Where Krittika sits in the zodiac
Krittika covers sidereal longitude 26.67 to 40.00 degrees, from 26°40′ Aries to 10°00′ Taurus. It is shared between Aries and Taurus: the first 3°20′ lie in Aries and the remaining 10°00′ in Taurus.
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. Krittika is the Pleiades, the compact cluster of bright stars in Taurus that can be seen without a telescope. It is one of the few nakshatras that nearly everyone can point to in the night sky. On the circle it follows Bharani and comes before Rohini. The signs it touches are Aries and Taurus.
The name Krittika
Krittika is usually derived from the root krit, to cut, and the name is taken to mean 'the cutters'. In tradition it is also a plural name for the six women who raised the war god Kartikeya, whose name comes from theirs.
Deity and symbol
Its deity is Agni, the fire god, who carries offerings from the sacrificial fire to the other gods. Agni is the first god addressed in the Rigveda, so a nakshatra ruled by him sits close to the oldest layer of the texts.
The symbol is a razor or a flame, which gives two readings of the same root: the blade that cuts and the fire that burns away.
Ruling planet and the Vimshottari dasha
In the Vimshottari scheme Krittika is ruled by Sun. The nine lords go round in a fixed order, and Sun is given 6 years out of 120.
With the Moon in Krittika at birth, life starts inside Sun's dasha and only the unused part is counted. At the first degree nearly all 6 years remain, at the midpoint 3, and at the last degree almost none. After Sun the order runs Moon, Mars, Rahu, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Ketu and Venus. The other nakshatras ruled by Sun are Uttara Phalguni and Uttara Ashadha. The dasha calculator shows the balance for your own chart.
The four padas of Krittika
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: 26°40′ Aries to 30°00′ Aries, navamsha Sagittarius, syllable A.
The second pada (0°00′ Taurus to 3°20′ Taurus) belongs to Capricorn in the navamsha chart. Its syllable is I.
In pada 3, from 3°20′ Taurus to 6°40′ Taurus, the navamsha sign is Aquarius. Names for this pada begin with U.
Pada 4 starts at 6°40′ Taurus. It falls in the navamsha sign Pisces, and its naming syllable is E.
The first pada of Rohini then starts at Aries. Syllables follow the commonly printed lists, and regional lists differ slightly.
Krittika in the sky and in the year
The Sun is in Krittika from 11 May 2026 until 25 May 2026 in 2026, by Indian time. Muhurta texts file this star under Mishra (mixed). The Moon crosses a nakshatra in about a day, between roughly 21 and 27 hours depending on how fast it is moving.
Krittika beside its neighbours
In plain words, Krittika is split between signs. By pada, that reads pada 1 and padas 2 to 4 in Aries and Taurus. Start the cycle with Ketu and Sun takes over at year 27, handing on at year 33. Krittika is the first nakshatra of Sun in zodiac order.
The neighbours differ in ruler: Venus for Bharani, Moon for Rohini, and Sun for Krittika. As for category, Bharani is Ugra (intense) while Krittika is Mishra (mixed), and Rohini is Dhruva (fixed). Its neighbours carry other deities: Yama, the keeper of dharma at Bharani, Brahma, the creator at Rohini.
How to find out if your Moon is in Krittika
Take the Moon's sidereal position at birth: if it lies between 26°40′ Aries and 10°00′ Taurus, your nakshatra is Krittika. 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.