Hasta Pada 4 (Cancer Navamsa)

Hasta Pada 4 at a Glance

Pada

4th of 4 — navamsa 52 of the zodiac's 108

Sidereal span

Virgo 20°00′ – 23°20′ — 170°00′ – 173°20′ sidereal

Rashi (Moon sign)

Virgo, the whole of Hasta being inside it

Navamsa (D-9)

Cancer, ruled by Moon

Navamsa from the rashi

11th from Virgo — an upachaya house, and the plainest of the gaining ones

Moon in Cancer

in its own sign — the second strongest, and the steadiest

Name syllable

Tha

Moon dasha balance

none to 2 years 6 months of the 10-year period

What Pada 4 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 4 settles instead is the navamsa: Cancer, the 11th sign from Virgo, where the other three quarters of Hasta give Aries, Taurus and Gemini. 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 4 birth and a pada 3 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 20°00′ – 23°20′ is pada 4, 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 4 rather than just Hasta, and with it the Cancer navamsa and how much of the Moon mahadasha was left.

Cancer Navamsa: What the D-9 Adds

The fourth pada of Hasta is the Cancer navamsa, lorded by the Moon — the 11th sign from Virgo, an upachaya house, and the plainest of the gaining ones. Virgo and Cancer 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, Cancer is water and movable. Pada 4 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.

The Moon lords both Hasta and Cancer, so on pada 4 the nakshatra lord and the navamsa lord are the same graha and the arc gives one voice rather than two. Wherever the Moon sits in a chart, it answers for Virgo 20°00′ – 23°20′ and for the Cancer D-9 alike — there is no second dispositor to soften or contradict it.

Where the Moon Stands in This Pada

The Moon lords Hasta, and in the Cancer navamsa the Moon is in its own sign — the second strongest, and the steadiest. That is a statement about pada 4 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 4 has 1 of the four above it and 2 below.

Hasta pada 4 is one of 9 padas whose nakshatra lord holds its own navamsa. 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 Cancer is in its own sign, and that is the whole answer for a Hasta pada 4 birth.

Vimshottari: The Moon Balance a Pada 4 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 4 of Hasta runs from none to 2 years 6 months remaining — the shortest of the four, and a Moon on the last minute of Hasta begins with the Moon period already spent, so the next mahadasha starts at birth — where knowing only that the Moon was somewhere in Hasta leaves the whole 10 years open. Inside Virgo 20°00′ – 23°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 4 of Hasta shares the range above with pada 4 of those two, because the balance turns on the quarter rather than on which Moon nakshatra it is. Pada 3 of Hasta carries a different one. The dasha calculator takes the Moon balance a Hasta pada 4 birth starts with and lays out what follows it: Mars for 7 years, then Rahu.

The Syllable Tha

A child born with the Moon in Hasta pada 4 is traditionally named from Tha. The other three quarters of Hasta give Poo for pada 1, Sha for pada 2 and Na for pada 3, 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 4 shares every one of those with the other three. What belongs to pada 4 alone is the arc, the navamsa and the syllable — Virgo 20°00′ – 23°20′, Cancer, Tha:

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

Frequently Asked Questions