Griha Pravesh Days by Door Direction

Griha pravesh, the house-warming, has a classical muhurat of its own, and one detail in it is often missed: the chapter on griha pravesha in the Muhurta Chintamani pairs the tithi with the direction the main door faces. A general list of griha pravesh days, such as the one on our griha pravesh muhurat page, shows every day that passes the main tests. This tool takes that list and keeps only the days, and the parts of days, whose tithi suits your door.

The four groups of tithis

The fifteen tithis of each half of the month fall into five groups of three, repeated, called Nanda, Bhadra, Jaya, Rikta and Purna. Four of them are paired with a direction:

• A door facing east takes the Purna tithis: Panchami, Dashami and Purnima.
• A door facing south takes the Nanda tithis: Pratipada, Shashthi and Ekadashi.
• A door facing west takes the Bhadra tithis: Dwitiya, Saptami and Dwadashi.
• A door facing north takes the Jaya tithis: Tritiya, Ashtami and Trayodashi.

The fifth group, the Rikta tithis of Chaturthi, Navami and Chaturdashi, is avoided for griha pravesh altogether, and so is Amavasya. The tool uses the four main directions only. If your door faces a corner, or the direction is hard to judge on a plan, ask your family priest or Vastu adviser which of the four to use.

What the tool does

First it asks the muhurat engine on this site for every griha pravesh day in your range and place. Those days already meet the other conditions of the chapter: the favoured nakshatras, the weekdays, the lunar months Magha, Phalguna, Vaishakha and Jyeshtha, and the avoidance of the two mahapata yogas, of Vishti karana and of Venus and Jupiter asta. Then it cuts each day down to the hours when a tithi of your door’s group is running, since a tithi can change in the middle of a day, and a day can qualify for one door in the morning and another in the evening.

The result is a table of days with the local time window, the tithi and the nakshatra. A second small table counts the days that would suit each of the four doors in the same range, so you can see what you give up if you pick another door. If no day qualifies, try a longer range, because the months the text allows are only four, so a range that falls in other months, or in Chaturmas, is empty.

Using it with your plans

Choose the house’s place, since sunrise and the clock are those of the town, and the range of dates in which you are free to move in, for example the months after the building is ready. Pick two or three days from the table and check them with your family astrologer, who can look at the owner’s chart. Many families also fix the entry to a comfortable morning hour from the window and carry out the rites of the day, such as a puja and boiling milk, at the door.

Where traditions differ

Regional custom differs on the months, since some families accept Margashirsha and Kartika as middling choices, and on how to count the direction of a door. Some Vastu schools use the direction of the plot, some the road, and some the door itself, and this tool leaves that decision to you. Muhurat lists published by temples and almanacs can also differ from this one by a day, because they apply the weekday, tithi and nakshatra rules with different weight. Nothing here is a prediction about a home or its family.

For other ceremonies, see the muhurat finder, and for a single day’s full detail the panchang for any place and date.

Frequently asked questions