Mercury in Anuradha Nakshatra (Budh in अनुराधा)

Anuradha, the 17th of the 27 nakshatras, covers 213°20′ – 226°40′ of the sidereal zodiac, wholly inside Scorpio. Anuradha is ruled by Saturn, so Mercury in Anuradha stands in Saturn’s star.

Mercury counts Saturn neutral, while Saturn counts Mercury a friend. The table is not symmetric, so Mercury in Anuradha has to be described from both sides, as it is here. The other two nakshatras Saturn rules, Pushya and Uttara Bhadrapada, put Mercury under the same star lord.

Mercury in Anuradha, Pada by Pada

By rashi, Mercury is in a neutral sign in all four padas of Anuradha, because the whole nakshatra lies in Scorpio. By navamsa the four padas fall in Leo, Virgo, Libra and Scorpio. Mercury’s strongest navamsa in Anuradha is pada 2 (Virgo, exalted), and its weakest is pada 4 (Scorpio, in a neutral sign).

Anuradha pada 4 is vargottama — Scorpio in rashi and in navamsa — so Mercury there is in a neutral sign on both counts. Of the 108 padas only twelve are vargottama, one for each sign.

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

When Mercury Is in Anuradha, 2026–2028

• 4 December 2026: Mercury enters Anuradha, and leaves on 13 December 2026 — 9 days.
• 28 November 2027: Mercury enters Anuradha, and leaves on 6 December 2027 — 8 days.
• 19 November 2028: Mercury enters Anuradha, and leaves on 28 November 2028 — 9 days.

Those are the three spells Mercury spends in Anuradha between 1 January 2026 and 1 January 2029, 26 days in all. Over the same span Mercury stands in every one of the 27 nakshatras. The dates are days only; for Mercury in Anuradha a minute would be more precise than the ayanamsa behind it.

Inside Anuradha: what the tables locate there for Mercury

Of the 100 complete spells Mercury has in the table, in any nakshatra, the shortest is 4 days and the longest 58; the Anuradha spells, at 9, 8 and 9 days, sit inside that range.

• 20 November 2028: Mercury meets the Sun at 4° Scorpio, in Anuradha pada 1.

The retrograde table runs from 2024 to 2031, wider than the ingress table, and it places three of Mercury's stations in Anuradha. On 16 December 2024 Mercury stations direct inside Anuradha, in pada 3. On 10 November 2025 Mercury stations retrograde inside Anuradha, in pada 3. On 9 December 2031 Mercury stations direct inside Anuradha, in pada 1. At a station Mercury’s motion is at its slowest, so these are the days it is most nearly still in Anuradha.

Anuradha as the Setting for Mercury

In the nakshatra tables Anuradha’s deity is listed as Mitra and its symbol as lotus; its gana is Deva, and the muhurta texts put it in the Mridu class (tender). Those belong to Anuradha whichever graha is in it, and they are read on the Anuradha page. What changes with Mercury is everything above: the dignities in Scorpio, the relation to Saturn, and the dates. None of it is a prediction for anyone born with Mercury in Anuradha; the house it occupies and the dasha running decide what the placement does in a chart.

Related Placements

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

The Other Grahas in Anuradha