Navami tithi is the ninth lunar day of each fortnight. In the waxing half the Moon has passed its first quarter and runs from ninety-six to 108 degrees ahead of the Sun, more than half lit and growing; in the waning half it has passed its last quarter and runs from 276 to 288 degrees, less than half lit and shrinking. That reverses the Moon’s standing compared with the first eight tithis: on Shukla Navami it is now a strong, benefic Moon, and on Krishna Navami a weak one. The tithi belongs to Durga, it is the second of the Rikta tithis, and in the weekday count of tithi lords it is the point where the Sun comes round again. Ram Navami and Maha Navami both fall on it, and about one birth in fifteen does too. Below: what it means to be born on navami tithi, the Moon in each half, the tithi’s classical associations, a single table of every tithi’s deity, planet and burnt signs, and how little the birth tithi weighs against the full chart you can draw in the kundali calculator.
The eighth tithi, Ashtami, comes before, and the tenth, Dashami, after.
Conventions used. For a birth, the tithi is whichever of the thirty lunar days was under way, each spanning twelve degrees of the Moon’s lead over the Sun. Zodiac positions follow the Lahiri ayanamsa, and the percentages below were measured on random birth moments from 1950 to 2010 using the Swiss Ephemeris.
Born on Navami? The chart matters more than the label.
A consultation reads your Moon, Sun and lagna, the houses they rule and the dasha you are running, and explains what the chart promises beyond the Navami birth.
In this article
- What Navami tithi means
- Shukla Navami: a waxing Moon past half
- Krishna Navami: a waning Moon past half
- Durga, the ninth tithi’s goddess
- Rikta and Ugra: the fierce tithi
- The Sun again: every tithi’s deity and planet
- Leo and Scorpio: the burnt signs
- Ram Navami and Maha Navami
- Navami in muhurta
- Navami in KP
- Two Navami births
- Frequently asked questions
What Navami tithi means
Navami is the ninth. The navami tithi meaning in the classical lists gathers several threads: Durga as its presiding deity in the Muhurta Chintamani, membership of the Rikta class with Chaturthi and Chaturdashi, the name Ugra, fierce, in some lists, and the Sun as its planet in the weekday count. Its burnt signs are Leo and Scorpio, which it shares with Dashami. Each half took 3.4 percent of births in the random sample.
Shukla Navami: a waxing Moon past half
On Shukla Navami the Moon is 55 to 65 percent lit, a gibbous Moon high in the south-east at dusk and setting after midnight. In 61 percent of shukla navami births it lies in the fourth sign from the Sun, in the rest in the fifth. Having crossed its first quarter, it now counts as a benefic by phase, and from here to the full moon it only grows. In the bright half this is the first tithi on which the Moon is plainly a benefic, having crossed the half-lit mark during Ashtami. The traditional picture of shukla navami natives is of courage paired with a steady emotional core, people able to stand firm under pressure because the Moon behind them is gaining strength.
Krishna Navami: a waning Moon past half
On Krishna Navami the Moon is 35 to 45 percent lit, rising after midnight and still visible in the morning sky. It lies in the tenth sign from the Sun in 60 percent of krishna navami births and in the eleventh otherwise. Having passed its last quarter it is classed as weak by phase, and the traditional reading leans toward introspection, self-reliance and a capacity to work quietly without needing much reassurance. As always, the Moon’s sign and aspects can change that picture completely: a Krishna Navami Moon in Taurus or Cancer is on firm ground whatever its phase. During Pitru Paksha the Krishna Navami is kept as Matri Navami, when families remember the mothers of the household who have died.
Durga, the ninth tithi’s goddess
Durga is the warrior goddess who fought the buffalo demon Mahishasura through nine nights of battle. Navratri’s nine nights end on Navami, and her victory is celebrated the next day, Vijayadashami. She is fierce on behalf of those who depend on her, invincible, and entirely self-possessed. As a birth deity she suggests courage, a protective instinct that switches on when someone vulnerable is threatened, and the ability to finish a hard fight. Many Navami natives, in practice, are the members of a family or team who step forward when something needs to be confronted.
