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Navatāra

Navatāra groups 27 nakṣatras into three rounds of nine, counted from a reference star. Mạghā lists each planet's tārā, distance, lord and tone. Use the birth Moon or another chosen reference to compare the same placements.

Nine tārās · three rounds from Dhaniṣṭhā

The 27 stars in three rounds from Dhaniṣṭhā
Tārā	Lord	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3
1. Janma	Mars	1. DhaniṣṭhāMoon (reference)	10. Mṛgaśirā	19. ChitrāAscendant Sun
2. Sampat	Rāhu	2. ŚatabhiṣāSaturn	11. Ārdrā	20. SvātiMercury
3. Vipat	Jupiter	3. Pūrva Bhādrapadā	12. Punarvasu	21. ViśākhāJupiter Venus, Rahu
4. Kṣema	Saturn	4. Uttara Bhādrapadā	13. PuṣyaMars	22. Anurādhā
5. Pratyak	Mercury	5. Revatī	14. Āśleṣā	23. Jyeṣṭhā
6. Sādhana	Ketu	6. Aśvinī	15. Maghā	24. Mūla
7. Naidhana	Venus	7. BharaṇīKetu	16. Pūrva Phalgunī	25. Pūrvāṣāḍhā
8. Mitra	Sun	8. Kṛttikā	17. Uttara Phalgunī	26. Uttarāṣāḍhā
9. Parama Mitra	Moon	9. Rohiṇī	18. Hasta	27. Śravaṇa

Each tārā groups stars nine positions apart. Janma is mixed; Vipat, Pratyak and Naidhana call for caution; the others are supportive. Nila Raman’s natal Moon is the reference.

Counting from Dhaniṣṭhā puts Nila's planets in five of the nine tārās

Count from the starting star to the planet's star, including both, and divide by nine: the remainder names the tārā, and a count that divides exactly means the ninth, Parama Mitra. B. V. Raman's example in Muhurtha counts 22 stars from Aśvinī to Śravaṇa, which leaves 4, Kṣema.

Nila's Moon is in Dhaniṣṭhā, so her Janma stars are Dhaniṣṭhā, Mṛgaśirā and Chitrā, at 1, 10 and 19. Her Sun and ascendant both sit in Chitrā and share that tārā. Saturn in Śatabhiṣā, the 2nd star, and Mercury in Svāti, the 20th, fall in Sampat, and Mars in Puṣya, the 13th, in Kṣema. Jupiter, Venus and Rāhu in Viśākhā, the 21st, fall in Vipat, and Ketu in Bharaṇī, the 7th, in Naidhana. No planet occupies Pratyak, Sādhana, Mitra or Parama Mitra.

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Sampat means gain and Vipat danger after each Janma star

Janma, the birth star, cuts both ways. Raman reads it as danger to the body and calls a day on one's own birth star ordinarily unfavourable, yet favourable without exception for events such as a child's first feeding, the sacred-thread ceremony, farming and buying land, and inauspicious for travel, medical treatment and marriage. Mạghā tags Janma Mixed.

Sampat, the second star, means wealth, and Raman reads it as wealth and prosperity; Mạghā tags it Supportive. Vipat, the third, means misfortune: dangers, losses and accidents in Raman's reading. Mạghā tags it Caution. Muhūrta Cintāmaṇi suggests a gift of jaggery when a Vipat day cannot be avoided, and of vegetables on a Janma day.

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Pratyak sits between two supportive stars in the middle triad

Kṣema, the fourth star, means well-being, and Raman reads it as prosperity. Pratyak, the fifth, also called Pratyari, the adversary, brings obstacles in Raman's reading, and Muhūrta Cintāmaṇi suggests a gift of salt when its day must be used. Sādhana, the sixth, called Sādhaka in Muhūrta Cintāmaṇi, means accomplishment; Raman reads it as the realisation of ambitions.

Mạghā tags Kṣema and Sādhana Supportive and Pratyak Caution. In Nila's chart this triad holds a single planet: Mars in Puṣya, her 13th star, which falls in Kṣema in the second round. Counted from her Moon, Revatī, Āśleṣā and Jyeṣṭhā are her Pratyak stars, and Aśvinī, Maghā and Mūla her Sādhana stars.

