Punarvasu means the return of light, or of goods — the sun after Ardra's storm, the arrow that comes back to the quiver. Its deity is Aditi, the boundless mother, and the nakshatra is generous, hopeful and safe: people with the Moon here recover from anything, forgive quickly, and carry a kind of philosophical cheerfulness that others lean on. They are travellers who always come home.
Jupiter rules the nakshatra and gives the Punarvasu Moon its faith and its teaching bent; the star straddles Mercury's Gemini (padas one to three) and the Moon's Cancer (pada four), so most Punarvasu Moons are Gemini Moons with an unusual warmth, and the fourth pada — Jupiter's exaltation navamsa — is one of the most favoured degrees in the zodiac. A Moon here starts life in the Jupiter mahadasha, sixteen years, usually a protected childhood.
The four padas of Punarvasu
Each nakshatra is divided into four padas of 3°20′. The pada says which sign the Moon is in when a nakshatra straddles two, and which navamsa (the ninth-harmonic sign) it falls in — the finer grain astrologers read for temperament and marriage.
| Pada | Span | Sign | Navamsa |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20°00′–23°20′ | Gemini | Aries |
| 2 | 23°20′–26°40′ | Gemini | Taurus |
| 3 | 26°40′–30°00′ | Gemini | Gemini |
| 4 | 0°00′–3°20′ | Cancer | Cancer |
Punarvasu in kundli matching
Three of the eight kootas of guna milan are read from the nakshatra alone. Yoni (Cat): the instinctive match by the nakshatra's animal — Deer and Monkey are its friends; the Rat is its enemy. Gana (Deva): godly — gentle, giving, at ease with others; the same or a compatible gana scores in full. Nadi (Adi): the first pulse, vata in the ayurvedic reading; two Moons in the same nadi are the heaviest dosha, with the classical exemptions. Check a match to see all eight for two charts.
Born under Punarvasu
The Vimshottari dasha starts from the nakshatra of the natal Moon. A Moon in Punarvasu begins life in the Jupiter mahadasha of 16 years, less the part already spent by the Moon's degree within the nakshatra; the further into Punarvasu the Moon stood, the shorter the balance at birth. The exact balance needs the degree, which your free kundli gives.