Vidyarambha Muhurat: Aksharabhyasam Days by the Muhurta Chintamani

Vidyarambha, also called aksharabhyasam or akshararambha, is the day a child first writes the letters, usually with a grain of rice on a plate or a finger on the slate, after a small puja. The Muhurta Chintamani gives it verse 37 of its Samskara prakarana (chapter 5), which it calls lipigraha, taking up the letters. This page reads that verse and lists the days in New Delhi that meet it.

How it works

Verse numbers are those of the edition with Mahidhara Sharma’s Hindi commentary (Venkateshwar Press).

Nakshatra. The quick group (Ashwini, Pushya, Hasta), Shravana, Swati, Revati, Punarvasu, Ardra, Chitra and Anuradha.

Weekday. The verse asks for a day of the benefic planets, which Mahidhara Sharma gives as Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Tithi. Ekadashi, Dwadashi, Dashami, Dwitiya, Shashthi, Panchami or Tritiya. The verse does not name a paksha, so both halves of the month are accepted.

Season. The Sun in its northward half (uttarayana): Makara, Kumbha, Meena, Mesha, Vrishabha or Mithuna, sidereal.

Days on which study does not begin. Mahidhara Sharma notes on chapter 1, verse 57 that the manvadi and yugadi tithis are anadhyaya for vidyarambha. Those that fall on an accepted tithi are left out: Chaitra Shukla Tritiya, Vaishakha Shukla Tritiya (Akshaya Tritiya), Ashadha Shukla Dashami, Bhadrapada Shukla Tritiya, Kartika Shukla Dwadashi and Pausha Shukla Ekadashi.

As on every page here, Vishti karana, the yogas Vyatipata and Vaidhriti, Amavasya and the leaped month are avoided (chapter 1, verse 34). The verse does not ask about Jupiter or Venus being combust, so that is not checked.

Reading the result

Each day listed has a window of at least five minutes in which all of these hold, with the nakshatra and tithi shown. A child’s first letters are usually written in the morning after the puja, so look at where the window falls within the day. The months from about mid July to mid January have no days, because the Sun is then in its southward half. Use the muhurat finder for another city.

Where traditions differ

Some families write the first letters on Vijayadashami or on Vasant Panchami by custom, without a further check. Vasant Panchami, Magha Shukla Panchami, falls in the Sun’s northward half and passes this verse when the nakshatra and weekday also fit; Vijayadashami, Ashwina Shukla Dashami, always falls in the southward half, so this verse does not list it. Families who keep either custom need no table, and nothing here says otherwise. The next verse of the chapter, verse 38, gives a different list for beginning formal study, which is not applied here.

What it does not do

Verse 37 names the child’s fifth year and asks for a rising sign that is not movable and a benefic one at the hour. The year is the family’s choice, and the lagna depends on the moment, so both are for your family astrologer. The list checks the day only. 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 samskara itself, read vidyarambha and, for later study, vedarambha. The Vasant Panchami and Dussehra pages give those festival dates, and the muhurat hub has the other events.

First letters questions