Pushya Pada 3 (Libra Navamsa)

Pushya Pada 3 at a Glance

Pada

3rd of 4 — navamsa 31 of the zodiac's 108

Sidereal span

Cancer 10°00′ – 13°20′ — 100°00′ – 103°20′ sidereal

Rashi (Moon sign)

Cancer, the whole of Pushya being inside it

Navamsa (D-9)

Libra, ruled by Venus

Navamsa from the rashi

4th from Cancer — a kendra, and the most private of the four

Saturn in Libra

exalted — the strongest of the six grades

Name syllable

Ho

Saturn dasha balance

4 years 9 months to 9 years 6 months of the 19-year period

What Pada 3 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 3 settles instead is the navamsa: Libra, the 4th sign from Cancer, where the other three quarters of Pushya give Leo, Virgo 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 3 birth and a pada 4 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 10°00′ – 13°20′ 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 Pushya, and with it the Libra navamsa and how much of the Saturn mahadasha was left.

Libra Navamsa: What the D-9 Adds

The third pada of Pushya is the Libra navamsa, lorded by Venus — the 4th sign from Cancer, a kendra, and the most private of the four. Cancer and Libra are different signs, so the D-9 shifts the reading rather than confirming it. They share a mobility — both movable — while differing in element, Cancer being water and Libra air. Pada 3 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 Venus, which lords the Libra navamsa. Between Cancer 10°00′ – 13°20′ and the Libra D-9 that arc points to, Saturn counts Venus a natural friend, so the two pull together. Reading Pushya pada 3 in a particular chart means reading both Saturn and Venus.

Where Saturn Stands in This Pada

Saturn lords Pushya, and in the Libra navamsa Saturn is exalted — the strongest of the six grades. 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 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 3 is the strongest of the four on this test.

Pushya pada 3 is one of only 9 padas in the 108 that exalt their nakshatra lord. The Moon matters separately, since a pada is a Moon position: in Libra the Moon is in a neutral’s sign, which is about the mind a Pushya pada 3 birth starts with rather than about what Saturn can deliver.

Vimshottari: The Saturn Balance a Pada 3 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 3 of Pushya runs from 4 years 9 months to 9 years 6 months remaining — 25% to 50% of the 19 years — where knowing only that the Moon was somewhere in Pushya leaves the whole 19 years open. Inside Cancer 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.

Saturn rules three of the 27 nakshatras, so Pushya shares that 19-year opening with Anuradha and Uttara Bhadrapada — and pada 3 of Pushya shares the range above with pada 3 of those two, because the balance turns on the quarter rather than on which Saturn nakshatra it is. Pada 4 of Pushya carries a different one. The dasha calculator takes the Saturn balance a Pushya pada 3 birth starts with and lays out what follows it: Mercury for 17 years, then Ketu.

The Syllable Ho

A child born with the Moon in Pushya pada 3 is traditionally named from Ho. The other three quarters of Pushya give Hu for pada 1, He for pada 2 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 3 shares every one of those with the other three. What belongs to pada 3 alone is the arc, the navamsa and the syllable — Cancer 10°00′ – 13°20′, Libra, Ho:

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

Frequently Asked Questions