free of Mars or Rahu, this placement is associated with skill in law, accounts, editing, diagnosis, and negotiation. Afflicted, it can give a sharp tongue and a mind that cannot stop checking.

### Moon in Ashlesha

The Moon in Ashlesha is the classic Ashlesha birth star, and the character section above describes it. The Moon is in its own sign, giving emotional strength and attachment to home; the asterism lord, Mercury, does not return the Moon’s friendship, giving a guarded, testing quality. Life begins in Mercury’s daśā, and the native’s first years often turn on schooling, speech, siblings, or a parent’s trade.

The pada changes the Moon considerably. In Pada 1 and Pada 4, Jupiter, a friend, rules the Moon’s navamsa and warms it. In Padas 2 and 3, Saturn, which counts the Moon an enemy, rules the navamsa and cools it. The general reading of [the Moon in Vedic astrology](https://astroshala.com/planet-moon-in-astrology-and-its-characteristics/) applies, with Mercury’s commentary layered on top.

### Sun in Ashlesha

The Sun passes through Ashlesha each year in roughly the first half of August. The Sun counts the Moon a friend and Mercury neutral, and the Cancer Sun is in a friend’s sign. Authority tends to be exercised from behind the scenes, as the adviser more than the figurehead, and the native often serves a family or an institution rather than leading it in name. In Pada 4, the Sun stands a few degrees from Leo, its own sign, and the urge to come out from behind the screen grows.

A note on terms, which the Sun most often provokes and which the Saturn entry below relies on. The Sun is the natural soul significator (*ātmakāraka*) in every chart. In Jaimini’s scheme, the chara ātmakāraka is different: the planet with the highest degree in its sign, ignoring the sign, among the seven planets from the Sun to Saturn. Some astrologers use eight chara karakas and add Rahu. Because Rahu moves backwards, its degree is counted from the end of its sign: 30° minus its degree within the sign. Then compare that figure with the other planets’ degrees.

### Mars in Ashlesha

Mars is debilitated in Cancer, and its deepest point of debilitation, 28°, lies inside Ashlesha’s fourth pada. This is the most specific planetary fact Ashlesha holds. Courage tends to turn indirect: the native waits, studies the opponent, and strikes late, often through others or through procedure. Anger is felt in the body and the stomach more than it is shown. Mars counts Mercury an enemy, so the warrior feels uneasy in the clerk’s asterism.

Rules for cancelling a debility (*nīcabhaṅga*) differ between texts and teachers, so check them before reading weakness. The conditions most often applied include the Moon, lord of Mars’s sign of debility, strong and in an angle; Saturn, lord of Mars’s sign of exaltation, strong and in an angle; and, in common practice, Mars exalted in the navamsa, which happens in Pada 2 (Capricorn). A Mars in Pada 2 is weak on the surface and strong underneath.

*In consultation:* ask whether the native fights through others. That is the usual signature of this Mars.

### Jupiter in Ashlesha

Jupiter is exalted in Cancer, though its deepest exaltation (5°) falls in Punarvasu, outside Ashlesha. Jupiter counts the Moon a friend and Mercury an enemy, so the wisdom here is practical, worldly, and sometimes sceptical: the teacher who knows exactly how people deceive themselves, and says so. In Padas 1 and 4, Jupiter occupies its own navamsa and is strong at every level. In Pada 2, it falls into debilitation in the navamsa, so an exalted Jupiter there may promise more than it delivers until the native matures.

### Venus in Ashlesha

Venus counts the Moon an enemy and Mercury a friend. Affection tends to be given after a long testing, but once given it lasts; taste runs to the refined and the private, and the native often prefers one deep attachment to many easy ones. In Pada 4, Venus is exalted in the Pisces navamsa, associated with genuine devotion and artistic feeling beneath the reserve. In Padas 2 and 3, Venus is among Saturn’s friends in the navamsas and becomes practical about love and money.

