Nakshatra Guna classification
sanskrit: triguna; pariyaya
Definition
This classification sorts the 27 nakshatras by the three gunas of Sankhya philosophy: tamas (inertia), rajas (activity and desire), and sattva (purity). A nakshatra's guna is held to colour the planets and houses connected with it. Sutton groups the nakshatras into three nine-fold cycles she calls pariyayas, each keyed to one guna, while Raj Kumar gives a per-nakshatra table he draws from what he calls the Sankhya Patanjali system.
In Tradition
In the modern Jyotish (Vedic) writing represented here, each nakshatra is treated as carrying one of the three gunas, so its guna is read as a quality it lends to whatever sits in it. Beyond that general principle the two accounts diverge on which nakshatras receive which guna, and that level of detail is attributed to each author rather than presented as agreed.
In Practice
Sutton reads the three gunas as stages of a symbolic soul-journey across her three pariyayas: nakshatras 1–9 carry a rajasic attitude of newness, innovation and searching; 10–18 a tamasic attitude that emphasises worldliness; and 19–27 a sattvic attitude that emphasises purity and the search for Truth. She links each group to a quadrant of signs and to the Sun and/or Moon falling in those nakshatras. Raj Kumar reports that, in the Sankhya Patanjali system, each nakshatra passes one of three gunas to the planets posited in it and modifies the house concerned: tamsic (indolence and inertia, a resistant nature), rajsik (restless, materialistic, self-seeking), and satwik (purity of mind, truth, selfless work). He holds that all three gunas are interrelated and present in almost everyone, with one predominating for people of the corresponding group while the others stay latent.
Historical Origin
Both sources here are modern authors rather than classical texts. The three-fold guna framework itself is the triguna of Sankhya philosophy, which Raj Kumar attributes to a Sankhya Patanjali system. The nakshatra-to-guna grouping is set out by Komilla Sutton in The Essentials of Vedic Astrology, where she calls the three nine-fold cycles pariyayas, and by Raj Kumar in Role of Nakshatras in Astrology, which presents a per-nakshatra classification table.
Further Reading
- Komilla Sutton, The Essentials of Vedic Astrology
- Raj Kumar, Role of Nakshatras in Astrology