Mula Pada 4 (Cancer Navamsa)

Mula Pada 4 at a Glance

Pada

4th of 4 — navamsa 76 of the zodiac's 108

Sidereal span

Sagittarius 10°00′ – 13°20′ — 250°00′ – 253°20′ sidereal

Rashi (Moon sign)

Sagittarius, the whole of Mula being inside it

Navamsa (D-9)

Cancer, ruled by Moon

Navamsa from the rashi

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

Ketu in Cancer

in an enemy’s sign — working against the grain

Name syllable

Bhee

Ketu dasha balance

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

What Pada 4 Settles About a Mula Birth

All four padas of Mula fall inside Sagittarius, so the pada leaves the rashi alone — a Mula native is a Sagittarius native whichever quarter the Moon occupied. What pada 4 settles instead is the navamsa: Cancer, the 8th sign from Sagittarius, where the other three quarters of Mula 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 Mula pada 4 birth and a pada 3 birth are both Sagittarius natives with Jupiter 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 Mula Moon anywhere in Sagittarius 10°00′ – 13°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 Mula, and with it the Cancer navamsa and how much of the Ketu mahadasha was left.

Cancer Navamsa: What the D-9 Adds

The fourth pada of Mula is the Cancer navamsa, lorded by the Moon — the 8th sign from Sagittarius, a dusthana, and the one classically hardest to read. Sagittarius and Cancer are different signs, so the D-9 shifts the reading rather than confirming it. They have neither element nor mobility in common: Sagittarius is fire and dual, Cancer is water and movable. Pada 4 is not the vargottama one and neither are the other three: Mula has no vargottama pada at all, which it shares with 17 other nakshatras.

Two grahas carry this pada: Ketu, which lords Mula, and the Moon, which lords the Cancer navamsa. Between Sagittarius 10°00′ – 13°20′ and the Cancer D-9 that arc points to, Ketu counts the Moon a natural enemy, so pada 4 asks for two things at once. Reading Mula pada 4 in a particular chart means reading both Ketu and the Moon.

Where Ketu Stands in This Pada

Ketu lords Mula, and in the Cancer navamsa Ketu is in an enemy’s sign — working against the grain. 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 Mula the grade runs from Ketu in a friend’s sign at padas 1 and 2 down to Ketu in an enemy’s sign in Cancer at pada 4 — pada 4 is the weakest of the four on this test.

Mula pada 4 is one of 27 padas that put the lord in hostile ground. The Moon matters separately, since a pada is a Moon position: in Cancer the Moon is in its own sign, which is about the mind a Mula pada 4 birth starts with rather than about what Ketu can deliver.

Vimshottari: The Ketu Balance a Pada 4 Birth Starts With

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

Ketu rules three of the 27 nakshatras, so Mula shares that 7-year opening with Ashwini and Magha — and pada 4 of Mula shares the range above with pada 4 of those two, because the balance turns on the quarter rather than on which Ketu nakshatra it is. Pada 3 of Mula carries a different one. The dasha calculator takes the Ketu balance a Mula pada 4 birth starts with and lays out what follows it: Venus for 20 years, then the Sun.

The Syllable Bhee

A child born with the Moon in Mula pada 4 is traditionally named from Bhee. The other three quarters of Mula give Ye for pada 1, Yo for pada 2 and Bha 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 Mula

Mula is Sagittarius 0°00′ – 13°20′, ruled by Ketu, Rakshasa gana, dog 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 — Sagittarius 10°00′ – 13°20′, Cancer, Bhee:

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

Frequently Asked Questions