Mundan Date Planner from the Birth Date

Mundan, also called chudakarana or chaul, is the ceremony in which a child’s hair is cut for the first time. Families often hold it at a temple or a river, with the hair offered and the head anointed with sandalwood or turmeric paste afterwards. It is one of the older childhood samskaras, and the timing is where families ask for guidance most. This planner takes the child’s birth date and shows the year of the child you choose, with the days in that year that meet the classical conditions.

Which year

The tradition gives odd years for the ceremony, counted from the third: the third, fifth and seventh year. Some families hold it in the first year, and many follow a family or temple custom instead. Choose the year above, and the planner shows the twelve months that make it up. Some almanacs, Drik Panchang among them, give the odd years for a boy and the even years for a girl, so a family with a daughter may want to look at the even years instead. Regional practice differs, and in some communities the ceremony is held at a fixed temple on a fixed day of the year, in which case the table is only for comparison.

How the year is counted

“The third year” has two common meanings, and the planner offers both. In the first, a child of three is one who has completed three years, so the window runs from the third birthday to the day before the fourth. In the second, the third year of life is the one that runs from the second birthday to the third. The first is the default. Pick the one your family uses and the window moves by a year.

Which days qualify

Within the year, the planner lists the days that meet the rules of the Samskara prakarana of the Muhurta Chintamani for chudakarana. The text favours the movable nakshatras, with Mrigashira, Chitra, Revati, the quick ones and Jyeshtha added, and the weekdays Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. It names the tithis that suit the ceremony and leaves out the Rikta tithis, Pratipada, Shashthi and the parva days. It also asks for the northward half of the year, called Uttarayana, other than the lunar month of Chaitra, and the engine leaves out Venus and Jupiter asta, Chaturmas and the leaped month, which many families also avoid. The tool adds one rule of its own, the exclusion of Kharmas, the month when the Sun is in Meena, because most families avoid it, and it says so in the rules box.

For each qualifying day you see the hours in which the conditions hold together, in your local time, with the nakshatra and tithi named. The tool reads the Moon, Sun, Venus and Jupiter from the Swiss Ephemeris tables on this site and keeps only the stretches in which everything holds at once, so a month may show a few days or none.

Using the list

Many families first pick a place, perhaps a temple that offers mundan on specific days, and then look for the nearest qualifying day. Because the list is long for a full year, look for the weekends or holidays among the days shown, and check the hours against the child’s naptime. If the child’s health, the mother’s condition or a family event makes the day impractical, the family priest can approve a nearby day, which is a matter for the priest rather than a tool.

What it cannot tell you

A list like this checks the day, not the child. The family astrologer also looks at the child’s own chart, and the child’s year, the mother’s condition and the direction a family prefers are all for the family to weigh. This planner makes no promise about hair growth, health or fortune. For a table of mundan days in New Delhi, see the mundan muhurat guide; for the ceremony itself, read about chudakarana; and for any date range in any city, use the muhurat finder.

Frequently asked questions