When should you begin?
Muhurta is the one branch of jyotisha that is almost entirely rule-driven. The classical texts name the nakshatras, tithis and weekdays that suit each undertaking, and the ones they set aside. This page applies those rules to real positions and shows you every one it used — so you can disagree with the tradition rather than with us.
Find a date
Days the tradition refuses
0 days in this range are set aside outright. They are listed so you can see a date was considered, not missed.
Choghadiya and hora
Day sunrise to sunset, eight parts
Night sunset to sunrise, eight parts
Hora one hour each from sunrise
How a date is judged
Four things about a day decide most of a muhurta, and all four are computed here from the Moon and Sun rather than read from a table.
The nakshatra, and what it is fit to begin
Brihat Samhita ch. 98 sorts the twenty-seven nakshatras into seven classes, and the class decides the kind of work the star suits. Fixed things go under the fixed stars; moving things under the moving ones.
| Class | Nakshatras | Fit for |
|---|---|---|
| Dhruva — fixed | Rohini, Uttara Phalguni, Uttara Ashadha, Uttara Bhadrapada | Building, planting, coronation, anything meant to stay |
| Chara — moving | Punarvasu, Swati, Shravana, Dhanishta, Shatabhisha | Travel, vehicles, trade, anything that moves |
| Mridu — tender | Mrigashira, Chitra, Anuradha, Revati | Marriage, friendship, cloth, ornament, the arts |
| Laghu — light, swift | Ashwini, Pushya, Hasta | Trade, medicine, art, anything finished quickly |
| Mishra — mixed | Krittika, Vishakha | Fire, ritual, work of mixed character |
| Ugra — fierce | Bharani, Magha, Purva Phalguni, Purva Ashadha, Purva Bhadrapada | Demolition and confrontation — not auspicious beginnings |
| Tikshna — sharp | Ardra, Ashlesha, Jyeshtha, Mula | Severing, discipline, work that must cut something off |
The tithi
The fifteen tithis of each fortnight fall into five classes repeating in order: Nanda (1, 6, 11), Bhadra (2, 7, 12), Jaya (3, 8, 13), Rikta (4, 9, 14) and Purna (5, 10, 15). Rikta means empty, and every text that discusses it sets those three aside for auspicious beginnings.
The weekday
Each day belongs to a planet, and the work suits the planet. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday carry most undertakings; Tuesday and Saturday are withheld from most of them, and Sunday from marriage.
The named prohibitions
Five are checked here, and only five. Vishti karana, called Bhadra, blocks auspicious work outright. So does Amavasya. Panchak — the Moon between Dhanishta’s third quarter and the end of Revati — withholds roofing, southward journeys and fuel-gathering. Chaturmas, from Devshayani to Prabodhini Ekadashi, admits no marriage. Nor does Guru or Shukra asta, when Jupiter or Venus is too close to the Sun to be seen — which is why the wedding season in India opens and closes when it does.
Then the hours inside the day
A permitted day still has hours that are not. Rahu Kaal, Yamaganda and Gulika each take an eighth of the daylight, and the windows this page offers are what survives after all three are cut out of the favourable choghadiya. Where a good period is swallowed whole — on a Wednesday, Yamaganda covers the Amrit period exactly — the page says so rather than quietly dropping it.
What this does not do
A full muhurta fixes the rising sign at the intended moment itself, weighing the eighth house, the Moon’s position from the lagna and malefics in the seventh. That needs the minute as an input, which is the opposite of what a date search is for. Muhurta Chintamani enumerates some seventy-two blemishes; this page checks five of them.
The reckoning here follows the amanta lunar month and north Indian convention. A Tamil or Kerala almanac will differ, sometimes by a whole day. And for a wedding in particular, the day-level rules are a shortlist and nothing more — the decision needs both horoscopes.
Muhurta is a tradition, not an empirical finding, and it is offered here as one. Nothing on this page is professional, medical, legal or financial advice.