Where Jyeshtha sits in the zodiac
Jyeshtha covers sidereal longitude 226.67 to 240.00 degrees, from 16°40′ Scorpio to 30°00′ Scorpio. The whole nakshatra lies in Scorpio.
Positions are sidereal, using the Lahiri ayanamsa, about 24 degrees 13 minutes at the start of 2026. That offset is why a planet's sign in a Vedic chart is usually the sign before its Western one. Each nakshatra is exactly 13 degrees 20 minutes, since 360 divided by 27 is 13 and one third. The 27 divisions are slices of the ecliptic, not the outlines of constellations. Jyeshtha is marked by Antares, the bright red star at the heart of Scorpio. Its Greek name means 'rival of Mars', because its colour is close to that of Mars. On the circle it follows Anuradha and comes before Mula. The signs it touches are Scorpio.
The name Jyeshtha
Jyeshtha means 'eldest' or 'the oldest', the same word used for the eldest sibling and for a month of the Hindu year. It is the eighteenth nakshatra, the last of Scorpio.
Deity and symbol
Its deity is Indra, the king of the gods in the Rigveda, who is the one the largest number of hymns address. He carries the thunderbolt and is the god of rain and of the sky.
The symbol is a circular amulet or a round earring, an ornament worn by an elder. Some lists show an umbrella instead.
Ruling planet and the Vimshottari dasha
Every nakshatra has a Vimshottari ruling planet, and the nine planets take their turns three times in all around the circle of 27. Jyeshtha belongs to Mercury, whose full dasha lasts 17 years.
With the Moon in Jyeshtha at birth, life starts inside Mercury's dasha and only the unused part is counted. At the first degree nearly all 17 years remain, at the midpoint 8.5, and at the last degree almost none. After Mercury the order runs Ketu, Venus, Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter and Saturn. The other nakshatras ruled by Mercury are Ashlesha and Revati. The dasha calculator shows the balance for your own chart.
The four padas of Jyeshtha
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.
Pada 1 starts at 16°40′ Scorpio. It falls in the navamsha sign Sagittarius, and its naming syllable is No.
Pada 2 starts at 20°00′ Scorpio. It falls in the navamsha sign Capricorn, and its naming syllable is Ya.
Pada 3 starts at 23°20′ Scorpio. It falls in the navamsha sign Aquarius, and its naming syllable is Yi.
Pada 4: 26°40′ Scorpio to 30°00′ Scorpio, navamsha Pisces, syllable Yu.
The first pada of Mula then starts at Aries. Syllables follow the commonly printed lists, and regional lists differ slightly.
Jyeshtha in the sky and in the year
Tikshna (sharp) is the category the muhurta texts give Jyeshtha. In 2026 the Sun moves into it on 3 December 2026 and out on 16 December 2026, Indian time. The Moon crosses a nakshatra in about a day, between roughly 21 and 27 hours depending on how fast it is moving.
Jyeshtha beside its neighbours
No sign boundary cuts through Jyeshtha. Scorpio holds padas 1 to 4. Start the cycle with Ketu and Mercury takes over at year 103, handing on at year 120. Jyeshtha is the second nakshatra of Mercury in zodiac order.
Next door the rulers change, from Saturn at Anuradha to Ketu at Mula. Anuradha is Mridu (soft) while Jyeshtha is Tikshna (sharp). Mula is Tikshna (sharp). The symbols differ too: a lotus for Anuradha and a bunch of roots tied together for Mula, against a circular amulet here.
How to find out if your Moon is in Jyeshtha
Your birth nakshatra is the one the Moon was in when you were born. It is Jyeshtha if the Moon's sidereal longitude was between 226.67 and 240.00 degrees. 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.