The muhurta system is a traditional practise to identify or elect dates and times for launch of new events or ceremonies.

This is based on the panchanga system. The panchanga system is based on observation of the sky

• The position of the sun on the celestial equator gives the month (maasa)
• The distance of the sun and moon from each other gives the phase of the moon or tithi
• The paksha is the waning or waxing moon.
• Karana - one half of a Tithi, each Tithi or phase is dividen into 2 equal parts. Each Karana is given a unique name
• Yoga - the longitudinal position of Sun and Moon are added, and then placed in the Natchatra parts
• Varam or Weekday - tracked by the day of the week. Strangely the whole world follows an unbroken weekday system. Which are of 7 in numbers, named after the brightest objects in the sky, that is the Sun, Moon and the visible planets

The weekday - Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. In local language - Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn.

Now, if we look at varam or weekday, this is a cyclical system of naming each day after a planet, the order though derived from the hora system, it might have been based on the brightness of the planets.

Since the brightness of planets changes across the years, and also depends on the distance of the planet from sun and its position in the sky, this argument does not hold good.

I am not sold, on the idea on the day naming and why only 7 days. After reading various ancient texts and myths of all times, the day naming system is predominant in communites which are coastal.

Maybe it was used by seafarers, and seven days was the limit of the rations that they could carry on their boats or ships.

The celestial calendar

The sky follows a pattern, especially the sun and moon. And this pattern is associated with the seasons.

The celestial equator line is the projection of earths equator on to the sky. For our ancestors, who did not have internet, its basically the imaginary line that bisects the sky into north and south.

You essentiall lie down on the floor, which is open to the sky, with your head in north, and legs in the south. Now spread your hands, the left hand to the east and right towards the west. The imaginary line that you can draw by moving your left hand towards your right is the celestial equator.

Now for people who are living close to the equator, the planets and the sun and moon would be moving across the equator like a snake. Its much visible near the equator, since the planets will be zigzagging the norther and southern hemishpere of the sky.

What is the zodiac ?

The stars were fixed in the sky, the sky does not have markers, so the stars themselves are the markers.

Think of the sky like a gaint canvas, with many dots, called stars, these stars maintain their position with respect to their surroundings.

Planets and comets, though they share the same canvas, move in small degrees each day or month, on the static canvas of stars.

Patterns were made out of stars, and were named constellations, each constellation were given a name. The whole sky was divided into 12 parts, visible night sky was divided into 6 parts. Every 30 days, the position of the full moon would change in the sky, it would enter a new zodiac. Similary after dusk a new zodiac would appear, and the 8th zodiac from it would dissapear for 6 months.

Why 360 degrees in a circle ?

Because it takes 364 days for the sun to come the same position in the zodiac. And 360 is an easier number to divide by 12 (number of moon months) and 30 (number of days in month)

How did our ancestors identify planets ?

In each night, as the days progress. The stars are fixed in the sky. The whole zodiac moves by one degree on each day because of our orbit across the sun. Now our ancestors, saw patterns made by group of stars, and called then the zodiac. Some looked like a bull, some like goat, one like a crab, one like a balance. The stars that make up the zodiac, in general maintain the position (this needs a seperate blog, because there are concepts like stira, astrica, ugra etc), but there were certain stars, that were not static, but were seen in different zodiacs. Some planets like mercury, venus, mars changed their positions every month. The moon every day. The sun every month. And jupiter changed the position every year. Saturn every 2.5 years. The movement was gradual. They hopped zodiac signs across months or years. These luminous entities were called planets or graha, by our ancestors.

Now the panchang system, is very useful to identify seasons, and sowing times. It was very useful in predicting the direction of winds, which was used by seafarers. Like after June 22, the wind picks up speed from indian subcontinent to the east asia. Similarly after diwali, the eastern sea becomes very turbulent. The wind picks up speed from the western subcontinent to the arabian peninsula.

What is the calendar system ?

The sun shits in the zodiac every day by a degree, so in 30 days, the sun would have changed a zodiac. This is called a month. When the moon is closest to the sun in the sky, its called a new moon. And when it is traight opposite, its a full moon. The natchatra associated with the full moon, every month was used to name the month. And this eventually evovled in to the traditional calendar.

What is the muhurta systems ?

