Muhurat - electional astrology

Last updated Nov 7, 2026 View as Markdown Agent setup

Muhurat is Vedic electional astrology: picking an auspicious moment to start something important. Unlike natal astrology, the chart is built for a future moment - and the algorithm scans a window of dates/times looking for when panchang factors (tithi, nakshatra, yoga, karana, vara, lagna) are most favourable for the specific event.

What we compute

Each endpoint checks a distinct rule set:

marriage: Saptapadi time: auspicious tithis (2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13), nakshatras (Rohini, Mrigashira, Uttara Phalguni, Hasta, Swati, Anuradha, Mula, Uttara Ashadha, Uttara Bhadrapada, Revati), avoidance of Manglik-incompatible windows.
vehicle-purchase: Mercury/Venus strong, avoiding Astha (Venus combust), Bhadra karana.
business-start: Jupiter-aspected lagna, 10th house free of malefics, Chandra Bala.
travel: Dishashool (direction of the day), mobility nakshatras, avoiding Yamaganda.
naming-ceremony (Namakaran): 11th or 12th day after birth; nakshatras favourable for the name.
surgery: avoid Sankranti, Saturday, Chandrashtama; Mars/Saturn-related rules.
education-start (Vidyarambh): Wednesday/Thursday + Mercury/Jupiter strong + knowledge nakshatras (Hasta, Pushya, Sravana, Revati).
investment: 2nd and 11th house support, Jupiter and Venus backing.
property-purchase: 4th house clear, Saturn-aspected, avoid Mars in 4th.
journey-long: stricter than travel: Friday is excluded, as the Yatra prakarana requires for long journeys.
name-change: the Namakaran rules carried over to an adult changing their name.
general-auspicious: universally favourable days (Pushya, Hasta, shubha tithis) with no activity bias - for a sankalpa, a prayer, or as a fallback.

Endpoints

Endpoint	Credits	Event
`/v1/vedic/muhurat/marriage`	50	Marriage (saptapadi time)
`/v1/vedic/muhurat/naming-ceremony`	50	Namakaran (naming a newborn)
`/v1/vedic/muhurat/name-change`	50	Name change
`/v1/vedic/muhurat/property-purchase`	50	Property purchase
`/v1/vedic/muhurat/vehicle-purchase`	50	Vehicle purchase
`/v1/vedic/muhurat/business-start`	50	Business start
`/v1/vedic/muhurat/investment`	50	Investment
`/v1/vedic/muhurat/education-start`	50	Vidyarambh - start of studies
`/v1/vedic/muhurat/travel`	50	Travel
`/v1/vedic/muhurat/journey-long`	50	Long journey
`/v1/vedic/muhurat/surgery`	50	Surgery
`/v1/vedic/muhurat/general-auspicious`	50	Universally auspicious days
`/v1/vedic/muhurat/month`	50	Every day of one month for one ceremony

Month view

/v1/vedic/muhurat/month takes activity (any key from GET /v1/muhurta/types), month (YYYY-MM) and a place, and returns every day of the month in date order rather than the best topN. Each day is scored by the same rules as the ceremony’s own endpoint, so a day here equals that day there, and carries suitable (rating good or excellent) and barredBy, the factors that pulled it down. goodDates and bestDate summarise the month. The scanners judge the panchang at sunrise and compute no lagna windows, so none are returned.

curl -X POST https://api.astroway.info/v1/vedic/muhurat/month \
  -H "X-Api-Key: aw_live_your_key_here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "activity": "marriage", "month": "2026-11", "latitude": 28.6139, "longitude": 77.209, "timezoneOffset": 5.5 }'

Example

curl -X POST https://api.astroway.info/v1/vedic/muhurat/marriage \
  -H "X-Api-Key: aw_live_your_key_here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "search_window_start": "2026-09-01",
    "search_window_end": "2026-12-31",
    "latitude": 28.6139,
    "longitude": 77.2090,
    "timezoneOffset": 5.5,
    "ayanamsa": "lahiri",
    "topN": 10
  }'

