Also called: Nakha · Fingernails

Where on the hand: On the first phalange of each finger and of the thumb, on the back of the hand.

What it looks like: The ideal nail is smooth, shiny, slightly convex, pink or rosy, with a small clear lunula, no ridging and no spots. Read shape, colour, texture and markings as four separate layers.

Nails are governed by Saturn (Shani) overall, and each nail additionally takes the character of its own finger's graha — Mars on the thumb, Jupiter on the index, Saturn on the middle, Sun on the ring, Mercury on the little. In Ayurvedic terms they are the *mala* (waste product) of *asthi dhatu*, the visible extension of bone tissue, which is why they are used as a constitution and long-term-health index.

Western reading: Cheiro places nail shape first among his disease indicators.

Read with care: All health readings attached to nails in this tradition are folk and traditional doctrine, not medical assessment. Nail changes with genuine medical significance should be taken to a clinician, not to a palmist. Transliteration: नाखून is nākhūn; the 'Nakh' given for it is actually नख, which the entry already gives as the Sanskrit.