उत्तराषाढा
Uttara Āṣāḍhā Nakṣatra
Uttara Ashadha belongs to the All-gods, every god of the Veda called together. Its name means the later unconquered one, and its rite asks for a victory that can never be undone. The Sun enters Capricorn inside it each January, on Makara Sankranti.
At a Glance
The Name
Ashadha means the one that cannot be withstood, from sah, to withstand, with a- in front. Uttara means the latter. Purva Ashadha comes first and Uttara Ashadha completes it, so the teachers call this one the later or the final victory. Abhigya Anand reads it as a win that comes late, after a hard beginning. Dr Arjun Pai says the planning was done in Mula and Purva Ashadha and the victory came here.
Varahamihira calls the star by its gods, so it is vaishva or vishveshvara, the star of the All-gods or of the Lord of All. Tamil calls it Uthiradam and Malayalam Uthradam. In Kerala the ninth day of Onam, the day before Thiruvonam, is Uthradam, and it is called the first Onam.
Where the Star Stands
Uttara Ashadha is one of the stars that cross a sign line. Its first quarter is the last three degrees and twenty minutes of Sagittarius, Jupiter's sign. Its other three quarters open Capricorn, Saturn's sign. The Sun rules the star.
Two of its quarters are vargottama, the same sign in the navamsha as in the birth chart. The first quarter is Sagittarius in both, and the second is Capricorn in both. Jupiter is debilitated in Capricorn, and his exact point of fall, Capricorn 5 degrees, lies inside the star's third quarter. The Sun enters Capricorn inside the star each year, about 14 January, which is Makara Sankranti.
The star's marker is usually taken to be sigma Sagittarii, called Nunki, with zeta Sagittarii beside it. On the Lahiri reckoning sigma sits at Sagittarius 18 degrees 32 minutes, which is inside Purva Ashadha's span. Aditya on Dr Pai's panel gives the same figure. The star groups and the equal divisions of the zodiac do not line up exactly here.
Abhijit, the Hidden Star
The last quarter of Uttara Ashadha and the first part of Shravana make up Abhijit, the twenty-eighth star, from Capricorn 6 degrees 40 minutes to 10 degrees 53 minutes. The older lists counted twenty-eight stars and Abhijit was one of them. Astrologers today use twenty-seven for the birth chart and keep Abhijit for choosing times. Abhijit muhurta, the forty-eight minutes around local noon, shares its name.
The tables agree on the deity, the ruling planet, the gana, the yoni, the nadi and the symbol of the tusk. Varahamihira fixes the karma class, the varna and the body part. The guna, dosha, gender, element, direction, colour and tree come only from later tables, and the tables differ on the guna and the element. Varahamihira gives the star eight stars and Muhurta Chintamani gives two. The Brahmana names no shakti, and apradhrishya is the name in modern books.