Hasta Pada 1 (Aries Navamsa)

Hasta Pada 1 at a Glance

Pada

1st of 4 — navamsa 49 of the zodiac's 108

Sidereal span

Virgo 10°00′ – 13°20′ — 160°00′ – 163°20′ sidereal

Rashi (Moon sign)

Virgo, the whole of Hasta being inside it

Navamsa (D-9)

Aries, ruled by Mars

Navamsa from the rashi

8th from Virgo — a dusthana, and the one classically hardest to read

Moon in Aries

in a neutral’s sign — neither helped nor hindered

Name syllable

Poo

Moon dasha balance

7 years 6 months to 10 years of the 10-year period

What Pada 1 Settles About a Hasta Birth

All four padas of Hasta fall inside Virgo, so the pada leaves the rashi alone — a Hasta native is a Virgo native whichever quarter the Moon occupied. What pada 1 settles instead is the navamsa: Aries, the 8th sign from Virgo, where the other three quarters of Hasta give Taurus, Gemini and Cancer. The D-9 is where the classical texts look for the strength behind a promise the rashi chart only states, which is why a Hasta pada 1 birth and a pada 2 birth are both Virgo natives with Mercury as rashi lord and still do not read the same.

The pada is fixed by the Moon’s exact longitude, so it needs the birth time and place rather than the date: a Hasta Moon anywhere in Virgo 10°00′ – 13°20′ is pada 1, and the Moon crosses 3°20′ in roughly five to seven hours depending on how fast it is moving. A free kundli will say pada 1 rather than just Hasta, and with it the Aries navamsa and how much of the Moon mahadasha was left.

Aries Navamsa: What the D-9 Adds

The first pada of Hasta is the Aries navamsa, lorded by Mars — the 8th sign from Virgo, a dusthana, and the one classically hardest to read. Virgo and Aries are different signs, so the D-9 shifts the reading rather than confirming it. They have neither element nor mobility in common: Virgo is earth and dual, Aries is fire and movable. Pada 1 is not the vargottama one and neither are the other three: Hasta has no vargottama pada at all, which it shares with 17 other nakshatras.

Two grahas carry this pada: the Moon, which lords Hasta, and Mars, which lords the Aries navamsa. Between Virgo 10°00′ – 13°20′ and the Aries D-9 that arc points to, the Moon counts Mars neutral, so neither helps nor obstructs the other across pada 1. Reading Hasta pada 1 in a particular chart means reading both the Moon and Mars.

Where the Moon Stands in This Pada

The Moon lords Hasta, and in the Aries navamsa the Moon is in a neutral’s sign — neither helped nor hindered. That is a statement about pada 1 specifically: the lord of a nakshatra sits in a different navamsa sign in each of its four quarters, and across Hasta the grade runs from the Moon exalted in Taurus at pada 2 down to the Moon in a neutral’s sign in Aries at pada 1 — pada 1 is the weakest of the four on this test.

Hasta pada 1 is one of 27 padas that leave the lord neither helped nor hindered. Because the Moon is both the lord of Hasta and the graha whose position defines a pada at all, the two dignity questions collapse into one here: the Moon in Aries is in a neutral’s sign, and that is the whole answer for a Hasta pada 1 birth.

Vimshottari: The Moon Balance a Pada 1 Birth Starts With

A Moon in Hasta means life begins inside a Moon mahadasha, 10 years long. The pada fixes how much of it is left: pada 1 of Hasta runs from 7 years 6 months to 10 years remaining — the fullest of the four, because the Moon has only just entered Hasta — where knowing only that the Moon was somewhere in Hasta leaves the whole 10 years open. Inside Virgo 10°00′ – 13°20′ it takes the exact longitude to place a birth within that range, and the pada is as far as a nakshatra reading gets.

The Moon rules three of the 27 nakshatras, so Hasta shares that 10-year opening with Rohini and Shravana — and pada 1 of Hasta shares the range above with pada 1 of those two, because the balance turns on the quarter rather than on which Moon nakshatra it is. Pada 2 of Hasta carries a different one. The dasha calculator takes the Moon balance a Hasta pada 1 birth starts with and lays out what follows it: Mars for 7 years, then Rahu.

The Syllable Poo

A child born with the Moon in Hasta pada 1 is traditionally named from Poo. The other three quarters of Hasta give Sha for pada 2, Na for pada 3 and Tha for pada 4, which is why a naming list keyed to the nakshatra alone gets it wrong three times out of four — the syllable follows the pada, and the pada follows the longitude.

The Other Three Padas of Hasta

Hasta is Virgo 10°00′ – 23°20′, ruled by the Moon, Deva gana, buffalo yoni, Adi nadi, and pada 1 shares every one of those with the other three. What belongs to pada 1 alone is the arc, the navamsa and the syllable — Virgo 10°00′ – 13°20′, Aries, Poo:

The rashi column is constant on Hasta; the navamsa column is what the pada buys you.

Frequently Asked Questions