Krittika Pada 1 (Sagittarius Navamsa)

Krittika Pada 1 at a Glance

Pada

1st of 4 — navamsa 9 of the zodiac's 108

Sidereal span

Aries 26°40′ – 30°00′ — Aries is the first sign, so the absolute longitude is the same figure

Rashi (Moon sign)

Aries — Krittika straddles Aries and Taurus, and the pada decides which

Navamsa (D-9)

Sagittarius, ruled by Jupiter

Navamsa from the rashi

9th from Aries — a trikona, the other of the two fortunate angles

Sun in Sagittarius

in a friend’s sign — supported without being strong

Name syllable

A

Sun dasha balance

4 years 6 months to 6 years of the 6-year period

What Pada 1 Settles About a Krittika Birth

This is the pada that matters most on Krittika, because Krittika crosses a sign boundary and pada 1 lands in Aries. The rest of the nakshatra divides differently — padas 2, 3 and 4 are in Taurus — so two people who both read Krittika as their birth star can have different rashis, different rashi lords and different monthly readings. Pada 1 is the only one of the four in Aries.

The pada is fixed by the Moon’s exact longitude, so it needs the birth time and place rather than the date: a Krittika Moon anywhere in Aries 26°40′ – 30°00′ 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 Krittika, and with it the Sagittarius navamsa and how much of the Sun mahadasha was left.

Sagittarius Navamsa: What the D-9 Adds

The first pada of Krittika is the Sagittarius navamsa, lorded by Jupiter — the 9th sign from Aries, a trikona, the other of the two fortunate angles. Aries and Sagittarius are different signs, so the D-9 shifts the reading rather than confirming it. They share an element — both fire — while differing in mobility, Aries being movable and Sagittarius dual. Pada 1 is not the vargottama one and neither are the other three: Krittika has no vargottama pada at all, which it shares with 17 other nakshatras.

Two grahas carry this pada: the Sun, which lords Krittika, and Jupiter, which lords the Sagittarius navamsa. Between Aries 26°40′ – 30°00′ and the Sagittarius D-9 that arc points to, the Sun counts Jupiter a natural friend, so the two pull together. Reading Krittika pada 1 in a particular chart means reading both the Sun and Jupiter.

Where the Sun Stands in This Pada

The Sun lords Krittika, and in the Sagittarius navamsa the Sun is in a friend’s sign — supported without being strong. 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 Krittika splits two ways rather than running down a scale: the Sun in a friend’s sign at padas 1 and 4, and the Sun in an enemy’s sign at padas 2 and 3. On that test pada 1 shares the top grade of the four.

Krittika pada 1 is one of 30 padas that put the lord in a friendly sign — the commonest of the six grades. The Moon matters separately, since a pada is a Moon position: in Sagittarius the Moon is in a neutral’s sign, which is about the mind a Krittika pada 1 birth starts with rather than about what the Sun can deliver.

Vimshottari: The Sun Balance a Pada 1 Birth Starts With

A Moon in Krittika means life begins inside a Sun mahadasha, 6 years long. The pada fixes how much of it is left: pada 1 of Krittika runs from 4 years 6 months to 6 years remaining — the fullest of the four, because the Moon has only just entered Krittika — where knowing only that the Moon was somewhere in Krittika leaves the whole 6 years open. Inside Aries 26°40′ – 30°00′ it takes the exact longitude to place a birth within that range, and the pada is as far as a nakshatra reading gets.

The Sun rules three of the 27 nakshatras, so Krittika shares that 6-year opening with Uttara Phalguni and Uttara Ashadha — and pada 1 of Krittika shares the range above with pada 1 of those two, because the balance turns on the quarter rather than on which Sun nakshatra it is. Pada 2 of Krittika carries a different one. The dasha calculator takes the Sun balance a Krittika pada 1 birth starts with and lays out what follows it: the Moon for 10 years, then Mars.

The Syllable A

A child born with the Moon in Krittika pada 1 is traditionally named from A. The other three quarters of Krittika give Ee for pada 2, U for pada 3 and Ay 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 Krittika

Krittika is Aries 26°40′ – Taurus 10°00′, ruled by the Sun, Rakshasa gana, sheep yoni, Antya 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 — Aries 26°40′ – 30°00′, Sagittarius, A:

The rashi column is the one to read first on Krittika: it changes inside the nakshatra, which is true of only nine of the 27.

Frequently Asked Questions