Where Hasta sits in the zodiac
On the sidereal circle Hasta begins at 160.00 degrees and ends at 173.33. In signs, that is 10°00′ Virgo to 23°20′ Virgo. The whole nakshatra lies in Virgo.
All of this is sidereal. The Lahiri ayanamsa moves the zodiac back from the Western one by about 24 degrees 13 minutes in 2026, and the circle is cut into 27 equal parts of 13 degrees 20 minutes. The 27 divisions are slices of the ecliptic, not the outlines of constellations. The stars are a small group of five in the constellation Corvus, the crow, which is drawn like a hand with five fingers. On the circle it follows Uttara Phalguni and comes before Chitra. The signs it touches are Virgo.
The name Hasta
Hasta simply means 'hand' in Sanskrit, and the word is still used for hand in Hindi. It is the thirteenth nakshatra and lies wholly inside Virgo.
Deity and symbol
Its deity is Savitar, the Vedic Sun god of the moment of sunrise and sunset. The well-known Gayatri verse is addressed to him, and the name means 'the one who stirs into motion'.
The symbol is an open hand with the fingers spread, the five fingers matching the five stars of the group.
Ruling planet and the Vimshottari dasha
The ruling planet of Hasta is Moon, which carries 10 years of the 120-year Vimshottari cycle.
With the Moon in Hasta at birth, life starts inside Moon's dasha and only the unused part is counted. At the first degree nearly all 10 years remain, at the midpoint 5, and at the last degree almost none. After Moon the order runs Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Ketu, Venus and Sun. The other nakshatras ruled by Moon are Rohini and Shravana. The dasha calculator shows the balance for your own chart.
The four padas of Hasta
Each nakshatra splits into four padas of 3 degrees 20 minutes. A pada matches one sign of the navamsha (D9) chart, and the four take four signs in a row.
In pada 1, from 10°00′ Virgo to 13°20′ Virgo, the navamsha sign is Aries. Names for this pada begin with Pu.
The second pada (13°20′ Virgo to 16°40′ Virgo) belongs to Taurus in the navamsha chart. Its syllable is Sha.
Pada 3: 16°40′ Virgo to 20°00′ Virgo, navamsha Gemini, syllable Na.
Pada 4: 20°00′ Virgo to 23°20′ Virgo, navamsha Cancer, syllable Tha.
The first pada of Chitra then starts at Leo. Syllables follow the commonly printed lists, and regional lists differ slightly.
Hasta in the sky and in the year
The Sun is in Hasta from 27 September 2026 until 11 October 2026 in 2026, by Indian time. Muhurta texts file this star under Kshipra (swift). The Moon crosses a nakshatra in about a day, between roughly 21 and 27 hours depending on how fast it is moving.
Hasta beside its neighbours
In plain words, Hasta fits inside one sign: Virgo holds all four of its padas. Start the cycle with Ketu and Moon takes over at year 33, handing on at year 43. Hasta is the second nakshatra of Moon in zodiac order.
Beside it, Uttara Phalguni belongs to Sun and Chitra to Mars, so each step round the circle moves to the next lord. Uttara Phalguni is Dhruva (fixed) while Hasta is Kshipra (swift), and Chitra is Mridu (soft). Its neighbours carry other deities: Aryaman, a god of agreements at Uttara Phalguni, Tvashtar, the divine craftsman at Chitra.
How to find out if your Moon is in Hasta
Look at the Moon's sidereal longitude at birth. A reading from 160.00 up to 173.33 degrees means the Moon was in Hasta. The Moon moves about half a degree an hour, so a birth within an hour or two of a boundary can land on either side if the time is slightly off. The nakshatra finder works it out from your date, time and place of birth.
Calculated with the Lahiri ayanamsa and whole sign houses; every setting is on the method page. Last checked 2026-10-04.