Electional Astrology or Muhurta basics

Electional Astrology (Muhurtham)
The branch of Astrology that deals with Electing a suitable time for commencement of any activity is called Electional Astrology. A lot of research has been done on this subject. The following is a very early and perhaps very feeble attempt to put all the factors considered in Electing a Muhurtam in one place for quick reference. Most of this information is taken from B.V.Raman’s book on Muhurta.
Disclaimer: In many cases for simplicity, things have been stated as being good or bad. Please do not take this at face value and please do adequate research before accepting this one way or another.

For commencement of any activity, it is very important to fix a proper Muhurtham (auspicious time, because one finds that certain activities when started at an auspicious time are prone to be more successful than those started at other times). This is a debateable point and this article is not being written to convince anyone of the authenticity or merit of Electional Astrology, but is really meant to be a quick reference for those who are interested in practicing it in a small scale at home.
In fixing the Muhurtham, effect of different planetary positions and stars( or Nakshatras) on the suitability and unsuitability of the time for commencing different activities is studied and the time best suited is elected for commencing an activity. The five main factors that are taken into consideration for fixing the Muhurtham are Thithi (Lunar day), Vaaram(Day of the week), Nakshatram (Constellation), Yoga (Luni-solar day) and Karana(half a lunar day).

Tithi
Each Thithi or Lunar day is in reality equal to 0.9483 of a day.So a Lunar month will be equal to 29.53 days. Usually in a panchanga or calendar, the ending of the Thithi is given, and this means that the moon is away from the Sun in multiples of 12 degrees. So when the Moon is away from the sun by exactly 12 degrees the padyami day ends, similarly by end of Pournami (opposition point), the Moon is away from the sun by 180 degrees, and by Amavasya’s end, the moon is 0 degrees away from the Sun or in Conjunction with the Sun.
In simple terms, A Thithi is a 30th part of a lunar month. Thithis are 15 in number, beginning with the first day after full moon( Pounami) and first day after new moon( Amavasya). This means that we use the same names for Thithis after Pournami ( full moon) and also after Amavasya ( or New moon).The lunar 15-day period is called a "Paksham" or part. So, a lunar month has two pakshams, "Suklapaksham", which is the waxing phase or bright half of the Moon as it goes towards Pournima and "Krishnapaksham", which is the waning phase or the dark half of the Moon going towards Amavasya. The names of the Thithis are given in the table below and a gross judgement has been made on these days being good and bad. This should be investigated thoroughly for acceptance.

LUNAR DAY Good/Bad
1 prathipada/padyami Good
2 vidiya Good
3 thadiya Good
4 chavithi/chathurthi Bad
5 panchami Good
6 shashti Good
7 sapthami Good
8 ashtami Bad
9 navami Good
10 dasami Good
11 kadasi Good
12 dwadasi Bad *
13 thrayodasi Good
14 chathurdasi Bad
15 Pournami/Amavasya Good

*Depending upon other factors, this can be sometimes considered for aupicious activites.

The bad days listed above are not suitable for auspicious activites both during the Shukla paksha and Krishna paksha.

During Shuklapaksha all the days sited as good in the above table can be treated as such. During Krishna paksha, usually padyami, vidiya, tadhiya and panchami are considered as good. This can be understood by thinking about the Moon’s waxing and waning cycles and then one decides how good the rest of the days are based on the brightness of the moon. Keeping in mind that the Moon’s Brightness increases as we reach Pournami and then starts to decrease during the Krishna Paksha. So as an example, a Dhasami during Krishna Paksha is not so good as a Dhasami during Shukla Paksha.

Vaaram
Vaaram denotes the day of the week. A planet rules each day. Rahu and Ketu are not associated with any Vaaram.

