Tara bala: the nine-tara count from the birth nakshatra

Definition

Tara bala compares the nakshatra the Moon occupies on a given day with the janma nakshatra, the nakshatra the Moon occupied at birth. There are 27 nakshatras of 13°20' each.

Formula

count = ((day nakshatra − birth nakshatra) mod 27) + 1, with nakshatras numbered 0 (Ashwini) to 26 (Revati). tara = count mod 9: 1 Janma, 2 Sampat, 3 Vipat, 4 Kshema, 5 Pratyak, 6 Sadhana, 7 Naidhana, 8 Mitra, 0 Parama Mitra. Each tara occurs three times in the 27-nakshatra cycle.

Scores used by Jyotishya

Sampat, Kshema, Sadhana, Mitra and Parama Mitra +1; Janma 0; Vipat and Pratyak −1; Naidhana −2. The names translate literally as birth, wealth, danger, well-being, obstacle, achievement, destruction, friend and best friend; the translations are labels, not predictions.

Worked example

Birth nakshatra Swati (14). Day nakshatra Ardra (5). (5 − 14) mod 27 = 18; 18 + 1 = 19. 19 mod 9 = 1, so the tara is Janma, score 0.

Tables for every birth star

Each nakshatra page on Jyotishya lists all 27 nakshatras by tara, counted from that star, with the score each one gives.