The moon changes its position on the zodiac plane every day. The star which is closest to the moon becomes the natchatra of the day (observation method). The angular speed of the moon is close to fixed, so it is very easy to predict the stars association for a future date. A pattern was associated with the natchatra of the day (the closest start to the moon), the weekday (sunday, monday …), the phase of the moon (waxing, waning), the lunar day (pratima, dwitya.. or the first lunar day, second lunar day…), and the karana. A set of these patterns, were named as good, and some sets of these patterns were named as bad. This is pure hogwash.

I did analysis of samples of many events, like rocket launch, marriages, child birth, product launch (like apple events). There seems to be no association, between the dates and the outcome of the event.

Eg: Tesla might have launched a care on an inauspicous date, and yet made a huge sale. Some IPO’s might have happend on auspicious dates and yet flunked.

Blind sample always fails to prove an association. But if I say before hand to the astrologer, that the even was the launch of GSLV rocket, or was the launch date for apple iphone, they tend to tweak the system and bring in some argument which is pure hogwash.

In India the muhurta system is followed during marriages, and important events.

Do note the dependency of the system with the weekday. Now everything in the panchang is based on the observable position of sun, moon, star on the sky. Except the weekday.

The idea of associating a observable event, with an imaginary event in itself is wrong. The muhurta system was invented by people who did not want to do any work, and instead fool people by propogating a false hope.

Weekday system used by seafarers

This is totally my opinion, the number of days seafarers could stay in sea ( the small boats and ships ) is usually 3 to 7 days. That is the number of days of clean ration that a ship could carry for all the people on the boat or ship.

They needed a counting system, in the days before watches were invented, the day they started the journey was named sunday, and next day was moon day, then the mars day, mercury day, jupiter day, venus day, and finally saturn day.

The venus day or friday was usually when they would open the alcohol barrel and binge drink, because they would be on the way back or close to the nearest port or harbour. As the maritime time keeping was formalized, everyone started following the same set of days.

Please note, some regions follow the days, by proper numbers like first day, second day, etc. In forests, tribals use animal names for weekdays, like day of the lion, day of the elephant and so on. Their travel was always limited by the ration that they were able to carry. Gypsies use a longer system to count.

Religious dates and the panchang

• Christmas - winter solistice
• Tamil New year - Sun moving to aries
• Agni Natchatram - Sun moving to Krithika star
• Ramadan - This is moon month, the ninth moon month, and the third moon day (crecent moon or tritiya)
• Diwali - Sun in Libra and moon in libra (so full moon happens in opposite zodiac Krithika star, hence the month is called karticka masa or kritigai), wind direction picks up speed from eastern asia towards indian peninsula.
• Pradosham - For identifying the current month, people will wake early at 4am, before sunrise, to see the zodiac sign which rises before the sun rises in the east. Usually was practised during waning moon, 13th day, the day, the moon dissapears, the moon again appears on tritya as the crescent moon.
• Shivaratri - waning moon, 14th day, best day to watch sky and note positions of zodiac and stars. The day the panchang is recalulated, reevaulated for retro planets, speed of planets.
• Mahashivaratri - waning moon, 14th day, sun in the sign of aquarius. The Center of milky way rises just before sun rise, A true celestial event to behold. Also suns declination is recalibrated to note the changes of season.

Changes of season

Though season occur like clock work, depending on suns position is zodiac, it truly depends on suns declination. In the month of May - agni natchatra, the sun is above head for people in 13 degree latitude. Which is the erstwhile Madras Presidency of the british. Since the Madras presidency was like the center for the british empire in asia, the month was declared a holiday, since its too hot. In higher latitudes like in delhi, the peak summer happens in the month of June. Now because of the earths precession (woblly rotation), the season would change, hence in say 3000 AD, the summer would be in the month of April, and summer solistice would happen in May, and winter would start in November in the higher latitudes.

So maha shiva ratri is used to recalibrate the seasons, depending on the suns declination. Note ideally the month of maha shivaratri has to be be shifted too, because clear skies would not happen in the same month in subsequent years, after the season changes.

Once the recalibration occurs, all dates of many festivals has to change except islamic festivals. Since their month system is not tied to seasons.

Fundamental duty of all Indians

By Article 51A in Constitution of India, to develop the scientific temper, humanism and the spirit of inquiry and reform;. We are bound to question, experiment, demonstrate any idea. And reform the same if it cannot be proved.