Engagement Muhurat: Sagai Days by the Muhurta Chintamani

Before a wedding the two families meet to give their word, with clothes, ornaments, fruit and flowers: the sagai, roka or vagdana. The Muhurta Chintamani treats it in the Vivaha prakarana (chapter 6), verse 10 for the choosing of the bride (kanya varana) and verse 11 for the choosing of the groom (vara varana). This page reads both and lists the days in New Delhi that meet them.

How it works

Verse numbers are those of the edition with Mahidhara Sharma’s Hindi commentary (Venkateshwar Press), whose gloss of verse 10 calls the kanya varana the sagai.

Nakshatra (verse 10). Uttara Ashadha, Swati, Shravana, the three Purvas (Purva Phalguni, Purva Ashadha, Purva Bhadrapada), Anuradha, Dhanishta and Krittika, or any of the nakshatras accepted for the wedding: Rohini, Mrigashira, Magha, Uttara Phalguni, Hasta, Swati, Anuradha, Moola, Uttara Ashadha, Uttara Bhadrapada and Revati. As on the vivah page, the first quarter of Magha and of Moola and the last quarter of Revati are left out. Verse 11, for the groom’s side, names the fixed nakshatras, Krittika and the three Purvas, all of which are already in this list.

Weekday (verse 11). Verse 11 asks for an auspicious day (shubha dina), and Mahidhara Sharma glosses that as a day of a benefic weekday; his gloss of verse 10 also asks for the nakshatras and the rest that the wedding uses. We take Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the benefic weekdays, as the vidyarambha and seemantham pages read the same idea. The wedding itself, by the common panchang practice, may fall on any weekday.

Tithi and the rest. Neither verse names a tithi. From the general rule of chapter 1, verse 34 we apply: no Amavasya, no Vishti karana, no Vyatipata or Vaidhriti yoga, and not in a leaped month; the rest of that verse is named under What it does not do. We also leave out the Rikta tithis (Chaturthi, Navami, Chaturdashi), which Mahidhara Sharma, on chapter 1, verse 3, calls unsuitable for auspicious work.

Asta of Jupiter or Venus and Chaturmas are not checked: the first chapter’s list of acts held back by asta names the wedding but not the engagement.

Reading the result

The list is longer than the wedding list, because the rule is lighter: seventeen nakshatras, the four benefic weekdays and no rule on the month. Each day has a window of at least five minutes in which every condition holds, with the nakshatra and tithi shown, and a window after midnight belongs to the day before. A long list is a choice of candidates, not a ranking. For another city use the muhurat finder.

Where traditions differ

Families mark the engagement in many ways: some only exchange rings, some hold a roka at home, some combine it with the tilak of the groom. Some keep the engagement out of Chaturmas and the asta of Jupiter or Venus, as for the wedding; the text does not ask it, so we do not apply it, and you can strike those weeks if your family does. We follow Mahidhara Sharma in reading the verse’s auspicious day as a benefic weekday, so Sunday, Tuesday and Saturday are left out; a family that reads it more loosely can add those days back. Regional almanacs also add or drop a nakshatra. We state our method so you can compare.

What it does not do

It does not match the two horoscopes; for that see kundli matching. It does not choose the hour by lagna, or check the day against each partner’s birth star and Moon. Nothing here predicts how a marriage will go. Take two or three dates to your family priest or astrologer before you fix one. Chapter 1, verses 34 and 35 also name things every auspicious act avoids that this page does not check: the person’s own birth nakshatra, month and tithi and a parent’s shraddha day; a day touched by three tithis or a tithi that touches three days (tithi kshaya and vriddhi); kulika, the half-prahara and mahapata; and the opening part of the yogas Vishkambha, Vajra, Shoola, Ganda, Atiganda and Vyaghata and the first half of Parigha. An almanac that applies them may list fewer days. The lost (kshaya) month that verse 34 also names, a lunar month in which the Sun enters two signs between one new moon and the next (as Mahidhara Sharma explains it), is left out; from 1952 to 2073 there are two, beginning with the new moons of 16 November 1963 and 14 January 1983, Indian time.

For the wedding itself see the vivah muhurat page and the vivah muhurat for a couple tool. The muhurat hub has the other events.

Engagement date questions