Citrā spans the late degrees of Kanyā (23°20’) into early Tulā (6°40’), and its bright jewel or pearl symbol points directly to the nakṣatra’s essential quality: the capacity to create beauty that is both singular and brilliant. Governed by Mars and presided over by Viśvakarmā — the divine craftsman who built the celestial city of Dvārakā, crafted the weapons of the gods, and fashioned the aerial city Laṅkā — Citrā is the nakṣatra of artistry, architecture, and the creation of things beautiful and enduring.
The name “citrā” means “bright” or “variegated” — the quality of something that catches light from all angles, that reveals different facets as one moves around it. The star Spica (Alpha Virginis), one of the brightest stars in the night sky, is the nakṣatra’s primary star — brilliant, blue-white, and unmistakable. Parāśara describes Citrā natives as wearing fine garlands and garments, possessing attractive and luminous bodies, and inclined toward a life of beauty and aesthetic excellence. Mars provides the discipline and technical precision required to give form to creative vision; Viśvakarmā provides the understanding that the highest craft is divine service.
Citrā natives are found in fields requiring the intersection of discipline and beauty: architecture, interior design, fashion, jewelry-making, painting, sculpture, film and photography, fashion, and engineering where aesthetic excellence is valued alongside function. They tend to have strong personal style — often distinctive, occasionally unconventional — and an instinct for visual harmony that others find remarkable. The Rakshasa classification points to an intensity and single-mindedness in their creative pursuits that can override social niceties.
The Mars rulership in Kanyā’s analytical territory and Tulā’s aesthetic domain creates individuals who are simultaneously technically precise and artistically gifted — able to think through structural problems while maintaining the eye for beauty. Citrā is classified as a mṛdu (soft) nakṣatra — auspicious for creative undertakings, wearing new clothes and jewels, artistic performances, and aesthetic learning. Varāhamihira notes that those born under Citrā are “attractive, fond of wearing multi-colored garments, skilled, and possessed of beautiful eyes.”