### Saturn in Ashlesha

Saturn counts the Moon an enemy and Mercury a friend, so it sits uncomfortably in the Moon’s sign but comfortably in Mercury’s asterism. Self-reliance comes early and costs warmth; it carries responsibility well but delegates badly. In Padas 2 and 3, Saturn occupies its own navamsa, and its patience and authority are much greater than its sign suggests. When this Saturn is also the chara ātmakāraka, as defined in the Sun entry above, duty can become the theme of the whole life, as Indira Gandhi’s chart shows later in this article.

### Rahu in Ashlesha

Rahu behaves like Saturn (*śanivat rāhu*), and it counts the Moon, lord of Cancer, an enemy. In a serpent asterism, its appetite for hidden things grows: long research into systems, money, poisons, or medicine, and a restlessness that the Rahu daśā tends to bring to the surface. Rahu here always has Ketu opposite it, in the second half of Capricorn, in Shravana or Dhanishtha, so the axis runs between the Moon’s sign and Saturn’s. Named combinations such as Kāla Sarpa yoga apply only when their conditions are met in the whole chart, never because Rahu sits in a serpent’s asterism.

### Ketu in Ashlesha

Ketu behaves like Mars (*kujavat ketu*) and, in Mercury’s asterism, is associated with quickly detecting falsehood and suddenly withdrawing from worldly aims. Magha, Ketu’s own asterism, begins at 0°00′ Leo, immediately after Ashlesha ends at 30°00′ Cancer, so Ketu late in Pada 4 sits at the threshold of its own domain. Rahu then falls opposite, in Shravana or Dhanishtha. This Ketu often marks a native who walks away from an inheritance, a career, or a family expectation and doesn’t look back.

What does Ashlesha mean in your chart?

The asterism sets the temperament; your ascendant, the planets with the Moon, the houses involved, and the dasha you are running decide how it plays out. In a Detailed 3 Questions report, you choose the three questions that matter most, and we answer each from your full birth chart, with timing where it applies.

[See the 3 Questions report](https://astroshala.com/product/detailed-3-questions-online-astrology-consultation/)

One question only? [Ask A Question](https://astroshala.com/product/ask-a-question/).

## Ashlesha Nakshatra Career: Poison, Medicine, and the Ledger

Varāhamihira’s list for Ashlesha reads, fifteen centuries later, almost like a careers page: dealers in perfumes, roots, fruits, reptiles, and poison; traders in pod grains; cheats; and those skilled in every kind of medicine. Translate it into modern work, and the pattern is plain. Pharmacy, chemistry, toxicology, pathology, and medicine follow the poison and the cure. Perfumery, food processing, and agricultural trade follow the roots, fruits, and grains. Investigation, audit, forensic accounting, intelligence work, and law follow the eye that spots the cheat.

Mercury adds writing, editing, negotiation, data, and any work that rewards close reading of small print. The Moon’s sign adds care work, hospitality, real estate, and family businesses, which Ashlesha natives often end up running even when they did not plan to. The common thread is handling something that can harm and making it safe, useful, or profitable.

The pada sharpens the direction. The first quarter, under Jupiter, leans to law, teaching, and counsel; the two Saturn quarters lean to institutions, research, and long technical work; the last quarter, under Jupiter again and closest to Magha, leans to healing, religious service, and work done for the dead or the ancestral line, such as genealogy, archives, and estate matters.

The asterism gives the inclination, not the job. The tenth house and its lord, the planets in and aspecting it, the tenth divisional chart (*daśāṁśa*, D-10), and the daśā running decide the actual profession. An Ashlesha Moon with a strong Saturn in the tenth may run a pharmaceutical company; the same Moon with a weak tenth lord may spend years in a job it resents, quietly studying for another.

Which work suits your Ashlesha?

A Detailed Career Astrology Report reads the tenth house, its lord, the D-10, and your dashas to show which fields suit your chart, whether job or business fits better, when changes are timed, and whether work abroad is indicated.

