Pushya Pada 1 (Leo Navamsa)

Pushya Pada 1 at a Glance

Pada

1st of 4 — navamsa 29 of the zodiac's 108

Sidereal span

Cancer 3°20′ – 6°40′ — 93°20′ – 96°40′ sidereal

Rashi (Moon sign)

Cancer, the whole of Pushya being inside it

Navamsa (D-9)

Leo, ruled by Sun

Navamsa from the rashi

2nd from Cancer — an artha house, and a panapara

Saturn in Leo

in an enemy’s sign — working against the grain

Name syllable

Hu

Saturn dasha balance

14 years 3 months to 19 years of the 19-year period

What Pada 1 Settles About a Pushya Birth

All four padas of Pushya fall inside Cancer, so the pada leaves the rashi alone — a Pushya native is a Cancer native whichever quarter the Moon occupied. What pada 1 settles instead is the navamsa: Leo, the 2nd sign from Cancer, where the other three quarters of Pushya give Virgo, Libra and Scorpio. The D-9 is where the classical texts look for the strength behind a promise the rashi chart only states, which is why a Pushya pada 1 birth and a pada 2 birth are both Cancer natives with Moon 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 Pushya Moon anywhere in Cancer 3°20′ – 6°40′ 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 Pushya, and with it the Leo navamsa and how much of the Saturn mahadasha was left.

Leo Navamsa: What the D-9 Adds

The first pada of Pushya is the Leo navamsa, lorded by the Sun — the 2nd sign from Cancer, an artha house, and a panapara. Cancer and Leo are different signs, so the D-9 shifts the reading rather than confirming it. They have neither element nor mobility in common: Cancer is water and movable, Leo is fire and fixed. Pada 1 is not the vargottama one and neither are the other three: Pushya has no vargottama pada at all, which it shares with 17 other nakshatras.

Two grahas carry this pada: Saturn, which lords Pushya, and the Sun, which lords the Leo navamsa. Between Cancer 3°20′ – 6°40′ and the Leo D-9 that arc points to, Saturn counts the Sun a natural enemy, so pada 1 asks for two things at once. Reading Pushya pada 1 in a particular chart means reading both Saturn and the Sun.

Where Saturn Stands in This Pada

Saturn lords Pushya, and in the Leo navamsa Saturn is in an enemy’s sign — working against the grain. 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 across Pushya the grade runs from Saturn exalted in Libra at pada 3 down to Saturn in an enemy’s sign at padas 1 and 4 — pada 1 shares the lowest grade of the four.

Pushya pada 1 is one of 27 padas that put the lord in hostile ground. The Moon matters separately, since a pada is a Moon position: in Leo the Moon is in a friend’s sign, which is about the mind a Pushya pada 1 birth starts with rather than about what Saturn can deliver.

Vimshottari: The Saturn Balance a Pada 1 Birth Starts With

A Moon in Pushya means life begins inside a Saturn mahadasha, 19 years long. The pada fixes how much of it is left: pada 1 of Pushya runs from 14 years 3 months to 19 years remaining — the fullest of the four, because the Moon has only just entered Pushya — where knowing only that the Moon was somewhere in Pushya leaves the whole 19 years open. Inside Cancer 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.

Saturn rules three of the 27 nakshatras, so Pushya shares that 19-year opening with Anuradha and Uttara Bhadrapada — and pada 1 of Pushya shares the range above with pada 1 of those two, because the balance turns on the quarter rather than on which Saturn nakshatra it is. Pada 2 of Pushya carries a different one. The dasha calculator takes the Saturn balance a Pushya pada 1 birth starts with and lays out what follows it: Mercury for 17 years, then Ketu.

The Syllable Hu

A child born with the Moon in Pushya pada 1 is traditionally named from Hu. The other three quarters of Pushya give He for pada 2, Ho for pada 3 and Da 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 Pushya

Pushya is Cancer 3°20′ – 16°40′, ruled by Saturn, Deva gana, sheep yoni, Madhya 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 — Cancer 3°20′ – 6°40′, Leo, Hu:

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

Frequently Asked Questions