Choosing a muhūrta, the hour to begin

Most families in Punjab have a version of the same story. The wedding date was fixed by an uncle, the shop opened on a Tuesday because that was the day the shutter arrived, and the family moved into the house whenever the painter finished. Some of those beginnings went well. The ones that did not are usually why people come to us asking for a muhūrta.

A muhūrta is a chosen beginning. The word means a span of about forty-eight minutes, and the practice is finding one in which the sky favours the thing you are starting. It is old and it is specific, and, which surprises people, most of it can be checked.

What is weighed

Five things, in the traditional reckoning, and we weigh all five.

The tithi, the lunar day. Some tithis suit beginnings, some suit endings, and some suit nothing at all. The panchang strip on our home page shows tonight’s. It is the first thing we look at for any date.

The nakshatra, the lunar mansion the Moon is passing through. There are twenty-seven, each with its own nature. Rohiṇī and Uttara Phālgunī are good for weddings; Bharaṇī and Āśleṣā are not. This is the part of muhūrta most people have heard of, and it is one fifth of it.

The vāra, the weekday, each ruled by a graha. Tuesdays and Saturdays are avoided for most beginnings, not out of superstition but because Mars and Saturn govern them, and neither favours new things.

The yoga and the karaṇa, two further divisions of the day that most calendars print and few people read. Between them they rule out roughly a third of the hours in any month.

Then, above the five, the Moon. If the Moon stands badly for the person beginning, in the eighth sign from their birth Moon for instance, no combination of the other four rescues the hour. This is why a muhūrta is personal. The same Saturday can be good for one bride and poor for another.

What we do

You tell us what you are beginning, who it belongs to (the birth details of the principal person: the bride and groom, the head of the household, the owner of the shop), and the window you have, whether a month or a season. We come back with two or three hours, in order of preference, with the reason for each.

We do not come back with one hour and no reason. A muhūrta you cannot explain is one you cannot defend to the caterer, and the caterer will win.

The limits

A muhūrta does not make a wrong marriage right, and it does not make an unsound building stand. It is a good beginning, no more and no less. A good beginning is worth having because the first hour of a thing tends to set its tone.

There are also seasons in which no hour is good for a particular family, and we will say so. It is better to move a griha pravesh by three weeks than to enter the house at a poor hour because the tent was already booked.

When to ask

Early. A wedding’s muhūrta should be chosen before the hall is booked, and a foundation stone’s before the contractor gives you a date. The good hours in any month are few, and it is easier to build the calendar around them than to fit them in afterwards.

Bring the birth details, the window, and the thing itself.