[See the Career Report](https://astroshala.com/product/detailed-career-astrology-report/)

## Health: The Heart, the Nerves, and the Venom

In the cosmic body (*kālapuruṣa*) that Parāśara describes, the signs from Aries are the head, face, arms, heart, belly, and so on down to the feet, so Cancer is the heart and Leo the belly; in practice the limbs are counted from the ascendant, so the fourth house carries the heart in any chart. Many modern astrologers also tie the heart to Leo through its lord, the Sun, which they treat as the heart’s natural significator; the Sun’s condition and the sixth house then determine which reading matters for a native.

Bṛhat Parāśara Horā Śāstra 4.4 to 4½

शीर्षानने तथा बाहू हृत्क्रोडकटिबस्तयः ।
गुह्योरुयुगले जानुयुग्मे वै जङ्घके तथा ॥४॥
चरणौ द्वौ तथा मेषात्ज्ञेयाः शीर्षादयः क्रमात् ।

śīrṣānane tathā bāhū hṛtkroḍakaṭibastayaḥ |
guhyoruyugale jānuyugme vai jaṅghake tathā || 4 ||
caraṇau dvau tathā meṣāt jñeyāḥ śīrṣādayaḥ kramāt |

**Meaning:** Head and face, the two arms, heart, belly, hip, and the region below the navel; the private parts, the two thighs, the two knees, the shanks, and the two feet: these, from the head down, are to be known in order from Aries.

The Moon governs the body’s fluids and the mind; Mercury governs the nerves, skin, and speech. Astrologers therefore commonly link Ashlesha with nervous strain, disturbed sleep, digestive upset that follows worry, and complaints of the heart region. Schemes that assign each asterism its own limb differ between authors, so this article does not rely on any one of them.

The serpent adds one more association. Varāhamihira’s list ties Ashlesha to poison and to medicine, and practitioners often read an afflicted Ashlesha as sensitivity to drugs, foods, or chemicals. That is a tendency to watch, not a diagnosis. The Mercury and Moon pattern described earlier, the mind that keeps chewing after the stomach has stopped, is the part a native can most easily work with, through routine.

Astrology is not a medical diagnosis and does not replace medical care. Any symptom, however it seems to fit the chart, needs a physician.

Reading the body in your chart.

A Health and Medical Astrology Report reads the sixth, eighth, and twelfth houses, their lords, and the dashas for the areas and periods that call for more care. It describes tendencies only; it is not a diagnosis and never replaces your doctor’s advice.

[See the Health Report](https://astroshala.com/product/health-and-medical-astrology-report/)

## Ashlesha Nakshatra Remedies

The remedies tradition works on Ashlesha from three angles: the asterism’s deity, the star lord, and the daily habits that feed the Moon-Mercury pattern. Each measure below says where it comes from. None comes with a guarantee, and none should be bought out of fear.

### Mantra

The oldest remedy is the Yajurveda’s salutation to the serpents, quoted earlier in this article, recited with attention rather than speed; some families recite all three verses of the Sarpa Sūkta. For Mercury, the star lord, priests use the Vedic verse that navagraha worship assigns to Budha, and many families add the *Viṣṇu Sahasranāma* on Wednesdays. Parāśara names Viṣṇu as Mercury’s presiding deity, and the recitation is a traditional practice based on that link rather than an instructional verse; the [Vishnu avatars and the nine planets](https://astroshala.com/lord-vishnu-avatars-nine-planets-vedic-astrology/) article traces the pairing. For counted repetition, the [astrological japa mala](https://astroshala.com/astrological-japa-mala/) article sets out what the texts say about rosaries, and the [japa mala guide](https://astroshala.com/japa-mala/) covers their care.

### Planetary Observances

Wednesday is Mercury’s day. Common practice is to donate whole green moong, green cloth, or books and pens on Wednesdays, and feed cows green fodder. An emerald strengthens Mercury, which is why it shouldn’t be worn on the asterism alone: when Mercury rules difficult houses for the ascendant, strengthening it only deepens the trouble. The full chart decides, and [gemstones in Vedic astrology](https://astroshala.com/gemstones/) explain the method.

