Griha pravesh is the first entry into a new home, or the return to a home that has been rebuilt, marked by a short ceremony. The word means simply entering the house. For most families it is the day a building becomes a home, so the date gets the same care as a wedding, and the tradition has a set of rules for it that are older than most of the paperwork that now surrounds a house purchase.
What the Griha pravesha prakarana asks for
The Muhurta Chintamani gives the rules for entering a house a chapter of its own, the Griha pravesha prakarana (chapter 13), which follows its chapter on building and dwelling. We read them as five conditions.
The month comes first. The text favours the lunar months of Magha, Phalguna, Vaishakha and Jyeshtha, which fall in the cool end of winter, the spring and the early summer. We count months from new moon to new moon, the amanta way. Regions that count from the full moon give some days a different month name, but the days themselves do not change. Entering a house in the other months is not forbidden by every tradition, and some families follow a wider list, but these four are the ones the text names.
The nakshatra comes next. The fixed nakshatras, Rohini, Uttara Phalguni, Uttara Ashadha and Uttara Bhadrapada, suit an act whose purpose is to settle and to last, and a home is the clearest example. The gentle nakshatras, Mrigashira, Revati, Chitra and Anuradha, are also accepted. Other nakshatras, such as the quick or the sharp ones, are not.
Weekday and tithi follow. The fourth verse of the chapter rules out Sunday and Tuesday, so every other weekday, Saturday included, is accepted. The same verse rules out the Rikta tithis, the fourth, ninth and fourteenth of each fortnight, and Amavasya, and also the month of Chaitra. The Vishti karana and the two yogas Vyatipata and Vaidhriti are avoided as well.
The fifth verse adds a rule that depends on your own house: it matches the tithi to the direction the main door faces. Purna tithis (Panchami, Dashami and Purnima) suit a door facing east, Nanda tithis (Pratipada, Shashthi and Ekadashi) a door facing south, Bhadra tithis (Dwitiya, Saptami and Dwadashi) a door facing west, and Jaya tithis (Tritiya, Ashtami and Trayodashi) a door facing north. The table gives the tithi of every day, so you can pick a day that suits your door. The house facing checker on the Vastu site helps if you are unsure which way the door faces.
Finally, the heavens must be clear of two disturbances. Chaturmas, the period when Vishnu sleeps, is excluded, though the four months above never overlap it. The leaped month, adhika masa, is excluded, and so is any day on which Jupiter or Venus is combust, using the classical separations: Venus within 10 degrees of the Sun moving direct and 8 degrees retrograde, and Jupiter within 11 degrees.
What the table shows, and why it can look sparse
The table below covers New Delhi from 2 October 2026 to 31 December 2027. You will notice that nothing appears before February 2027. That is the rules, not a fault: the months from October to early January are not among the four the text names, and Chaturmas and the combustion of Venus take out the first part of that stretch as well. After that the days begin, and the months of spring and early summer carry most of them.
If your move is earlier, you have two ordinary choices. Some families enter the house quietly with a small act, a lamp and a prayer, and hold the formal griha pravesh later, at a date from this list. Others ask their astrologer whether the family’s own custom allows a wider list of months. Either is a conversation, and the table cannot have it for you.
Preparing for the day
A date is only the start. Traditionally the house is finished, cleaned and ready before the entry, with doors, windows and the water supply in order. The family enters together, usually with the kalash, the sacred pot of water, and the head of the household first. A havan, a Vastu puja or a Satyanarayan katha often follows. If you are planning one, our guide to the Satyanarayan puja sets out the steps, and the puja section covers the other common ceremonies.
Many families also check the direction of the main door against the owner’s chart, and some keep the Moon’s position in mind when choosing the hour. Those checks, together with tarabala and chandrabala for the head of the family, are what the astrologer adds to a list like this. We do not try to replace them.
Using the finder
If you are moving to another city, the muhurat finder will run the same method for your place and your dates. Sunrise, the time a tithi ends and the moment a nakshatra changes all depend on where you are, so a date for New Delhi can be a few hours off in Mumbai, and on rare days the list itself can differ. Use the muhurat finder for any place, and the panchang page of your city to read the day’s details.
Related reading
The months named above are explained in the Hindu calendar section, including Magha, Phalguna, Vaishakha and Jyeshtha. For the rest of this section return to the muhurat hub.
Dates, delays and common sense
Builders rarely finish on the day the almanac suggests, and a home that is still being plastered is not ready to be entered, whatever the sky says. If the work runs late, move to the next date in the table instead of rushing the entry; the tradition itself prefers a finished house. If the possession date is fixed by a bank or a developer and falls on a day that is not listed, the usual way is to take the keys on that day and hold the formal ceremony later. Keep the receipt of the keys and the date of the ceremony separate in your mind, and let the family priest settle which of them your custom treats as the entry.