Chitra (चित्रा)

Chitra at a Glance

Number

14 of 27

Sidereal span

Virgo 23°20′ – Libra 6°40′

Rashi

Virgo, Libra

Ruling planet (lord)

Mars — 7-year Vimshottari dasha

Presiding deity

Vishvakarma

Symbol

Bright jewel

Gana

Rakshasa

Yoni

Tiger (female)

Nadi

Madhya (Pitta)

Muhurta class

Mridu (tender)

Keywords

Beautiful, designing, magnetic

Degrees are sidereal, using the Lahiri ayanamsa as the Indian ephemeris does. A Western chart uses tropical longitudes and will place the same Moon roughly 24° earlier in the zodiac.

Character of Chitra Natives

The bright jewel, presided over by Vishvakarma, the celestial architect, ruled by Mars. Chitra makes beautiful things and looks good doing it. These natives have a designer's eye that applies to everything — clothes, rooms, presentations, arguments — and an ability to make a thing appealing that is entirely separate from making it work. Charisma is the standing feature.

The Four Padas and Their Naming Letters

Each nakshatra divides into four padas of 3°20′, and each pada falls in a different navamsa sign — which is why two people born in Chitra on the same day can read quite differently. The pada also fixes the traditional first syllable for a child’s name.

27 nakshatras × 4 padas = 108 = 12 signs × 9 navamsas, so the padas run through the navamsa signs in one unbroken cycle. Syllables vary a little between regional traditions; a family pandit’s list takes precedence over any table. Each pada above links to its own page: the exact 3°20′ arc, the rashi it falls in, where Mars stands in that navamsa, and how much Mars mahadasha a birth there starts with.

Career and Work

Architecture and design, fashion, photography and film, jewellery, advertising, surgery, and engineering with an aesthetic component.

The nakshatra sets the flavour; the 10th house and its lord decide the actual profession. Where Mars sits and how strong it is matters more than the list above — see Mars in Vedic astrology.

What to Watch For

Chitra sits across the Virgo–Libra boundary and the two halves behave differently. The specific risk is style outrunning substance — the appearance is managed so well that the native starts believing the presentation, and criticism of the work is heard as criticism of the person.

Chitra in Kundli Milan

Nakshatra matching scores 36 guna across eight kootas. Three of them are read straight off the birth nakshatra, and these are Chitra’s values:

18 of 36 is the conventional pass mark. Guna Milan is a filter, not a verdict — Mangal dosha, the 7th house and both Venus positions still have to be read, and a high score does not override a badly afflicted 7th.

Muhurta: What Chitra Is Used For

Chitra is classed as Mridu (tender) — one of 4 nakshatras in that class, alongside Mrigashira, Anuradha and Revati. Tender nakshatras suit the gentle and the beautiful: music, dance and the arts, wearing new clothes and ornaments, romance and marriage, making friends, and the naming of a child. They are excellent for marriage and useless for anything requiring confrontation, since a Mridu start tends to produce a soft outcome.

A real muhurta needs the tithi, vara, yoga and karana too, not the nakshatra alone — the day’s panchang carries all five, and choghadiya narrows it to the hour.

Remedies and Practice

• Worship Vishvakarma, the presiding deity of Chitra, particularly on the day the Moon transits this nakshatra — which happens roughly once every 27 days and is listed in the daily panchang.
• Strengthen Mars, the nakshatra lord, through its beej mantra and weekday observance. This matters most while the Mars mahadasha or antardasha is running.
• Feed or donate on the Mars weekday. Charity attributed to the lord is the remedy the classics prefer over gemstones, because it carries no risk of strengthening the wrong graha.
• Recite the nakshatra’s 108 names or the Nakshatra Suktam during the Moon’s transit through Chitra if you want a practice tied to the nakshatra rather than the planet.

If a stone is being considered: the lord here is Mars, whose stone is Red Coral (Moonga). Selection by janma nakshatra is the more precise of the two routes, so this differs from the rashi recommendation for Virgo (Emerald (Panna)) and Libra (Diamond or White Sapphire) — this nakshatra straddles the boundary, so which one applies depends on the pada.

More precise is still not automatic. Remedies are prescribed for a specific affliction, not for a nakshatra as such: nothing above needs doing unless Mars is genuinely weak or badly placed in your chart, and no stone should be worn on nakshatra grounds alone. See dosha remedies.

Frequently Asked Questions