### Worship and Ritual

Worship at a serpent shrine on Nāga Pañcamī, the fifth day of the bright fortnight of Śrāvaṇa, is common practice across India. At the Kukke Subrahmanya temple in Karnataka, the Āśleṣā Bali rite for the serpent deities is held on the days the Moon passes through Ashlesha, and families with an Ashlesha birth or a serpent-related concern often attend it once. For a gandamoola birth, the single pacification rite described above is the common practice.

A word of caution belongs here. Serpent-related rites are among the most heavily marketed in Indian astrology, often sold with frightening language about a dosha. A rite done once, with understanding, is a remedy; a rite repeated because someone was frightened into paying for it is not, and no textual source in this article asks for that.

### Daily Discipline and the Home

For the worried Mercury and Moon, the Ayurvedic daily routine (*dinacaryā*) offers simple measures: warm meals at regular hours, warm sesame-oil massage (*abhyaṅga*), less screen time at night, and an early bedtime. A quiet room of one’s own answers the native’s need for an inner room in the simplest way.

In the home, Mercury’s direction is the north. Common [Vastu Shastra](https://astroshala.com/vastu-shastra/) practice keeps the north side light, clean, and uncluttered, and places books, accounts, and study there.

*In consultation:* ask what sits in the north of the house before prescribing anything costlier. The cheapest remedy is often a cleared corner.

## Ashlesha in Muhurta: A Sharp Star for Sharp Work

This section concerns the Moon’s daily passage through Ashlesha when choosing a time to begin something: electional astrology (*muhūrta*). It says nothing about people born with the Moon in Ashlesha. Readers constantly confuse the two, and much of the fear attached to Ashlesha births grew from that confusion.

Varāhamihira places Ashlesha among the four sharp asterisms, alongside Ardra, Jyeshtha, and Mula, and assigns it to punishment, confinement, and other decisive or severing acts. Practitioners today extend the class to work that must cut cleanly: planned surgery, ending a contract or a partnership, demolition, or confronting an adversary in court. The same sharpness makes the asterism a poor choice for what should grow gently, and Ashlesha does not appear among the asterisms commonly chosen for marriage, housewarming, or a child’s first lessons.

Muhurta lists also classify Ashlesha as downward-facing (*adhomukha*), along with Bharani, Krittika, Magha, Mula, Vishakha, and the three Purvas. Downward asterisms suit work that goes into the ground: digging wells and foundations, mining, laying drains, and sowing root crops. Ashlesha is not among the five asterisms of the inauspicious period (*pañcaka*), which closes the zodiac and ends with Revati.

Ashlesha’s end needs one more caution. The muhurta tradition avoids beginning important work while the Moon crosses the junction at 0° Leo, the asterism junction that Parāśara counts among his three kinds of gaṇḍānta, alongside those of the lunar day and the rising sign. A start timed for the last minutes of Ashlesha is usually moved forward or back.

One monthly observance turns on the Moon’s passage through Ashlesha itself. At the Kukke Subrahmanya temple, families hold the Āśleṣā Bali rite on the Ashlesha day of each lunar month and plan visits around it.

### Personal Timing for Ashlesha Natives: Tara Bala

The strength of a day for a particular person (*tārā bala*) is counted from that person’s birth asterism in a cycle of nine. For someone born in Ashlesha, the cycle falls as follows. The count shows one telling detail: the birth-star group (*janma*) for Ashlesha is Ashlesha, Jyeshtha, and Revati, the three Mercury asterisms.

![Tara bala wheel counted from Ashlesha Nakshatra](https://i0.wp.com/astroshala.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/ashlesha-nakshatra-tara-bala.webp?resize=1020%2C574&ssl=1)

