01What is an annaprashan muhurat?
Annaprashan (annaprashana in the Grihya Sutras, literally the feeding of grain) is the samskara at which a child is given solid food for the first time, and an annaprashan muhurat is the time elected for it. Muhurta is the electional branch of Jyotish: it asks when work that is going to be done should begin. The day is read through the panchang, and three of its five limbs decide: the nakshatra the Moon occupies, the tithi, and the vara or weekday. The rite is the gentlest of the childhood samskaras and the texts give it one of the widest nakshatra lists, which in practice means most months contain several usable days.
02Which nakshatras are auspicious for annaprashan?
Fifteen nakshatras are named for annaprashana in the standard handbooks, and this finder scores exactly that set: Ashwini, Rohini, Mrigashira, Punarvasu, Pushya, Uttara Phalguni, Hasta, Chitra, Swati, Anuradha, Uttara Ashadha, Shravana, Dhanishta, Uttara Bhadrapada and Revati. As with the other childhood rites the list draws on the fixed, soft, swift and movable classes and excludes the fierce and the sharp. Rohini and Pushya are the two the handbooks name most insistently, both being stars the tradition associates with nourishment and with the feeding of a household.
The dhruva (fixed) stars
Rohini, Uttara Phalguni, Uttara Ashadha and Uttara Bhadrapada are the dhruva or sthira class. Rohini heads the list for this rite in particular: it is the Moon's own star of exaltation and the texts tie it to growth and to the earth's yield. Where a family can reach a Rohini day that also falls on a favoured weekday, that is the tradition's plainest recommendation for a first feeding.
The mridu (soft) stars
Mrigashira, Chitra, Anuradha and Revati carry the mridu or maitra classification: soft, friendly stars used for gentle domestic work. For an infant's first meal the class is an obvious fit and the handbooks use it freely. Revati in particular is named in South Indian practice, closing the zodiac as it does and carrying an association with being carried safely to the end of something.
The laghu (swift) stars
Ashwini, Pushya and Hasta are the laghu or kshipra class, swift and light. Pushya is called the nourisher outright (its very name is the reason it appears in almost every muhurta list), and for a rite about feeding it is the star the handbooks reach for after Rohini. Ashwini and Hasta round out the class and suit a short ceremony held inside a single clean window.
The chara (movable) stars
Punarvasu, Swati, Shravana and Dhanishta are the chara or movable class, admitted here as they are for the other childhood rites. Punarvasu means the return of the good and is used widely for domestic occasions. Shravana and Dhanishta sit inside the Panchaka span, which the result reports separately so that a day is never rated without the reader seeing why.
03Which tithis are excluded for a first feeding?
The Rikta tithis and Amavasya are dropped. Rikta means empty and names the fourth, ninth and fourteenth tithi of each paksha (six days in a lunar month once both fortnights are counted), and the handbooks are unanimous in keeping the childhood samskaras off them. Amavasya is the dark Moon and belongs to the ancestors in the tradition rather than to a beginning. The bright fortnight is preferred generally for this rite, the Moon's strength being what the muhurta texts weigh most heavily for anything to do with a child. Our daily panchang names the running tithi and paksha for any date and city.
04Which weekdays are used for annaprashan, and which are avoided?
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are the four weekdays this finder counts in favour, and Tuesday and Saturday are the two it counts against. The Moon, Mercury, Jupiter and Venus rule the favoured days and are the benefics of the week; Monday, the Moon's own day, carries a particular weight for a rite concerning an infant. Mars rules Tuesday and Saturn rules Saturday and the texts read both as unsuited to it. Sunday is neutral rather than barred, so Sunday dates still appear in the results, scored below their neighbours rather than removed.
05In which month is annaprashan held?
The Grihya Sutras place annaprashana in the sixth month for a boy and the fifth month for a girl, counted from birth, and that is stated here as the tradition's rule rather than as advice of ours. When a child is ready for solid food is a question for whoever looks after their health, not for a calendar. Several handbooks add that an even month is preferred for boys and an odd month for girls, which is the same rule seen from the other side. Regional practice defers the rite freely: the eighth or ninth month is common, and a delayed annaprashan is not read as a lapse anywhere in the literature we can point at.
Why the month matters less than the day
The month is a rule about the child; the muhurta is a rule about the sky, and the two are independent. Once the family has settled which month the ceremony falls in, this finder takes that window and returns the days inside it that the panchang keeps, in order of rating. A window of thirty days on this occasion's wide nakshatra list will usually hold several strong candidates rather than one.
The hour inside the day
The good Choghadiya (Amrit, Shubh and Labh) and Abhijit around solar noon are the windows returned for each day kept, with anything colliding with Rahu Kalam, Yamaganda or Gulika Kalam removed first. Abhijit exists on every day except Wednesday, where the tradition holds it not to apply. All of them are computed from the true sunrise at your city, which is why the place field is not decoration.
06Which yogas raise or cancel a day for a first feeding?
Named nakshatra-and-weekday pairs outrank the ordinary scoring in both directions. Four raise a day: Amrit Siddhi, Sarvartha Siddhi, Guru Pushya and Ravi Pushya. Four cancel it outright: Mrityu, Dagdha, Yamaghata and Utpata. These are the classical panchanga tables and they are checked before anything else, so a day carrying one of the cancelling four is rated avoid however good its nakshatra and tithi look. The reverse does not hold: an auspicious yoga raises a rating but does not rescue a day that Amavasya has already removed from the list.
Amrit Siddhi and Sarvartha Siddhi
Amrit Siddhi pairs one nakshatra with each weekday (Hasta on Sunday, Mrigashira on Monday, and so on through the week), and the texts read it as all-purpose. Sarvartha Siddhi, literally the accomplisher of every purpose, is a wider table of several stars per weekday. Both are reported by name in the results rather than folded into a rating, so you can see which of the two a day is actually carrying, Guru Pushya and Ravi Pushya among them, since Pushya is on this occasion's list.
The four yogas that cancel a day
Mrityu, Dagdha, Yamaghata and Utpata each pair a single nakshatra with a single weekday, and the tradition holds an auspicious beginning back while one of them runs. Dagdha means burnt and Utpata means a portent; the names are the tradition's own and we keep them rather than softening them into a colour code. Because each is one pair, a cancelled day is uncommon, usually one or two in a month-long search, and the result names the yoga responsible.
07What does this annaprashan muhurat finder not check?
It does not read the child's chart and so cannot apply the rules that depend on one: the Moon against the janma nakshatra, the running dasha, the lagna at the hour chosen. It does not screen the lunar months or the seasonal exclusions, none of which is a panchang limb. What it computes is the nakshatra, tithi, weekday and yoga layer, with Guru Pushya and Ravi Pushya named where they run, and the clean hours inside each day it keeps, from the true sunrise at the city you enter. We sell no puja and no consultation.
