Meaning
Shravana means "hearing", and its stars are Altair with beta and gamma Aquilae, the three in a line of the Eagle; the Taittiriya Samhita calls it Shrona.
Modern readings hear the name: listening and learning, the student and the teacher, the keeping of knowledge and its passing on by word of mouth, as the Veda itself was passed on. Our chart's text calls it the nakshatra of listening and adds that a voice of one's own balances the gift of taking in others' words.
Chandra, the Moon, is its lord in the Vimshottari order, with ten years. It lies wholly within Makara, 10° to 23°20′.
Deity and emblem
Vishnu, the preserver, is the deity of Shravana in the Taittiriya Samhita and today.
The modern emblem is an ear, for hearing, or three footprints, for Vishnu's three strides. The medieval lists give the three footsteps, and the Sakalya Samhita a trident, so the footprints are old and the ear is modern.
In the chart
Shravana runs from 10°00′ Makara to 23°20′ Makara of the sidereal zodiac, the twenty-second of 27 equal parts of 13°20′. It lies wholly within Makara (Capricorn). 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 Shravana the Moon has yet to cross. In 2026 the same stretch of sky is about 4°13′ Aquarius to 17°33′ Aquarius 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
- Vishnu, the preserver sourced
- Deity in the Taittiriya Samhita (iv.4.10)
- Vishnu (listed as Shrona) sourced
- Symbol, the modern tradition's
- ear, or three footprints sourced
- Figure in the medieval lists (Burgess, 1860)
- three footsteps (the Sakalya Samhita: a trident) sourced
- Themes in modern readings, our summary
- listening and learning; knowledge kept and passed on by word of mouth our construction
How the schools read it
- The Vedic lists (Taittiriya Samhita iv.4.10, Keith 1914)
- Vishnu (listed as Shrona), as today; the Taittiriya list begins with Krittika.
- The medieval lists (Burgess and Whitney, 1860)
- The figure of the asterism: three footsteps (the Sakalya Samhita: a trident), after the Ratnamala and the Muhurta Chintamani.
- Modern Jyotisha
- Listening and learning; knowledge kept and passed on by word of mouth; its symbol: ear, or three footprints.
- 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: "Shravana, ruled by Chandra, means hearing, and its energy favors listening, learning and preserving knowledge. Giving voice to one's own understanding balances a natural gift for taking in the words and wisdom of others." Our words.
Claims about it
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Shravana's deity and symbol are one fixed set handed down from the Vedas.
disputedWhat the record shows: The deity, Vishnu, 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, ear, or three footprints, is the modern tradition's; here it matches the figure of the medieval lists, three footsteps (the Sakalya Samhita: a trident).
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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.
