Krittika Pada 3 (Aquarius Navamsa)

Krittika Pada 3 at a Glance

Pada

3rd of 4 — navamsa 11 of the zodiac's 108

Sidereal span

Taurus 3°20′ – 6°40′ — 33°20′ – 36°40′ sidereal

Rashi (Moon sign)

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

Navamsa (D-9)

Aquarius, ruled by Saturn

Navamsa from the rashi

10th from Taurus — a kendra, the house of visible action

Sun in Aquarius

in an enemy’s sign — working against the grain

Name syllable

U

Sun dasha balance

1 year 6 months to 3 years of the 6-year period

What Pada 3 Settles About a Krittika Birth

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

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 Taurus 3°20′ – 6°40′ is pada 3, 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 3 rather than just Krittika, and with it the Aquarius navamsa and how much of the Sun mahadasha was left.

Aquarius Navamsa: What the D-9 Adds

The third pada of Krittika is the Aquarius navamsa, lorded by Saturn — the 10th sign from Taurus, a kendra, the house of visible action. Taurus and Aquarius are different signs, so the D-9 shifts the reading rather than confirming it. They share a mobility — both fixed — while differing in element, Taurus being earth and Aquarius air. Pada 3 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 Saturn, which lords the Aquarius navamsa. Between Taurus 3°20′ – 6°40′ and the Aquarius D-9 that arc points to, the Sun counts Saturn a natural enemy, so pada 3 asks for two things at once. Reading Krittika pada 3 in a particular chart means reading both the Sun and Saturn.

Where the Sun Stands in This Pada

The Sun lords Krittika, and in the Aquarius navamsa the Sun is in an enemy’s sign — working against the grain. That is a statement about pada 3 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 3 shares the lowest grade of the four.

Krittika pada 3 is one of 27 padas that put the lord in hostile ground. The Moon matters separately, since a pada is a Moon position: in Aquarius the Moon is in a neutral’s sign, which is about the mind a Krittika pada 3 birth starts with rather than about what the Sun can deliver.

Vimshottari: The Sun Balance a Pada 3 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 3 of Krittika runs from 1 year 6 months to 3 years remaining — 25% to 50% of the 6 years — where knowing only that the Moon was somewhere in Krittika leaves the whole 6 years open. Inside Taurus 3°20′ – 6°40′ 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 3 of Krittika shares the range above with pada 3 of those two, because the balance turns on the quarter rather than on which Sun nakshatra it is. Pada 4 of Krittika carries a different one. The dasha calculator takes the Sun balance a Krittika pada 3 birth starts with and lays out what follows it: the Moon for 10 years, then Mars.

The Syllable U

A child born with the Moon in Krittika pada 3 is traditionally named from U. The other three quarters of Krittika give A for pada 1, Ee for pada 2 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 3 shares every one of those with the other three. What belongs to pada 3 alone is the arc, the navamsa and the syllable — Taurus 3°20′ – 6°40′, Aquarius, U:

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