Your own good time
The same day is not equally good for everyone. Add your birth star and see it judged for you.
Why two people get different answers for the same day
A printed panchangam gives one Rahu Kalam and one set of nalla neram for the whole town, and for timings drawn from sunrise that is right. But the two checks a priest makes before fixing a muhurtham — tarabalam and chandrabalam — both start from the person's own birth star. The Moon takes about a day to cross one of the 27 stars and about two and a half days to cross a sign, so the same afternoon can be Sampat tara for one brother and Vipat for the other.
That is why a date for a house warming is fixed around the person whose name is on the house, and why a day that is Chandrashtamam for the main family is set aside however good it looks in the almanac. This page does that arithmetic for up to six people at once and shows the windows where nobody is ruled out.
Rahu Kalam and nalla neram are the same for everyone in a town, because they come from the sunrise there. Two more checks are personal: Tarabalam, counted from your birth star to the star running today, and Chandrabalam, which is where the Moon stands from your birth sign. Those are what make a day good for one person and poor for another.
Enter a birth date and time and this page works out the birth star, then reports both checks against today — or searches ahead for dates that suit everyone in the family at once.
How this page decides
The birth star and birth sign come from the Moon's sidereal longitude at the moment of birth, using the Lahiri ayanamsa — the same basis as the rest of the site. Tarabalam and Chandrabalam follow Muhurta Chintamani as set out in B. V. Raman's Muhurta: the four unfavourable taras count in full in the first cycle of nine stars, at half strength in the second and almost not at all in the third, and no remedy is allowed for Janma in the first cycle, Vipat in the second, Pratyari in the third or Vadha in any. For an occasion the page also applies panchanga shuddhi: a favourable star, a weekday that is not forbidden, no Rikta tithi or Amavasya, and a note where Vishti karanam or one of the nine inauspicious yogas falls in the day. The star lists for house warming and weddings are the published ones; the rest are derived from the seven-fold classification of the stars, and each result says which was used.
This is almanac arithmetic, not a prediction. It reports which traditional checks a moment passes — it does not say what will happen. For a wedding, a house warming or any major ceremony, treat this as a shortlist to take to your family priest or astrologer, who will also weigh the lagna, the planetary positions and your family's own custom.
Common questions
Do I need the exact time of birth?
It helps. The Moon changes star roughly once a day, so without a time the birth star could be the one before or after. If you do not know it, leave the time blank — the page assumes sunrise and says so — and then confirm the star against your horoscope or your family records.
Why does the birth town only ask for the clock?
Because the birth star depends on where the Moon stands against the stars, and that is the same from everywhere on Earth at one instant. The town matters only for turning the clock time you remember into that instant, so the time zone is all the calculation needs.
What is Chandrashtamam?
The stretch when the Moon is passing through the 8th sign from your birth sign. It lasts about two and a quarter days and comes round every 27 days or so. Families avoid beginning anything important during it, and this page marks the exact start and end rather than writing off the whole day.
Is my birth date stored anywhere?
No. It stays in your own browser so you do not have to type it again, and it is sent to the server only to do the arithmetic for the page you asked for. Nothing is written to a database or a log file, and there is no account to create.