*The nine taras counted from Ashlesha; the birth-star group holds the three Mercury asterisms.*

| Tara (count) | Asterisms for an Ashlesha native | Traditional use |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Janma (1) | Ashlesha, Jyeshtha, Revati | Mixed; avoid major beginnings |
| Sampat (2) | Magha, Mula, Ashwini | Favourable, wealth |
| Vipat (3) | Purva Phalguni, Purva Ashadha, Bharani | Avoid; obstacles |
| Kshema (4) | Uttara Phalguni, Uttara Ashadha, Krittika | Favourable, well-being |
| Pratyak (5) | Hasta, Shravana, Rohini | Avoid; opposition |
| Sadhana (6) | Chitra, Dhanishtha, Mrigashira | Favourable, achievement |
| Naidhana (7) | Swati, Shatabhisha, Ardra | Avoid for important work |
| Mitra (8) | Vishakha, Purva Bhadrapada, Punarvasu | Favourable, friendly |
| Parama Mitra (9) | Anuradha, Uttara Bhadrapada, Pushya | Most favourable |

Weekday and lunar-day combinations involving Ashlesha differ between the muhurta texts, and any important date still needs a full panchang check by someone who reads them.

Choosing the moment.

Tara bala is one factor; the lunar day, weekday, ascendant, and your own birth star also matter. For a wedding, business opening, property purchase, or move, an Auspicious Muhurta for an Important Event is chosen from the panchang, the rising sign, and your birth star.

[See Auspicious Muhurta](https://astroshala.com/product/auspicious-muhurata-for-an-important-eventoccasion/)

## Ashlesha Nakshatra Famous Personalities

Each chart below uses the Lahiri ayanāṁśa and the stated birth data. The readings describe chart factors beside documented lives; they do not claim that the asterism caused those lives, and they are not the whole of any chart.

### Mahatma Gandhi: The Moon as Atmakaraka

**Data:** 2 October 1869, 7:48:28 a.m. local mean time (8:40 a.m. in Indian Standard Time, as modern software converts it), Porbandar; Libra ascendant 12°54′, following K. N. Rao’s published chart.

[![Mahatma Gandhi birth chart: Libra ascendant, Moon in Ashlesha Pada 4 (Lahiri)](https://i0.wp.com/astroshala.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Mahatma-Gandhi-Astroshala.com_.png?resize=1020%2C487&ssl=1)](https://i0.wp.com/astroshala.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Mahatma-Gandhi-Astroshala.com_.png?ssl=1)

*Mahatma Gandhi’s chart (Lahiri): Libra ascendant 12°54′; Moon 28°18′ Cancer, Ashlesha Pada 4, his chara ātmakāraka.*

Gandhi’s Moon stands at 28°18′ Cancer, Ashlesha Pada 4, in the tenth house, the house of public action, a little under two degrees from the junction with Magha. It holds the highest degree within its sign among the seven planets, so it is his chara ātmakāraka: the soul’s own significator sits in the serpent’s asterism, in its most inward pada, whose navamsa is Jupiter’s Pisces. Mercury, the star lord, rises in the Libra ascendant with Venus in its own sign and with Mars.

The documented life shows the clasp turned to holding without striking. Gandhi’s great instruments were the vow, the fast, and the refusal: non-cooperation, the boycott, the march to make salt, the withdrawal of consent. They are the quiet exit this article describes, practised by a whole nation. The fourth pada’s turn inward appears in a lawyer who gave up a lawyer’s life, a pattern of renunciation that the Jupiter navamsa supports.

### Queen Elizabeth II: Guardian of an Institution

**Data:** 21 April 1926, 2:48:40 a.m. GMT, London; Rodden rating AA.

[![Queen Elizabeth II birth chart: Capricorn ascendant, Moon in Ashlesha Pada 1 (Lahiri)](https://i0.wp.com/astroshala.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Queen-Elizabeth-II-Astroshala.com_.png?resize=1020%2C487&ssl=1)](https://i0.wp.com/astroshala.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Queen-Elizabeth-II-Astroshala.com_.png?ssl=1)

*Queen Elizabeth II’s chart (Lahiri): Capricorn ascendant 0°50′ with Mars and Jupiter; Moon 19°22′ Cancer, Ashlesha Pada 1.*

The Queen’s ascendant is 0°50′ Capricorn. On it sit Mars at 28°02′ Capricorn, within a few minutes of its deepest exaltation, and Jupiter at 29°41′ Capricorn, debilitated and the chara ātmakāraka. Under the commonly applied rule that a planet exalted in the sign of another’s debility, and placed in an angle, cancels that debility, Mars here cancels Jupiter’s. Her Moon stands at 19°22′ Cancer, Ashlesha Pada 1, in the seventh house, in its own sign, with a Sagittarius navamsa ruled by Jupiter. In her chart, the Moon is the mātṛkāraka, the significator of the mother.

