Where Pushya sits in the zodiac
The whole nakshatra lies in Cancer. In degrees, Pushya stretches from 93.33 to 106.67, which reads 3°20′ Cancer to 16°40′ Cancer.
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. The stars lie in the middle of Cancer, near the faint star cluster called the Beehive. The cluster can be seen as a small cloud on a dark night. On the circle it follows Punarvasu and comes before Ashlesha. The signs it touches are Cancer.
The name Pushya
Pushya comes from a root meaning to nourish or to make grow, and is usually translated as 'the nourisher'. It is the eighth nakshatra and lies wholly inside Cancer.
Deity and symbol
Its deity is Brihaspati, the teacher of the gods and the planet Jupiter in the later tradition. He is the priest of the divine assembly in the Rigveda, the one who speaks the sacred words at the offering.
The symbol is a cow's udder, a picture of giving milk, or a lotus. Both images match the sense of nourishing in the name.
Ruling planet and the Vimshottari dasha
Saturn rules Pushya. That planet's dasha is 19 years long, one share of the 120 that the nine lords divide between them.
With the Moon in Pushya at birth, life starts inside Saturn's dasha and only the unused part is counted. At the first degree nearly all 19 years remain, at the midpoint 9.5, and at the last degree almost none. After Saturn the order runs Mercury, Ketu, Venus, Sun, Moon, Mars, Rahu and Jupiter. The other nakshatras ruled by Saturn are Anuradha and Uttara Bhadrapada. The dasha calculator shows the balance for your own chart.
The four padas of Pushya
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.
The first pada (3°20′ Cancer to 6°40′ Cancer) belongs to Leo in the navamsha chart. Its syllable is Hu.
Pada 2 starts at 6°40′ Cancer. It falls in the navamsha sign Virgo, and its naming syllable is He.
The third pada (10°00′ Cancer to 13°20′ Cancer) belongs to Libra in the navamsha chart. Its syllable is Ho.
Pada 4 starts at 13°20′ Cancer. It falls in the navamsha sign Scorpio, and its naming syllable is Da.
The first pada of Ashlesha then starts at Sagittarius. Syllables follow the commonly printed lists, and regional lists differ slightly.
Pushya in the sky and in the year
Texts on choosing times for activities sort the stars into categories, and Pushya is placed in the Kshipra (swift) group. The Sun passes through it once a year: in 2026 from 20 July 2026 to 3 August 2026, by Indian time. The Moon crosses a nakshatra in about a day, between roughly 21 and 27 hours depending on how fast it is moving.
Pushya beside its neighbours
Every pada of Pushya lies inside Cancer. The Moon stays in one sign for the whole of this nakshatra. Start the cycle with Ketu and Saturn takes over at year 84, handing on at year 103. Pushya is the first nakshatra of Saturn in zodiac order.
Punarvasu comes just before and is ruled by Jupiter. Ashlesha comes just after and is ruled by Mercury. Punarvasu is Chara (movable) while Pushya is Kshipra (swift); Ashlesha is Tikshna (sharp). The symbols differ too: a quiver of arrows for Punarvasu and a coiled serpent for Ashlesha, against a cow's udder or a lotus here.
How to find out if your Moon is in Pushya
To check, find where the Moon stood at your birth. Anywhere from 3°20′ Cancer to 16°40′ Cancer is Pushya. 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.