VAARAM PLANET GOOD/BAD Color Gemstone
1 Adi (Sunday) Sun Good Red/Maroon Ruby/Garnet
2Soma (Mon) Moon Good Off White Pearl
3Mangal( Tues) Mars Bad Coral (Orange) Coral
4Budha (Wed) Mercury Neutral Green Emerald
5Guru (Thur) Jupiter Good Yellow yellow Sapphire/Topaz
6Sukra (Friday) Venus Good White Diamond
7Sani (Saturday) Saturn Bad Dark Blue Blue Sapphire


Nakshatram
There are twenty-seven stars, all of which have been listed in the previous Article. These are listed here again, for quick easy reference. The order of the Nakshatras is : Aswini, Bharini, Kritika Rohini etc, . Please read the table one column at a time for the correct order.This has been written in this way to be able to show the rulars for each group of Nakshatras

Nakshatra ( and #) Nakshatra (and #) Nakshatra (and #) Rular
Aswini (1) Makha (10) Moola (19) Ketu
Bharani (2) Poorvaphalguni (11) (Pubba)Poorvashada (20)Venus
Krittika (3) Uttaraphalguni (12) Uttarashada (21) Sun
Rohini (4) Hasta (13) Sravanam (22) Moon
Mrigasira (5) Chitta ( chitra) (14) Dhanista (23) Mars
Arudra (6) Swati (15) Shatabisham (24) Rahu
Punarvasu (7) Vishaka (16) Poorvabadra (25) Jupiter
Pushyami (8) Anuradha (17) Uttarabadra (26) Saturn
Aslesha (9) Jyesta (18) Revati (27) Mercury

Note: Between Sravanam (22) and Dhanista (23), there is another Nakshatram that sometimes appears in Calendars. This is called Abhijit and is supposed to be very auspicious. This is generally not counted in any of our calculations.

To determine if the nakshatram at the time of the event is good for you or not, find out what Nakshatram is operating that day. This you will find in an Indian Calendar or with a Panchang.Start counting from your Janma Nakshatram, in multiples of 9, until you reach the particular Nakshatram for that day. Then refer to the table below, labeled Star and their Associations for general indications on the particular Nakshatram on yourself. Remember that the Calendar or Panchang lists the ending time of the Nakshatram and if it is an Indian Calendar, all these times are in Indian Standard Time, so they need to be converted to your local time.
Stars and their Associations:
1 Very Good : Janma Tara. (Soul Mates for compatibility studies in synastry or marriage partners)
2 Good : Dhana Tara. Sampat tara. Wealth.
3 Bad: Vipat Tara. Obstacles
4 Good: Kshema tara, for prosperity, Mother. Real Estate.etc
5 Bad : Enemy or pratyak tara, obstacles
6 Good: Refers to Health, debts etc,also called sadana tara, realisation of ambition.
7 Very bad : Naidana Tara. Dangers
8 Good : Mitra (Friend)
9 Very Good: Parama Mitra. (Best Friend)


Yoga*:
For the purpose of Electional Astrology and Understanding of the Panchanga, A Yoga is supposed to be the period of time during which the joint motion of the Moon and the Sun amounts to 13 degrees and 20 minutes. There are a total of 27 yogas. Again the calendar and Panchanga give the ending time of a yoga. Yogas are supposed to be able to strengthen our bodies , free them of diseases and help us enjoy health and life.
In order to understand the concept of joint motion of the Sun and Moon, a good way to look at it would be to remember that the Moon would take approximately one lunar day to complete moving through the 4 padas of a Nakshatra, which is equivalent to 13 degrees and 20 minutes. The Sun on the other hand moves about 1 degree in a solar day, since it will have to traverse a 30 degree sign in 30 days. So roughly speaking you will have one yoga a day.
This means that if the sum of the longitude of the sun and the moon is 281 degrees, we are in Siddha yoga ( add 13 degrees and 20 minutes for each yoga from Vishkambha to get 280 degrees).
*Please note that there are other Yogas in Astrology which should not be confused with this description of Yoga. The above description only pertains to Electional Astrology( Muhurtam) and Panchanga.
The following is the list of yogas
#Name of Yoga # Name of Yoga
1 Vishkambha (bad or inauspicious) 15 Vajra (bad or inauspicious)
2 Priti 16 Siddhi
3 Ayushman 17 Vyatipata (bad or inauspicious)
4 Saubhagya 18 Variyan
5 Sobhana 19 Parigha (bad or inauspicious)
6 Atiganda (bad or inauspicious) 20 Siva
7 Sukarman 21 Siddha
8 Dhriti 22 Sadhya
9 Soola (bad or inauspicious) 23 Subha
10 Ganda (bad or inauspicious) 24 Sukla
11 Vriddhi 25 Brahma
12 Dhruva 26 Indra
13 Vyaghata (bad or inauspicious) 27Vaidhriti (bad or inauspicious)
14 Harshana