Here the serpent holds. A first-pada Moon, warmed by Jupiter’s navamsa, sits in the house of the public and faces the ascendant directly. Seventy years of reign were seventy years of guardianship over an institution, conducted with a reserve the public found hard to read and rarely saw broken. The cancelled debilitation of her ātmakāraka describes a sense of duty that grew stronger under constraint.

### Indira Gandhi: Saturn Rising in Ashlesha

**Data:** 19 November 1917, 11:11 p.m. Indian Standard Time, Allahabad (now Prayagraj).

[![Indira Gandhi birth chart: Cancer ascendant in Ashlesha Pada 4 with Saturn rising (Lahiri)](https://i0.wp.com/astroshala.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Indira-Gandhi-Astroshala.com_.png?resize=1020%2C485&ssl=1)](https://i0.wp.com/astroshala.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Indira-Gandhi-Astroshala.com_.png?ssl=1)

*Indira Gandhi’s chart (Lahiri): ascendant 27°22′ Cancer, Ashlesha Pada 4, with Saturn at 21°47′ Cancer, her chara ātmakāraka.*

In Indira Gandhi’s chart, Ashlesha rises. Her ascendant is 27°22′ Cancer, Pada 4, and Saturn sits on it at 21°47′ Cancer, Pada 2, in its own Capricorn navamsa. Saturn holds the highest degree in its sign, making it her chara ātmakāraka. Her Moon, lord of the ascendant, stands at 5°35′ Capricorn in the seventh house, Saturn’s sign, as the jñātikāraka, the significator of rivals and kin. Moon and Saturn occupy each other’s signs, an exchange (*parivartana*) that binds the self and the opponent tightly together.

A Saturn of that weight rising in the serpent’s asterism describes a will that gathered power slowly and held it hard. The documented record shows both sides of the clasp. She held a fractured party and country through the 1971 war and the drought years, and between 1975 and 1977 she governed under the Emergency, suspending elections and civil liberties. The ascendant shows the asterism through her body and her self; her Moon, in Capricorn, does not fall in Ashlesha at all.

### Holding or Squeezing: What Decided It

This article set out to answer a question, and it has an answer, though not the one a list of traits gives. In all three charts, Ashlesha supplied the same clasp. What decided whether it held or squeezed was the company it kept: Jupiter’s navamsa behind Gandhi’s Moon and Elizabeth II’s Moon; a debility cancelled by an exalted Mars; Saturn rising in its own navamsa for Indira Gandhi, a planet that holds well and lets go badly. Behind every chart stood the star lord’s condition, the dasha running, and the conduct the native chose. The serpent does not decide whether its embrace protects or strangles. The rest of the chart does, and so does the person in the end.

## Quick Insights: Ashlesha Nakshatra at a Glance

- The Moon counts Mercury a friend, but Mercury counts the Moon an enemy, and that one-sided friendship shapes Ashlesha’s guarded temperament.
- Ashlesha is the ninth asterism and closes the first of the three rounds of nine in the Vimśottarī order.
- No part of Ashlesha is vargottama; its four padas fall in the Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces navamsas.
- Ashlesha’s yoni is the male cat, hostile to the rat yoni of Magha and Purva Phalguni.
- Varāhamihira links Ashlesha to both poison and medicine, pointing to careers in pharmacy, chemistry, investigation, and audit.
- Ashlesha is a downward-facing asterism, suited in muhurta to digging, foundations, and work below ground.
- For an Ashlesha native, the birth-star group in tara bala is Ashlesha, Jyeshtha, and Revati, the three Mercury asterisms.

