उत्तरभाद्रपदा
Uttara Bhādrapadā Nakṣatra
Ahi Budhnya, the Serpent of the Deep, lies at the bottom of the rivers and in the deep of the sky where the rain is kept. In the epics he became one of the eleven Rudras. Uttara Bhadrapada is his star. It is one of the fixed stars, and its old rite asks for one thing, a firm place to stand.
At a Glance
The Name
Proshthapada is the older name, and it means the feet of a stool or a bench. Four stars make the four feet, two in each Bhadrapada. Purva Bhadrapada is the front pair and Uttara Bhadrapada, the latter, is the back pair. Bhadrapada, the later name, means the blessed feet. The tables make the bench a funeral cot, and this star its back legs. Muhurta Chintamani calls the shape yamala, twins, because its two stars stand as a matched pair.
Dr Arjun Pai collects the meanings of bhadra. It means good, kind, lucky and prosperous, and it can mean gold and a cow. He hears the goddess Lakshmi in all of them. Vic DiCara reads uttara the way it is used in philosophy, as the later and deeper part of a teaching. Varahamihira calls the star by its god, so in his books it is ahirbudhnya, the star of the Serpent of the Deep. Tamil calls it Uthirattathi.
Where the Star Stands
Uttara Bhadrapada lies wholly inside Pisces, from 3 degrees 20 minutes to 16 degrees 40 minutes. Pisces is Jupiter's own sign and the last sign of the zodiac. Saturn rules the star, so every planet here works under two lords, Jupiter for the sign and Saturn for the star. Abhigya Anand reads that pair as wisdom and patience held together.
The four navamshas of the star run from Leo to Scorpio, and none of them is vargottama. The second quarter is a pushkara navamsha in the usual table, and the pushkara degree of Pisces falls inside it too, at 7 or 9 degrees depending on the table. Mercury's exact point of fall, Pisces 15 degrees, lies in the fourth quarter. Venus exalts in Pisces as a sign, but its exact point, 27 degrees, lies further on, in Revati.
The Sun passes through the star from about 18 to 31 March each year. The spring equinox point, where the tropical zodiac begins, now lies in the star's first quarter, at about Pisces 5 degrees 46 minutes on the Lahiri reckoning. Aditya on Dr Pai's panel pointed this out. The point moves back about a degree in 72 years, so it will cross into Purva Bhadrapada in about 175 years.
Most writers take gamma Pegasi, called Algenib, as the star's marker, its yogatara. On the Lahiri reckoning it sits at Pisces 15 degrees 18 minutes, inside the fourth quarter. Its partner, alpha Andromedae or Alpheratz, sits at Pisces 20 degrees 27 minutes, past the end of the star. Together with the two stars of Purva Bhadrapada they make the Great Square of Pegasus. The Surya Siddhanta notes that the star of Ahirbudhnya lies so far north that it is never lost in the Sun's glare (9.18, in Burgess's translation).
A Star That Settles
Uttara Bhadrapada is one of the fixed stars, with Rohini and the other two Uttaras. Varahamihira says work meant to last should begin under it, and the oldest rite for the star asks for a firm place to stand. The teachers read the two Bhadrapadas as a pair. Achala on Dr Pai's channel ties both to the root chakra, and calls Purva Bhadrapada the forceful rising and this star the steadying that follows.
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 and syllables come only from later tables, and the tables vary, most of all on the guna. For the element the tables say ether, while Varahamihira's earthquake chapter puts the star in the circle of Varuna, the circle of water. The Brahmana names no shakti. Varshodyamana is David Frawley's name for it, and Dr Arjun Pai could not trace the commentary Frawley cites for it.