Where Shatabhisha sits in the zodiac
On the sidereal circle Shatabhisha begins at 306.67 degrees and ends at 320.00. In signs, that is 6°40′ Aquarius to 20°00′ Aquarius. The whole nakshatra lies in Aquarius.
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 traditional stars are a faint, scattered group in Aquarius. There is no single bright marker, which fits a name that speaks of a hundred small points. On the circle it follows Dhanishta and comes before Purva Bhadrapada. The signs it touches are Aquarius.
The name Shatabhisha
Shatabhisha means 'a hundred healers' or 'a hundred physicians', from shata, hundred, and bhishaj, healer. It is the twenty-fourth nakshatra and lies wholly inside Aquarius.
Deity and symbol
Its deity is Varuna, the Vedic god of the cosmic waters and of the moral order. He is the keeper of rta, the law of the world, and is often addressed with Mitra.
The symbol is an empty circle, sometimes shown as a flower of a hundred petals, which matches the number in the name.
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. Shatabhisha belongs to Rahu, whose full dasha lasts 18 years.
The balance of Rahu's dasha at birth depends on where in Shatabhisha the Moon was. Early in the nakshatra most of the 18 years are left. Halfway, 9 are left. Near the end the next dasha begins almost at once. After Rahu the order runs Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Ketu, Venus, Sun, Moon and Mars. The other nakshatras ruled by Rahu are Ardra and Swati. The dasha calculator shows the balance for your own chart.
The four padas of Shatabhisha
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 6°40′ Aquarius. It falls in the navamsha sign Sagittarius, and its naming syllable is Go.
The second pada (10°00′ Aquarius to 13°20′ Aquarius) belongs to Capricorn in the navamsha chart. Its syllable is Sa.
Pada 3 starts at 13°20′ Aquarius. It falls in the navamsha sign Aquarius, and its naming syllable is Si.
The fourth pada (16°40′ Aquarius to 20°00′ Aquarius) belongs to Pisces in the navamsha chart. Its syllable is Su.
The first pada of Purva Bhadrapada then starts at Aries. Syllables follow the commonly printed lists, and regional lists differ slightly.
Shatabhisha in the sky and in the year
The Sun is in Shatabhisha from 19 February 2026 until 5 March 2026 in 2026, by Indian time. Muhurta texts file this star under Chara (movable). The Moon crosses a nakshatra in about a day, between roughly 21 and 27 hours depending on how fast it is moving.
Shatabhisha beside its neighbours
All four padas of Shatabhisha sit in Aquarius, so the sign never changes while the Moon crosses it. In the full Vimshottari round, Rahu is sixth of nine, occupying years 50 to 68. The three Rahu nakshatras sit 120 degrees apart, and Shatabhisha is the third of them.
Next door the rulers change, from Mars at Dhanishta to Jupiter at Purva Bhadrapada. Dhanishta and Shatabhisha share the Chara group. Purva Bhadrapada is Ugra (intense). Its neighbours carry other deities: the eight Vasus, gods of the elements at Dhanishta, Aja Ekapada, the one-footed goat at Purva Bhadrapada.
How to find out if your Moon is in Shatabhisha
Your birth nakshatra is the one the Moon was in when you were born. It is Shatabhisha if the Moon's sidereal longitude was between 306.67 and 320.00 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.