Meaning
Revati is usually glossed "the prosperous", and its star is faint zeta Piscium, near the point where the circle closes. Varahamihira's translator Iyer still wrote of the star Revati as marking the first point of Aries, about 20° east of the equinox in his day.
Its god is Pushan, who feeds the herds and guides travellers on the road, and modern readings follow the journey: safe passage, nourishment and care, gentleness, and an ending that turns into a beginning, since Ashwini follows. Our chart's text calls it gentle and guiding, and says that clear boundaries keep such generosity sustainable.
Budha, Mercury, is its lord, with seventeen years, so the order of lords ends with Budha as it began with Ketu. Revati ends at 30° Meena, the third place where a water rashi meets a fire rashi.
Deity and emblem
Pushan is Revati's deity in the Taittiriya Samhita and today.
The modern emblem is a fish, or a drum. The medieval lists give a drum or tabor, so the drum has old support and the fish, which echoes the rashi it closes, is modern.
In the chart
Revati runs from 16°40′ Meena to 30°00′ Meena of the sidereal zodiac, the twenty-seventh of 27 equal parts of 13°20′. It lies wholly within Meena (Pisces). Its four padas of 3°20′ fall in the navamsas of Dhanu, Makara, Kumbha and Meena, so a graha in its first pada stands in Dhanu in the D9.
Its Vimshottari lord is Budha, whose period is seventeen years. When the Moon stands here at birth, the reckoning opens in Budha's period and counts only the part still to run, in proportion to the part of Revati the Moon has yet to cross. In 2026 the same stretch of sky is about 10°53′ Aries to 24°13′ Aries 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
- Pushan, nourisher and guide of travellers sourced
- Deity in the Taittiriya Samhita (iv.4.10)
- Pushan sourced
- Symbol, the modern tradition's
- fish, or a drum sourced
- Figure in the medieval lists (Burgess, 1860)
- a drum or tabor sourced
- Themes in modern readings, our summary
- safe passage and care: nourishment, protection on the journey, gentleness our construction
How the schools read it
- The Vedic lists (Taittiriya Samhita iv.4.10, Keith 1914)
- Pushan, as today; the Taittiriya list begins with Krittika.
- The medieval lists (Burgess and Whitney, 1860)
- The figure of the asterism: a drum or tabor, after the Ratnamala and the Muhurta Chintamani.
- Modern Jyotisha
- Safe passage and care: nourishment, protection on the journey, gentleness; its symbol: fish, or a drum.
- 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: "Ruled by Budha, Revati completes the circle of nakshatras and is associated with safe passage, nourishment and care. Its energy is gentle, compassionate and guiding, and setting clear boundaries helps that generosity remain sustainable." Our words.
Claims about it
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Revati's deity and symbol are one fixed set handed down from the Vedas.
disputedWhat the record shows: The deity, Pushan, 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, fish, or a drum, is the modern tradition's; here it matches the figure of the medieval lists, a drum or tabor.
-
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.
Elsewhere on EsoTerrier
- Graha 4: Budha, Mercury its Vimshottari lord
- Rashi 12: Meena, Pisces the rashi it lies in
- Nakshatra 26: Uttara Bhadrapada the nakshatra before
- Nakshatra 1: Ashwini the first nakshatra, where the circle begins again
- Natal Chart (Tropical): Pisces the tropical sign of the same name, measured from the equinox
