Mars in Hasta Nakshatra (Mangal in हस्त)

Hasta, the 13th of the 27 nakshatras, covers 160°00′ – 173°20′ of the sidereal zodiac, wholly inside Virgo. Hasta is ruled by the Moon, so Mars in Hasta stands in the Moon’s star.

Mars counts the Moon a friend, while the Moon counts Mars neutral. The table is not symmetric, so Mars in Hasta has to be described from both sides, as it is here. The other two nakshatras the Moon rules, Rohini and Shravana, put Mars under the same star lord.

Mars in Hasta, Pada by Pada

By rashi, Mars is in an enemy's sign in all four padas of Hasta, because the whole nakshatra lies in Virgo. By navamsa the four padas fall in Aries, Taurus, Gemini and Cancer. Mars’s strongest navamsa in Hasta is pada 1 (Aries, in its own sign), and its weakest is pada 4 (Cancer, debilitated).

Neither Mars’s deepest exaltation (Capricorn) nor its deepest debilitation (Cancer) degree falls inside Hasta, and Mars’s moolatrikona lies outside it as well, so in Hasta the rashi and navamsa verdicts above are the whole of Mars’s dignity.

When Mars Is in Hasta, 2026–2028

• 22 July 2027: Mars enters Hasta, and leaves on 13 August 2027 — 22 days.

That is the one spell Mars spends in Hasta between 1 January 2026 and 1 January 2029, 22 days in all. Over the same span Mars stands in every one of the 27 nakshatras. The dates are days only; for Mars in Hasta a minute would be more precise than the ayanamsa behind it.

Inside Hasta: what the tables locate there for Mars

Of the 49 complete spells Mars has in the table, in any nakshatra, the shortest is 16 days and the longest 47; the Hasta spell, at 22 days, sits inside that range.

The retrograde table runs from 2024 to 2031, wider than the ingress table, and it places one of Mars's stations in Hasta. On 14 February 2029 Mars stations retrograde inside Hasta, in pada 3. At a station Mars’s motion is at its slowest, so these are the days it is most nearly still in Hasta.

Hasta as the Setting for Mars

In the nakshatra tables Hasta’s deity is listed as Savitar and its symbol as hand; its gana is Deva, and the muhurta texts put it in the Kshipra class (swift and light). Those belong to Hasta whichever graha is in it, and they are read on the Hasta page. What changes with Mars is everything above: the dignities in Virgo, the relation to the Moon, and the dates. None of it is a prediction for anyone born with Mars in Hasta; the house it occupies and the dasha running decide what the placement does in a chart.

Related Placements

The sign-level reading is on Mars in Virgo; Mars in all 27 nakshatras is on the Mars nakshatra table. For the nakshatras themselves, see the 27 nakshatras guide and our Hasta article.

The Other Grahas in Hasta