पूर्वभाद्रपदा
Pūrva Bhādrapadā Nakṣatra
Aja Ekapada, the one-footed Unborn, is a Vedic god of storm and sky who holds heaven and earth apart, and later one of the eleven Rudras. Purva Bhadrapada is his star. Its rite asks for fiery power and the light of holy learning, and it stands where Aquarius gives way to Pisces.
At a Glance
The Name
Proshthapada is the older name, and it means the feet of a stool or bench. Two stars make the front feet and two more, in the next star, make the back feet. Bhadrapada, the later name, means the blessed feet. Purva means former, so this is the front pair and Uttara Bhadrapada the back pair. Dr Arjun Pai reads the bench as the stand of the fire altar. The tables turn it into the front legs of a funeral cot, and Muhurta Chintamani simply calls the shape a mancha, a raised platform. Dr Pai notes the same word in Tamil, machan, for the platform hunters build in a tree.
The month of Bhadrapada, in August and September, is named after these stars. Its full moon falls near them, and the fortnight of the ancestors, Pitru Paksha, begins the day after. Varahamihira usually calls the star by its god, so it appears in his books as aja or ajapada, Aja's star. Tamil calls it Poorattathi.
Where the Star Stands
Purva Bhadrapada crosses a sign line. Its first three quarters are the last ten degrees of Aquarius, Saturn's sign, and its last quarter opens Pisces, Jupiter's own sign. Jupiter rules the star, so the last quarter is ruled by Jupiter twice over. Abhigya Anand finds Saturn and Jupiter working together in the first three quarters, and Jupiter alone in the fourth.
The Sun enters Pisces inside the star each year, about 15 March, so Meena Sankranti falls here. The four navamshas of the star run from Aries to Cancer, and none of them is vargottama. The second and the fourth are pushkara navamshas in the usual table. No planet's exact point of exaltation or fall lies inside the star.
Most writers take alpha Pegasi, called Markab, as the star's marker, its yogatara. On the Lahiri reckoning it sits at Aquarius 29 degrees 38 minutes, inside the star's third quarter, and Aditya on Dr Pai's panel gives the same figure. Its partner, beta Pegasi or Scheat, sits at Pisces 5 degrees 31 minutes, already inside Uttara Bhadrapada's span. The Surya Siddhanta takes the northern star of the pair as the marker (8.16), which would be Scheat. The two Bhadrapadas together make the Great Square of Pegasus, easy to see on autumn evenings.
A Star That Burns Upward
Purva Bhadrapada is one of the five fierce stars, and Varahamihira puts it in the circle of fire. Its god is a Rudra, and in the Nakshatra Suktam he climbs the sky like the rising Sun. The teachers read all of this as heat that rises. Achala on Dr Pai's channel ties both Bhadrapadas to the root chakra, and calls this one the forceful rising and the next one the steadying. Dr Pai sees a pillar of fire, and Eve Mendoza on his panel sees the fire of tapas, the austerity that burns away what holds a person down.
The Brahmana and Varahamihira agree on the deity, and Varahamihira fixes the karma class, the varna and the body part. The guna, dosha, gender, element, colour, tree and syllables come only from later tables. For the element the tables say ether, while Varahamihira's earthquake chapter puts the star in the circle of fire. For the direction the tables differ, and Varahamihira's map of the lands gives the triad of Shatabhishak and the two Bhadrapadas to the north. The Brahmana names no shakti. Yajamana udyamana is the name in modern books.