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Naidhana counts as the hardest tārā, and two friendly stars close the round

Naidhana, the seventh star, takes its name from death; Muhūrta Cintāmaṇi calls it Vadha, slaying, and Raman reads it simply as dangers. Many astrologers treat it as the hardest of the nine, and Muhūrta Cintāmaṇi's remedy for it is a gift of gold with sesame. Mạghā tags it Caution. Nila's Ketu sits in Bharaṇī, her 7th star.

Mitra, the eighth, is the friend, which Raman calls good, and Parama Mitra, the ninth, is the great friend, which he calls very favourable; Muhūrta Cintāmaṇi names it Atimaitra. Mạghā tags both Supportive. For Nila the Mitra stars are Kṛttikā, Uttara Phalgunī and Uttarāṣāḍhā, and the Parama Mitra stars Rohiṇī, Hasta and Śravaṇa, none of them occupied.

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Muhūrta texts read the day's star against the birth star

Raman makes tārā bala, the strength of the day's star, one of three checks common to almost every election, with Chandra bala and Pañchaka. Count from the birth star to the star of the day: days on the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th stars are best avoided, although when a day is otherwise good and the work cannot wait, he would avoid only the opening ghaṭīs of those stars.

Muhūrta Cintāmaṇi grades the harm by round. In the first nine stars, Vipat, Pratyari and Vadha harm throughout; in the second round only a third of each star is avoided, and in the third they do no harm. Many astrologers also apply the count to the planets of a birth chart, which is what Mạghā's tab does.

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Mạghā counts the tārās from any of ten points in any divisional chart

Navatara lists ten reference points with sign, degree, nakṣatra/pada, distance, tārā, lord and tone. Choose Moon, Lagna or another graha as reference, and any division through D300. Tara Lord uses the Vimśottarī ruler shared by that tārā's three stars.

Mạghā repeats the same tone across all three rounds. Thus Nila's Viśākhā planets read Caution as Vipat, although Muhūrta Cintāmaṇi's daily-star rule lifts that harm in the third round.

Questions about the nine tārās

Which tārā is good and which is bad?

Raman counts Sampat, Kṣema, Sādhana, Mitra and Parama Mitra as favourable and advises avoiding days on the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th stars (Janma, Vipat, Pratyak and Naidhana), with exceptions for Janma. Muhūrta Cintāmaṇi singles out Vipat, Pratyari and Vadha as harmful, and in full only in the first round. Mạghā tags the five favourable tārās Supportive, Janma Mixed and the other three Caution.

What does Naidhana tārā mean?

Naidhana, from nidhana, death, is the seventh star from the birth star, and the 16th and 25th repeat it. Raman reads it as dangers; Muhūrta Cintāmaṇi calls it Vadha and suggests a gift of gold with sesame when such a day cannot be avoided. Mạghā tags it Caution. In Nila's chart the Naidhana stars are Bharaṇī, where her Ketu sits, Pūrva Phalgunī and Pūrvāṣāḍhā.

Should Navatāra be counted from the Moon or the ascendant?

Muhūrta texts count from the birth star, the Moon's nakṣatra, and Mạghā starts there too. Some astrologers also count from the ascendant's nakṣatra or from another planet, so Reference offers all ten points. In Nila's chart the choice changes the distances but not the tārās: her Moon in Dhaniṣṭhā and ascendant in Chitrā are nine stars apart, so both give every planet the same tārā.

Is tārā bala the same as the Navatāra chakra?

They use the same count for different jobs. Tārā bala rates the star of a day against your birth star, to choose a time to begin something. The Navatāra chakra gives each planet of a chart the tārā of its nakṣatra. Mạghā's Navatara tab does the second, for your birth chart or any divisional chart.

Which tārā is good for marriage?

Raman treats tārā bala as a requirement for almost every election, a wedding included: the day's star should be Sampat, Kṣema, Sādhana, Mitra or Parama Mitra from the birth star. He also lists marriage among the undertakings for which a day on one's own birth star is inauspicious, but adds that a woman's birth star is quite favourable for her marriage. Muhūrta texts add many further checks for marriage, so the tārā is one factor among several.