Navratri honours Durga in nine forms, one for each night, and the ninth is Siddhidatri, the giver of accomplishment and completion. That fits Navami’s position well: it is the day on which a long effort reaches its end, even if the celebration of the result comes a day later.
Rikta and Ugra: the fierce tithi
Navami is the middle Rikta tithi, after Chaturthi and before Chaturdashi. Rikta days are kept free of weddings and other auspicious beginnings and are used for ending, cutting and confronting, and some lists add the name Ugra, fierce, for Navami in particular. A Rikta tithi on a Saturday counts as Siddha. None of this describes the person born on the day, but it does explain the tradition’s picture of Navami natives as intense and direct, better at a battle than at small talk.
The Sun again: every tithi’s deity and planet
The planetary lords of the tithis follow the order of the weekdays, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, with Rahu added as an eighth. Having reached Rahu at Ashtami, the sequence starts again with the Sun at Navami, so Navami shares its planet with Pratipada. The table sets out the whole scheme for the fifteen tithis and Amavasya, with each tithi’s deity from the Muhurta Chintamani, its class and its burnt signs.
| Tithi | Deity | Planet (weekday scheme) | Class | Burnt signs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Pratipada | Agni | Sun | Nanda | Libra, Capricorn |
| 2 Dwitiya | Brahma (Vidhata) | Moon | Bhadra | Sagittarius, Pisces |
| 3 Tritiya | Gauri | Mars | Jaya | Leo, Capricorn |
| 4 Chaturthi | Ganesha | Mercury | Rikta | Taurus, Aquarius |
| 5 Panchami | The Nagas | Jupiter | Purna | Gemini, Virgo |
| 6 Shashthi | Skanda | Venus | Nanda | Aries, Leo |
| 7 Saptami | Surya | Saturn | Bhadra | Cancer, Sagittarius |
| 8 Ashtami | Shiva | Rahu | Jaya | Gemini, Virgo |
| 9 Navami | Durga | Sun | Rikta | Leo, Scorpio |
| 10 Dashami | Yama | Moon | Purna | Leo, Scorpio |
| 11 Ekadashi | The Vishvedevas | Mars | Nanda | Sagittarius, Pisces |
| 12 Dwadashi | Vishnu (Hari) | Mercury | Bhadra | Libra, Capricorn |
| 13 Trayodashi | Kama | Jupiter | Jaya | Taurus, Leo |
| 14 Chaturdashi | Shiva | Venus | Rikta | Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces |
| 15 Purnima | Chandra, the Moon | Saturn | Purna | None |
| 30 Amavasya | The Pitris, the ancestors | Rahu | Purna | None |
Other planetary schemes for the tithis exist, and some regional lists differ on a deity or a burnt sign, so the table is best treated as the most widely used version rather than the only one. The same fifteen names serve both fortnights, with Purnima ending the bright half and Amavasya the dark.
A few patterns stand out once the whole scheme is in view. The five classes run three times through each fortnight, first to fifth, sixth to tenth and eleventh to fifteenth, so every class holds exactly three tithis. The burnt signs come in shared pairs for several tithis, Pratipada with Dwadashi, Dwitiya with Ekadashi, Panchami with Ashtami, and Navami with Dashami, while Chaturdashi burns four signs and the two full and new moon tithis burn none at all.
Leo and Scorpio: the burnt signs
The shunya signs of Navami are Leo and Scorpio, ruled by the Sun and Mars, the same pair that Dashami carries. Under the rule, houses holding those signs give a little less than expected and the Sun and Mars, as their lords, somewhat muted results. The customary let-outs apply: a lord placed in the sixth, eighth or twelfth, one moving retrograde, and natural malefics in the sign itself. Since the Sun is also Navami’s own planet, the rule would have the tithi’s lord partly muted by its own tithi, one of several signs that these correspondences are not a tidy system. In a birth chart it is a minor note.
