Mrigashira Pada 4 (Scorpio Navamsa)

Mrigashira Pada 4 at a Glance

Pada

4th of 4 — navamsa 20 of the zodiac's 108

Sidereal span

Gemini 3°20′ – 6°40′ — 63°20′ – 66°40′ sidereal

Rashi (Moon sign)

Gemini — Mrigashira straddles Taurus and Gemini, and the pada decides which

Navamsa (D-9)

Scorpio, ruled by Mars

Navamsa from the rashi

6th from Gemini — a dusthana, so what the navamsa gives it gives through friction

Mars in Scorpio

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

Name syllable

Kee

Mars dasha balance

none to 1 year 9 months of the 7-year period

What Pada 4 Settles About a Mrigashira Birth

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

The pada is fixed by the Moon’s exact longitude, so it needs the birth time and place rather than the date: a Mrigashira Moon anywhere in Gemini 3°20′ – 6°40′ 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 Mrigashira, and with it the Scorpio navamsa and how much of the Mars mahadasha was left.

Scorpio Navamsa: What the D-9 Adds

The fourth pada of Mrigashira is the Scorpio navamsa, lorded by Mars — the 6th sign from Gemini, a dusthana, so what the navamsa gives it gives through friction. Gemini and Scorpio are different signs, so the D-9 shifts the reading rather than confirming it. They have neither element nor mobility in common: Gemini is air and dual, Scorpio is water and fixed. Pada 4 is not the vargottama one and neither are the other three: Mrigashira has no vargottama pada at all, which it shares with 17 other nakshatras.

Mars lords both Mrigashira and Scorpio, 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 Mars sits in a chart, it answers for Gemini 3°20′ – 6°40′ and for the Scorpio D-9 alike — there is no second dispositor to soften or contradict it.

Where Mars Stands in This Pada

Mars lords Mrigashira, and in the Scorpio navamsa Mars 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 Mrigashira the grade runs from Mars in its own sign in Scorpio at pada 4 down to Mars in an enemy’s sign in Virgo at pada 2 — pada 4 is the strongest of the four on this test.

Mrigashira pada 4 is one of 9 padas whose nakshatra lord holds its own navamsa. The Moon matters separately, since a pada is a Moon position: in Scorpio the Moon is debilitated, which is about the mind a Mrigashira pada 4 birth starts with rather than about what Mars can deliver.

Vimshottari: The Mars Balance a Pada 4 Birth Starts With

A Moon in Mrigashira means life begins inside a Mars mahadasha, 7 years long. The pada fixes how much of it is left: pada 4 of Mrigashira runs from none to 1 year 9 months remaining — the shortest of the four, and a Moon on the last minute of Mrigashira begins with the Mars period already spent, so the next mahadasha starts at birth — where knowing only that the Moon was somewhere in Mrigashira leaves the whole 7 years open. Inside Gemini 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.

Mars rules three of the 27 nakshatras, so Mrigashira shares that 7-year opening with Chitra and Dhanishta — and pada 4 of Mrigashira shares the range above with pada 4 of those two, because the balance turns on the quarter rather than on which Mars nakshatra it is. Pada 3 of Mrigashira carries a different one. The dasha calculator takes the Mars balance a Mrigashira pada 4 birth starts with and lays out what follows it: Rahu for 18 years, then Jupiter.

The Syllable Kee

A child born with the Moon in Mrigashira pada 4 is traditionally named from Kee. The other three quarters of Mrigashira give Ve for pada 1, Vo for pada 2 and Ka 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 Mrigashira

Mrigashira is Taurus 23°20′ – Gemini 6°40′, ruled by Mars, Deva gana, serpent yoni, Madhya 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 — Gemini 3°20′ – 6°40′, Scorpio, Kee:

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

Frequently Asked Questions