Karana:
A Karana is defined as half a lunar day. Again this would be a motion of about 6 degrees total between the Sun and the Moon. There are 11 Karanas listed in the table below. So there will be two Karanas in a Lunar day.
The first Seven Karanas occur 8 times during a lunar month but commencing with the 2nd half of the first Lunar day ( this comes after Amavasya)
The last 4 are said to be permanent Karanas and occur in order starting at the 2nd half of the 29th Lunar day.
So the last four Karanas will come just before and during Amavasya. After which the new Lunar month starts and we will go thru the Karanas Bava thru Vishti 8 times, and just before Amavasya and during Amavasya we will have the last four karanas.


# Karana # Karana
1 Bava 7 Vishti Unfavourable
2 Balava 8 Sakuna UnfavourablePermanent
3 Kaulava 9 Chatuspada Unfavourable Permanent
4 Taitula 10 Naga Unfavourable Permanent
5 Girija 11 Kimstunda Unfavourable Permanent
6 Vanija



Yoga:
It is supposed to be the period of time during which the joint motion of the Moon and the Sun amounts to 13 degrees and 20 minutes. There are 27 yogas. Again the calendar and Panchaga gives the ending time of a yoga. Yogas are supposed to be able to strengthen our bodies , free them of diseases and help us enjoy health and life.

Chitralekha

There are several stories related to the name Chitralekha:

Here is one of then :

Usha Parinayam:

Chitralekha is a character in the story "Usha Parinayam" ( or marriage of Usha) . This is the story of Usha, a daitya princess, daughter of king Banasura ( the king of Asuras, Banasura is the son of King Bali and the grandson of Prahlada) and how she got married to Anniruddha the grandson of Krishna.

Banasura was a great Siva devotee and obtained a boon from Siva that he would be invinsible and Lord Siva would gaurd his city. Banasura became arrongant after he received his boon and tried to fight with Siva himself. Siva tells him that he would face defeat and humiliation when the flagstaff on his chariot falls and it would happen at the hands of someone who is interested in his daughter.

So Banasura keeps his daughter captive in his palace and does not allow anyone to see her. Once
Usha sees a handsome man in her dreams and decides that she would like to marry him. But no one is sure if he is real or imaginary. So she describes him to her friend Chitralekha, who paints pictures of several men, and finally finds out who Usha's dream man was . It is none other than Anniruddha, the grandson of Krishna and son of Pradhumna.

Usha implores Chitralekha to bring Anniruddha to her, so she Chitralekha uses her magical powers to abduct Prince Anniruddha in his sleep and bring him to Usha's palace.

Anniruddha and Usha fall for each other, and spend many happy hours together, when Banasura discovers that a young prince is with Usha. He sends gaurds to capture him, but the prince defeats his assailants. But ultimately Banasure captures Anniruddha with his magical and Asura powers makes him his prisoner


Narada informs Krishna in Dwaraka of these developments. Krishna, Pradyumna and Balarama set forth to Sonitapura ( in modern Assam) to rescue Anniruddha and a huge war ensues. Banasura is a formidable enemy, and is also aided by Siva who protectsthe city as a boon to Banasura. but after severe fighting on both sides, the flag staff on Banasura's chariot falls just as Siva predicted foretelling the defeat and humiliation of Banasura.

Krishna cuts off Banasura's limbs ( he has a thousand limbs) and keeps only four of them intact. Krishna does not kill Banasura since he had promised Prahlada that he would always protect his descendants.

Finally Banasura defeated and humiliated , gives his Daughter Usha in marriage to Anniruddha.
Anniruddha takes Usha back to Dwaraka with him.

They have a son by name Vajra.
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FYI : Aniruddha (Sanskrit:अनिरुद्ध) means uncontrolled or "without obstacles".