Ram Navami and Maha Navami
Ram Navami, the Shukla Navami of Chaitra, celebrates the birth of Rama, who by tradition was born at midday, and temples mark the moment at noon. Maha Navami, the Shukla Navami of Ashvin, is the last of Navratri’s nine days, given to the goddess Siddhidatri; in much of the south it is also Ayudha Puja, when tools, instruments, books and vehicles are cleaned and worshipped. Sita Navami falls in Vaishakha, Mahesh Navami in Jyeshtha, and Akshaya or Amla Navami in Kartika, all in the bright half. With so many celebrations attached to it, the Shukla Navami is anything but an unwelcome day in practice, whatever its Rikta classification.
Navami in muhurta
For choosing dates, Navami’s Rikta status keeps it out of weddings and housewarmings, and marriage in particular is ruled out on it in the site’s marriage muhurat guide. It is favoured instead for worship of the goddess, for undertakings that need force, and for bringing an unwanted matter to an end. The Leo and Scorpio rule applies too: a Navami falls dagdha while the Sun is in either of those signs. These are all rules for picking a day and say nothing about a person born on one.
Navami in KP
KP does not use the birth tithi, and one practical point shows how differently the two approaches treat birth data. KP’s rectification work, described in the site’s ruling planets rectification method, exists because the cusps and their sub-lords shift within minutes. The tithi, lasting about a day, almost never changes with a small error in birth time, so it cannot help with rectification and is not needed for it. What decides KP judgments is the part of the chart that moves fastest, not the part that moves slowest.
Two Navami births
A man born one evening on Maha Navami, particulars changed, Aries on the ascendant. His Sun sits at 25 degrees Virgo in the sixth house, and the Moon at 5 degrees Capricorn stands high in the tenth, a hundred degrees ahead: Shukla Navami, with a gibbous Moon that is already strong. Right beside that Moon is Mars, the lord of his lagna, exalted in Capricorn, and the site’s page on Mars in Capricorn describes the disciplined, practical force that placement gives. He was born on the day of Ayudha Puja, and he runs a machine-tool workshop that his customers trust with their most exacting jobs. His family does their Ayudha Puja in his workshop now.
A woman born just after sunrise, details altered, with Virgo rising and the Sun at 3 degrees Leo in the twelfth. The Moon, at 15 degrees Taurus in the ninth, is 282 degrees ahead of the Sun: Krishna Navami, a waning Moon under half lit and weak by phase. It is also exalted, as the page on the Moon in Taurus explains, and the two facts together describe her well: quiet and self-reliant, as the waning phase suggests, but steady and grounded, as the exalted sign promises. She is a ceramic artist whose studio pieces sell through galleries, and she works best alone.
Frequently asked questions
What is Navami tithi?
The ninth lunar day of each fortnight: the Moon 96 to 108 degrees ahead of the Sun on Shukla Navami, or 276 to 288 degrees on Krishna Navami. It is Durga’s tithi.
Is it inauspicious to be born on Navami tithi?
No. Navami is a Rikta tithi, avoided for starting ceremonies, but that is a rule for choosing dates. A person born on it is judged by the chart, and Navami natives are often notably courageous.
How do Shukla and Krishna Navami differ?
On Shukla Navami the Moon is more than half lit, growing and strong by phase. On Krishna Navami it is less than half lit, shrinking and weak by phase. The Moon’s sign can override either.
Why is Navami’s planet the Sun?
The tithi lords follow the weekday order with Rahu added as an eighth. After Rahu at Ashtami the cycle begins again, so Navami, like Pratipada, falls to the Sun.
Which deity rules Navami tithi?
Durga, according to the Muhurta Chintamani. That is why Navratri ends on Navami and why so many of the tithi’s festivals honour the goddess.
What are the burnt signs of Navami?
Leo and Scorpio, ruled by the Sun and Mars, the same pair as Dashami. In a birth chart the rule is a light adjustment, never a verdict.
When is Ram Navami?
On the Shukla Navami of Chaitra, usually in March or April, with the main celebration at midday, the traditional time of Rama’s birth.
Courage is in the tithi. Direction is in the chart.
A consultation reads your Moon, Sun and Mars, the lagna and the cusps that matter for your questions, and the dasha you are running, and puts the Navami birth in its proper place.