marriage Muhurat, July 2011

A marriage muhurat is checked against the widest set of classical rules of any occasion: the Sun must be in one of six permitted signs (the 'marriage months'), Venus and Jupiter must both be clear of combustion (too close to the Sun to be effective), and the day's yoga and karana must not fall in a short prohibited list. Within dates that clear these hard rules, a favourable Moon nakshatra such as Rohini, Mrigashira, or Hasta adds further weight, and (v1 simplification) auspicious weekday is deliberately left unconstrained here, since classical sources vary widely on which weekdays suit marriage. Because Venus and Jupiter combustion windows last for weeks, whole stretches of a year can be excluded at once, which is why marriage dates often cluster in certain months.