Meaning
Hasta means "the hand", and its five stars, alpha to epsilon Corvi, are read as the fingers.
Modern readings take the hand as a maker's: skill, craft and dexterity, the power to shape things, cleverness and resource, and the control that can tip into wanting to manage everything. Our chart's text adds that trusting the work of one's hands, without holding too tight to the result, brings ease.
Chandra, the Moon, is its lord in the Vimshottari order, with ten years. Hasta sits in the middle of Kanya, 10° to 23°20′, so all four of its padas lie in one rashi.
Deity and emblem
Savitar, the sun as the god who sets things in motion, is Hasta's deity in the Taittiriya Samhita (as Savitr) and today.
The emblem is an open hand, and the medieval lists give a hand too, so modern books and the old figure agree.
In the chart
Hasta runs from 10°00′ Kanya to 23°20′ Kanya of the sidereal zodiac, the thirteenth of 27 equal parts of 13°20′. It lies wholly within Kanya (Virgo). Its four padas of 3°20′ fall in the navamsas of Mesha, Vrishabha, Mithuna and Karka, so a graha in its first pada stands in Mesha in the D9.
Its Vimshottari lord is Chandra, whose period is ten years. When the Moon stands here at birth, the reckoning opens in Chandra's period and counts only the part still to run, in proportion to the part of Hasta the Moon has yet to cross. In 2026 the same stretch of sky is about 4°13′ Libra to 17°33′ Libra in the tropical zodiac, by the Lahiri measure; another ayanamsa moves the edges, and a Moon or lagna within a few minutes of arc of an edge can fall in the neighbouring nakshatra in another tool.
Correspondences
Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.
- Deity, as used today
- Savitar, the radiant Sun sourced
- Deity in the Taittiriya Samhita (iv.4.10)
- Savitr sourced
- Symbol, the modern tradition's
- open hand sourced
- Figure in the medieval lists (Burgess, 1860)
- a hand sourced
- Themes in modern readings, our summary
- skill, craft and dexterity; the power to make and shape our construction
How the schools read it
- The Vedic lists (Taittiriya Samhita iv.4.10, Keith 1914)
- Savitr, as today; the Taittiriya list begins with Krittika.
- The medieval lists (Burgess and Whitney, 1860)
- The figure of the asterism: a hand, after the Ratnamala and the Muhurta Chintamani.
- Modern Jyotisha
- Skill, craft and dexterity; the power to make and shape; its symbol: open hand.
- The 28-nakshatra scheme
- Abhijit, in the stars of Lyra, stands between Uttara Ashadha and Shravana in the older lists; the equal division into 27 leaves it out.
- Western sidereal (Fagan-Bradley)
- The same 27 divisions, about 0°53′ further on than Lahiri's; Western siderealists rarely use them.
- EsoTerrier
- Our chart's text for a Moon here: "Hasta is ruled by Chandra and symbolized by the hand, pointing to skill, dexterity and the power to shape things. Its energy is resourceful, clever and practical, and trusting the work of one's hands without overcontrolling the outcome brings ease." Our words.
Claims about it
-
Hasta's deity and symbol are one fixed set handed down from the Vedas.
disputedWhat the record shows: The deity, Savitar, is the same in the Taittiriya Samhita (iv.4.10) and today, but five other nakshatras have different deities in different Vedic lists. The symbol, open hand, is the modern tradition's; here it matches the figure of the medieval lists, a hand.
-
The nakshatra is a constellation, 13°20′ wide.
falseWhat the record shows: The nakshatras began as star groups of unequal size, 28 in the Atharvaveda with Abhijit. The equal division into 27 parts of 13°20′ is a later convention; the name points at stars, the division is arithmetic.
