Karnavedha, the piercing of a child’s ears, is one of the sixteen samskaras, and the Muhurta Chintamani gives it one verse of its own: verse 24 of the Samskara prakarana (chapter 5). This page reads that verse in plain words, adds the two general rules of the first chapter that touch it, and lists the days in New Delhi on which all of them hold.
How it works
Verse numbers are those of the edition with Mahidhara Sharma’s Hindi commentary (Venkateshwar Press), and his reading is the one we follow.
Nakshatra. Shravana and Dhanishta (the verse calls them the pair from Vishnu’s star), Punarvasu, the gentle group (Mrigashira, Revati, Chitra, Anuradha) and the quick group (Ashwini, Pushya, Hasta).
Weekday. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Monday.
Tithi. No Rikta tithi (Chaturthi, Navami, Chaturdashi), and no day on which a tithi is lost: a kshaya tithi, which begins after one sunrise and ends before the next, so that it is never the tithi of any sunrise. The verse calls such a day avama. Amavasya is avoided too, by the general rule of chapter 1, verse 34.
Months. The verse leaves out Chaitra, Pausha and Harishayana, the time when Vishnu sleeps. Mahidhara Sharma reads Chaitra and Pausha here as solar months, the Sun in Meena and in Dhanu, which are the two Kharmas months; Harishayana is Chaturmas, from Ashadha Shukla Ekadashi to Kartika Shukla Ekadashi.
Jupiter, Venus and the leaped month. Chapter 1, verse 47 names the piercing of the ears among the acts not done while Jupiter or Venus is combust (asta) or in a leaped month. Asta is taken as Venus within 10 degrees of the Sun moving direct or 8 degrees moving retrograde, and Jupiter within 11 degrees.
Infancy and old age of Jupiter and Venus. The same verse also names the days of infancy and old age (bala and vriddha), just after Jupiter or Venus rises from asta and just before it sets. Chapter 5, verses 27 and 28 count those days in several ways: as Mahidhara Sharma gives them, Venus is young for 3 days after rising in the east and 10 after rising in the west, and old for 15 days before setting in the east and 5 before setting in the west, and Jupiter for 15 days each way; other views give 10 days or 7, and only 3 in an emergency. The common panchang practice leaves out the 3 days before the planet sets and the 3 days after it rises, and we follow it, so those days are left out as well as the asta itself. If your family counts more days, your astrologer can strike them.
Sun and Jupiter in one sign, and a short paksha (chapter 1, verse 48, not applied). Mahidhara Sharma reads this verse as holding back the same acts as asta while the Sun and Jupiter are in the same sign (guru-aditya), and in a paksha that holds only thirteen sunrises because tithis are lost in it (vishvaghasra). Readings differ: the common panchang practice uses neither bar, and we follow it, so no day is left out for either.
As on every page here, Vishti karana and the yogas Vyatipata and Vaidhriti are avoided (chapter 1, verse 34).
Reading the result
A listed day has at least one window of five minutes or more in which every condition holds; the window, the nakshatra and the tithi are shown. A window after midnight belongs to the day before, because the panchang day runs from sunrise to sunrise. The long gaps are Chaturmas, the two Kharmas months and the periods of asta. For your own city use the muhurat finder.
Where traditions differ
Some families pierce the ears with the mundan or at a temple by their own custom. The verse itself allows the twelfth or sixteenth day after birth in place of the sixth to eighth month, but its weekday and nakshatra still apply on those days. The verse can also be read with Chaitra and Pausha as lunar months rather than solar ones, which would leave out different weeks. We follow Mahidhara Sharma’s solar reading, which leaves out the two Kharmas months; the common panchang practice also avoids Kharmas for ear piercing and does not bar lunar Chaitra or Pausha, so the two agree. Verse 48 of the first chapter also holds these acts back while Jupiter is in Simha or Makara, and verses 49 to 52 then limit or lift that part by region and by where in the sign Jupiter stands; some teachers, Mahidhara Sharma notes, also keep them back for 28 days when Jupiter is retrograde or moving fast (vakra and atichara). Readings differ; the common panchang practice holds these acts back for neither, and we follow it, so this page does not apply those parts.
What it does not do
The verse also leaves out the child’s birth month, the even years of age and the child’s birth star, and names the sixth, seventh or eighth month, or an odd year. Verse 25 asks for a clear eighth house and benefics in the angles at the hour. All of that depends on the child and the moment, so it is for your family astrologer. 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 tithi that touches three days (tithi vriddhi; the day of a lost tithi is already left out above); 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. Nothing here is medical advice: please follow your doctor on the child’s health and hygiene around the piercing.
For the ceremony and its meaning, read karnavedha as a samskara. For a child’s other early ceremonies see the mundan and annaprashan pages, and the muhurat hub for the rest.