What is muhurtha? Why is it important? This can be better understood with regard to its role in astrology. General horoscopy deals with predictions about a native with regard to the time he or she was born. It is static, fixed and beyond one's control or determination. On the other hand, muhurtha is dynamic. One can choose the most suitable or auspicious times at different stages of life where there are chances of changes in one's destiny. Thus a marriage performed on a particular day may change the course of one's life. This is not superstition. A marriage taking place at an inauspicious time can lead to disastrous consequences or divorce or life-long agony. According to the late Dr.B.V.Raman, the greatest Indian astrologer of the modern age, "While horoscopy prescribes, muhurtha remedies". Muhurtha is prescriptive as well as preventive. The deficiencies noticed in a natal chart can be overcome with the proper application of muhurtha. Thus a child diagnosed (astrologically) as weak in education can be initiated into alphabet learning or first sent to school at an auspicious moment.

Muhurtha, essentially means two 'ghatis' or forty-eight minutes. The essential elements comprise 'tithi'(lunar day),'vara'(weekday),'nakshatra' (constellation),'yoga'(joint motion of sun and moon amounting to multiples of 800 angular minutes) and 'karana'(half a lunar day). These five elements collectively are called 'panchang', that is, 'five limbs'. In considering 'tithi', generally the 4th,6th,8th,12th,14th,full moon('pournami') and new moon ('amavasya') are avoided. In some parts of South India, New Moon day is believed to be auspicious. In regard to 'vara', in general