## Frequently Asked Questions

**What does Ashlesha mean?**

**Ashlesha means “the embrace” or “the clasp”, from the Sanskrit root ā-śliṣ, to cling or embrace.** The Vedic texts spell it Āśreṣā. Its symbol, the coiled serpent, carries the same idea: a grip that can protect or constrict.

**Is Ashlesha Nakshatra bad for marriage?**

**No, Ashlesha isn’t bad for marriage on its own.** The seventh house and its lord, Venus, Jupiter, the navamsa, and the dashas decide a marriage. Ashlesha adds a need for privacy, a slow build-up of trust that a partner must respect, and a yoni conflict with Magha in matching.

**What careers suit Ashlesha Nakshatra natives?**

**Work that handles something risky and makes it safe suits Ashlesha best.** Medicine, pharmacy, chemistry, research, audit, investigation, and law follow the asterism’s traditional significations, but the tenth house, the D-10, and the dasha decide the actual profession.

**Why is Ashlesha Nakshatra feared?**

**Ashlesha is feared for four reasons: it is gandamoola, it belongs to the sharp class, it carries the rākṣasa gana, and Varāhamihira describes its people harshly.** Each is a factor to weigh in the full chart, not a verdict on the native. For the gandamoola birth, common practice is a single pacification rite.

**How does Ashlesha affect health?**

**Astrologers commonly link Ashlesha with nervous strain, disturbed sleep, and digestive upset that follows worry.** These describe tendencies only. Astrology is not a diagnosis, and any symptom needs a physician.

**Which Ashlesha pada is best?**

**No pada is best in itself; Pada 1 is usually the gentlest when Jupiter is strong.** Pada 2 reverses Mars and Jupiter in the navamsa, Pada 3 favours research, and Pada 4, at the junction with Magha, is associated with the greatest inner change. The planets in the pada matter more than the number of the pada.

**Does an Ashlesha bride harm her mother-in-law?**

**No; this is a regional custom, not a teaching of the Hora texts.** A marriage should never be refused on the bride’s asterism alone. The full charts of both partners decide a marriage.

## Texts Referred To

- Varāhamihira, *Bṛhat Saṁhitā*, trans. N. Chidambaram Iyer (Madura, 1884), chapters 15 and 98; [online at Wisdom Library](https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/brihat-samhita/d/doc228916.html).
- Varāhamihira, *Bṛhat Jātaka*, chapter 1.
- *Taittirīya Saṁhitā* (Kṛṣṇa Yajurveda), 4.2.8, the Sarpa Sūkta; *Vājasaneyi Saṁhitā* (Śukla Yajurveda), 13.6.
- *Mahābhārata*, *Ādi Parva*: the story of Kadrū and Vinatā.
- *Viṣṇu Purāṇa*, Book 4: the birth of Budha.
- Parāśara, *Bṛhat Parāśara Horā Śāstra*, trans. R. Santhanam (Ranjan Publications), Vol. 1, chapters 3 and 4; ed. and trans. G. C. Sharma (Sagar Publications, New Delhi, 1994), chapter 4.

Further reading: K. N. Rao, “Jaimini Astrology: Horoscope Analysis, Mahatma Gandhi”, [Journal of Astrology](https://www.journalofastrology.com/article.php?article_id=316) (2010).

## Author

- ![Astrologer Ekant Sharma](https://i0.wp.com/astroshala.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Celebrity-Astrologer-Ekant-Sharma.png?resize=100%2C100&ssl=1)

  [Ekant Sharma](https://astroshala.com/author/ekant/)
   Founder, Chief Editor & Astrology Consultant

  I began studying Vedic astrology in 2001 and have spent more than two decades deepening my understanding of this ancient discipline. After years of dedicated learning, I began offering professional consultations over a decade ago and founded this platform to make authentic astrological knowledge more accessible. Through my articles and consultations, I help people gain clarity on career, relationships, finances, and life's major transitions using traditional astrological principles. **Explore my latest articles** or [**book a personal consultation**](https://astroshala.com/astrologers/celebrity-astrologer-ekant-sharma/) for personalised guidance based on your birth chart.

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