Lesson 12 of 14
Muhurtham: how a date is chosen
A good day is built up from the month, the weekday, the tithi, the star and the rising sign.
| Factor | Adds | Takes away |
|---|---|---|
| Tamil month | A wedding month +2 | Aadi, Purattasi or Margazhi rules the day out |
| Weekday | Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday +2 | Tuesday, Saturday −4 |
| Tithi at sunrise | A good tithi +2 | An avoided tithi −6 |
| Star at sunrise | One of the marriage stars +3 | One of the ten avoided stars −6 |
| Karana | nothing | Vishti at sunrise −4 |
| The couple | nothing | Chandrashtama for either rules the day out |
| The couple | nothing | Either one’s birth star −4 |
| Lagna windows | Each window of 45 minutes or more +1 | At most +2 in all |
A is a time chosen for a beginning, above all the wedding hour. Choosing one is not a single rule but a series of filters, each adding to or taking away from a day, until a handful of good days stand out in a month. This is how the muhurtham page grades every day in the range you give it, the way a Tamil almanac does.
The month
The Tamil month comes first. , and are not used for weddings at all, so any day in them is ruled out whatever else it has. The other nine, from to , are wedding months, and Thai, and are among the busiest.
The day itself
Then the day’s own limbs, read at sunrise. The weekday: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are good, Sunday acceptable, Tuesday and Saturday avoided. The : the second, third, fifth, seventh, tenth, eleventh, thirteenth and the full moon are good; the rest are avoided, among them the , the fourth, ninth and fourteenth, as well as the eighth and the new moon. The star: the eleven , among them , , and , add most, and ten stars are avoided. And the : at sunrise takes points away.
The couple
Two checks are personal. The day’s Moon must not be in the eighth sign from either partner’s rasi, the ; that is treated as ruling the day out. And the day’s star should not be either partner’s own birth star. That is why the page asks for both stars and rasis: the best day for one couple can be a poor one for another.
The hour
Within a good day the ceremony needs a good hour. The page walks the rising sign through the daylight and keeps the stretches where a fixed sign, , , or , or a dual sign is rising, then cuts out , and . What is left, if it is at least 45 minutes long, is a . A window that includes is marked.
The grade
Every factor adds or subtracts points: a wedding month adds 2, a good weekday 2, a good tithi 2, a marriage star 3, and each usable lagna window 1, up to 2. An avoided tithi or star takes away 6, Vishti 4, an avoided weekday 4. Seven or more is excellent, four good, one fair, and anything below that, or any day with a ruled-out month or a chandrashtama, is one to avoid.
The grade is a starting list, not the final word. Families then weigh what the almanac cannot: the hall, the travel for relatives, the priest’s own calendar, and the family astrologer’s reading of the couple’s charts. The same filters, with different stars and lagnas, serve a , a , a new business or a journey, and the page lets you switch between them.