Panchang guide / Muhurat
What is a muhurat? How auspicious times are chosen
A muhurat is a time chosen for beginning something important: a wedding, moving into a new home, starting a business, a naming ceremony. The aim is to begin under a sky that supports the work.
A muhurta is also a unit of time
Strictly, one muhurta (मुहूर्त) is 1/30 of a day and night: about 48 minutes, or two ghatis of 24 minutes each. The day from sunrise to sunset has 15 muhurtas, and the night has 15. Their length changes with the season, because they divide the actual daylight and darkness.
Two muhurtas everyone knows
- Abhijit muhurta: the 8th of the 15 daytime muhurtas, centred on local noon. Traditionally strong for most work, though often avoided on Wednesdays.
- Brahma muhurta: the second-last muhurta of the night, roughly 1 hour 36 minutes to 48 minutes before sunrise. Valued for study, meditation and prayer.
How an auspicious time is chosen
A full muhurat brings together the five limbs of the panchang and the rising sign:
| Element | What is checked |
|---|---|
| Tithi | Avoid Rikta tithis (4th, 9th, 14th) and Amavasya for most beginnings |
| Vara | A weekday whose planet suits the work |
| Nakshatra | Each kind of work has favoured nakshatras: fixed ones for foundations, moveable ones for travel |
| Yoga | Avoid Vyatipata and Vaidhriti |
| Karana | Avoid Vishti (Bhadra) |
| Lagna | A strong rising sign at the moment of starting, free of malefic influence |
| Daily periods | Avoid Rahu kaal; use a good choghadiya or hora |
For personal events, the muhurat is also checked against the person’s own birth chart, for example the Moon’s position by tara bala and chandra bala.
Festival muhurats
Festivals have fixed rules of their own. Diwali’s Lakshmi Puja is done in Pradosh kaal, the period after sunset, while Amavasya lasts, ideally when a fixed sign such as Taurus is rising. Because sunset and the rising sign depend on place, festival muhurats must be calculated for each city.
Today: Abhijit and other muhurtas for your city.
Source: the classical muhurta texts, principally Muhurta Chintamani (Rama Daivajna, 1600 CE).