Finding a vivah muhurta: the five-stage method

A wedding muhurta is a filter, not a lookup. The calendar gives candidate days; the two charts decide which of them are the couple's.

Stage 1: the calendar

The Panchang for the place of the wedding gives, for each day, the tithi, nakshatra, yoga and karana, with sunrise computed for that latitude and longitude. Days in the classical marriage months are kept; days with Venus or Jupiter combust, the inauspicious tithis (rikta tithis, amavasya) and the nakshatras the texts exclude for marriage are removed. This stage is pure Panchang arithmetic and runs for any span of months.

Stage 2: the couple's natal checks

For each candidate day the Moon's transit is checked against both birth Moons: the day's nakshatra counted from each partner's janma nakshatra must not fall in the forbidden tara groups, and the Moon's sign must not be the 8th from either natal Moon. Days that fail for either partner go.

Stage 3: dashas and transits for both

The running mahadasha and antardasha of each partner are read for the 7th house, its lord and Venus; a day inside a sub-period hostile to marriage for one partner is marked. Jupiter's and Saturn's transits are checked from both natal Moons. This is where most muhurta software stops short: the date must suit two charts, and Bodhlok carries both through every stage.

Stage 4: the lagna of the hour

Within a surviving day the desk computes the rising sign through the day for the venue, and prefers hours whose lagna is a fixed sign or Gemini/Virgo/Sagittarius/Pisces as tradition allows, with the lagna lord and the 7th lord well placed at that moment, benefics in kendras, and the 7th and 8th houses from the muhurta lagna empty of malefics. Each hour gets a score and the reasons for it.

Stage 5: the final check and the PDF

The best hours are listed with their scores, the checks each passed, and the ones they passed narrowly, so the astrologer can choose with eyes open. The result exports as a PDF for the families that opens with the two natal charts and ends with the chosen hour and its reasons.

Garbhadhan and general muhurta

The same pipeline, with different rules, finds a Garbhadhan muhurta for both partners and a general muhurta by purpose (travel, a new venture, a house entry), each from the Panchang for the place and the chart of the person asking.