Rohiṇī

Rohiṇī (रोहिणी, also written Rohini) is the fourth of the twenty-seven nakṣatras, occupying the middle belt of Vṛṣabha from 10° to 23°20′. The name derives from the root ruh — to grow, to rise — and the nakshatra carries the register of what flourishes under settled conditions: crops that ripen, cattle that fatten, desire that finds its object. Its devatā is Brahmā, the creator in the Puranic triad but classically in this context the figure who settles new form into being. Vimśottarī rulership belongs to Chandra. Rohiṇī is also the classical beloved of Chandra in Vedic myth — the favourite of Dakṣa's twenty-seven daughters, which the tradition reads as the nakshatra carrying a distinctive lunar tenderness.

Classical grounding

Parāśara in Brihat Parāśara Horā Śāstra and Varāhamihira in Bṛhat Saṃhitā identify Brahmā as Rohiṇī's devatā; the Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa preserves the older liturgical attribution. The yoni is sarpa — the male serpent — and its classical yoni-kūṭa pair is Mṛgaśīrṣa, whose female serpent yoni makes the pair a same-yoni match. The gaṇa is manuṣya, the varṇa Śūdra in Parāśara's list, and the nāḍī antya. The śakti per the classical tradition is rohaṇa-śakti — the power of growth, of rising up — with viniyoga in the ripening of what has been planted. Rohiṇī is Chandra's own nakshatra and is read by the tradition as the site of Chandra's deepest bond in the zodiac — distinct from the exaltation degree at 3° Vṛṣabha, which falls earlier in the sign within Kṛttikā.

Significations

What Rohiṇī classically governs:

Growth in every register — crops, cattle, wealth that accumulates under steady hand
Beauty, sensual fullness, and the attractive quality that Śukra's rulership over the enclosing sign intensifies
The body's register of embodied desire — reproduction, milk, the giving and receiving of physical nurture
Creative work that makes form — pottery, sculpture, architecture, the arts that bring something into tangible being
Vocations in agriculture, animal husbandry, culinary arts, fashion, jewellery, and the crafts of material refinement

Pāda-level reading

Rohiṇī's four pādas continue the Vṛṣabha navāṃśa sequence, which starts this fixed sign at Makara. Pāda 1 (10°–13°20′) is Meṣa navāṃśa — the fourth navāṃśa of Vṛṣabha — giving a spark of initiation energy to what is otherwise a settled earthy nakshatra; charts with graha in Rohiṇī pāda 1 often show creative initiation rather than pure preservation. Pāda 2 is Vṛṣabha navāṃśa, the nakshatra and sign's double-earth signature at its most characteristic. Pāda 3 is Mithuna navāṃśa, bringing articulation and exchange into the flourishing register. Pāda 4 is Karkaṭa navāṃśa, closing the nakshatra with a nurturing, maternal inflection consonant with Rohiṇī's cow-and-milk significations.

Practical interpretation

A graha in Rohiṇī carries the nakshatra's flourishing register into that graha's functional domain; Sūrya in Rohiṇī is traditionally read as giving steady authority, Chandra in Rohiṇī is own-nakshatra and among the strongest lunar placements in the zodiac. Janma-nakṣatra Rohiṇī — the Moon here at birth — reads for natural attractiveness, steady disposition, and a characteristic pull toward the aesthetic and sensual dimensions of life. In muhūrta reading, Rohiṇī is dhruva (fixed) — auspicious for foundational work meant to endure.

Related Concepts

Chandra — ruling graha in the Vimśottarī scheme
Vṛṣabha — rāśi occupied (fully or partially) by this nakshatra
Nāḍī-kūṭa — Aṣṭa-kūṭa compatibility via nāḍī classification
Yoni-kūṭa — Aṣṭa-kūṭa compatibility via yoni classification
Gaṇa-kūṭa — Aṣṭa-kūṭa compatibility via gaṇa classification
Tārā-kūṭa — Aṣṭa-kūṭa compatibility via nakshatra Tārā cycle