const r = await fetch('https://api.astroway.info/v1/vedic/muhurat/business-start', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'X-Api-Key': process.env.ASTROWAY_API_KEY!,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    search_window_start: '2026-09-01',
    search_window_end: '2026-12-31',
    latitude: 50.4501,
    longitude: 30.5234,
    timezoneOffset: 3,
    ayanamsa: 'lahiri',
    topN: 5,
  }),
});
const { data } = await r.json();
for (const day of data.auspiciousWindows) {
  console.log(`${day.date} (${day.weekdayName}): ${day.score}, ${day.rating}`);
  console.log(`  Nakshatra ${day.panchang.nakshatraName}, tithi ${day.panchang.tithiName}`);
  console.log(`  Abhijit: ${day.abhijitMuhurat.startTime}-${day.abhijitMuhurat.endTime}`);
}

import os, requests

r = requests.post(
    'https://api.astroway.info/v1/vedic/muhurat/travel',
    headers={'X-Api-Key': os.environ['ASTROWAY_API_KEY']},
    json={
        'search_window_start': '2026-09-01',
        'search_window_end': '2026-09-30',
        'latitude': 50.4501,
        'longitude': 30.5234,
        'timezoneOffset': 3,
        'ayanamsa': 'lahiri',
        'topN': 10,
    },
)
for day in r.json()['data']['auspiciousWindows']:
    print(f"{day['date']} ({day['weekdayName']}): {day['score']} {day['rating']}")

Sample response (marriage, trimmed to one day):

{
  "data": {
    "activity": "marriage",
    "search_window": { "start": "2026-09-01", "end": "2026-12-31", "daysScanned": 90 },
    "location": { "latitude": 28.6139, "longitude": 77.209, "timezoneOffset": 5.5 },
    "ayanamsa": 24.22961764440157,
    "auspiciousWindows": [
      {
        "date": "2026-10-12",
        "weekday": 1,
        "weekdayName": "Somavara",
        "panchang": {
          "tithi": 2, "tithiName": "Dvitiya", "paksha": "shukla",
          "vara": 1, "varaName": "Somavara",
          "nakshatra": 15, "nakshatraName": "Swati",
          "yoga": 5, "yogaName": "Shobhana",
          "karana": "Balava", "karanaIndex": 3, "pada": 2
        },
        "abhijitMuhurat": { "startTime": "11:44:21", "endTime": "12:30:41", "midHour": 12.125246156007051 },
        "score": 9,
        "rating": "excellent",
        "factors": [
          { "field": "nakshatra", "delta": 3, "note": "Swati: auspicious for marriage" },
          { "field": "vara", "delta": 2, "note": "Somavara: auspicious weekday" },
          { "field": "tithi", "delta": 2, "note": "Tithi Dvitiya (shukla): favourable" },
          { "field": "yoga", "delta": 1, "note": "Yoga Shobhana: acceptable" },
          { "field": "karana", "delta": 1, "note": "Karana Balava: movable, supportive" }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "nextAuspiciousWindow": "2026-10-12"
  }
}

Accuracy and sources

Canonical texts: Muhurta Chintamani (Ramadayalu Bhattacharya, ~1600 AD) and Muhurta Martand (Narayana, 17th c.). Modern compendia: B.V. Raman Muhurta or Electional Astrology; K.K. Pathak Brihat Muhurta Bhusana.
Panchang factors: computed by our own panchang engine (/v1/vedic/panchang/*), the same source of truth.
Window scanning: the algorithm walks [search_window_start, search_window_end] day by day, scores each day from its panchang (roughly -10 to +10: >= 7 excellent, >= 4 good, >= 0 average, >= -3 poor, below that avoid) and returns the best topN sorted by score. Within a day it returns the Abhijit Muhurat window; it does not score 15-minute slots.
Algorithmic choices: some rules (especially for surgery, court-case) come from narrow regional schools. We document the variant we picked and why in docs.
Status: marriage, vehicle-purchase, griha-pravesh, travel, business-start are GREEN (cross-verified against Drik Panchang and ProKerala). surgery, court-case, naming-ceremony, investment, property-purchase, education-start, engagement are mostly YELLOW (single-source schools). Detailed breakdown in docs/AUDIT-TRAIL.md.

Compatibility Match charts before marriage + Manglik

Yogas Raja, Dhana, Mahapurusha - combinations

Doshas Manglik, Kaal Sarp, Pitru - afflictions

Credits Per-endpoint credit cost

Accuracy How we verify calculations

Authentication X-Api-Key, sandbox keys