Chandra Grahan 2026 (lunar eclipses)

Seen from Delhi as a partial, the end of a total eclipse.

Seen only in part from Delhi: the rites cover only the part above the horizon. The Moon rises eclipsed at Tue 3 Mar, 18:21. Dharmasindhu p. 26

Penumbral contacts: Tue 3 Mar, 14:14 and Tue 3 Mar, 19:53.

Vedha (popularly sutak)

From Tue 3 Mar, 06:45 to 18:47, Delhi time.

The Moon rises eclipsed here, so by the texts no food is taken through that day, from its sunrise. Dharmasindhu p. 28; Nirṇaya-sindhu p. 89

It ends with the bath after the last contact seen here. Dharmasindhu p. 26

Popularly, sūtak is counted 9 hours before the eclipse begins: from Tue 3 Mar, 06:20. That is practice, not in the texts read.

Children, the old and the sick: the Dharmasindhu gives a vedha of one and a half praharas or three muhūrtas, and the Nirṇaya-sindhu one prahara before the eclipse’s prahara. Dharmasindhu p. 28; Nirṇaya-sindhu p. 90

The Dharmasindhu has householders with sons keep no optional fast at an eclipse. Dharmasindhu p. 26

What the texts prescribe

The texts give the order: bathe at the first contact; homa, worship and śrāddha in the middle; gifts while it releases; and the bath after the release. Dharmasindhu p. 26; Nirṇaya-sindhu p. 92

During the eclipse the Dharmasindhu sets aside sleep, eating, oil massage, intercourse, urination and defecation. Dharmasindhu p. 28

After it, the Dharmasindhu has auspicious acts wait: a total lunar eclipse bars seven days, from Dvādaśī to Tṛtīyā; a total solar eclipse, from Ekādaśī to Caturthī; and a partial one, three days from Caturdaśī. Dharmasindhu p. 29

For marriage, this site’s list follows the Dharmasindhu’s own note on eclipses instead. DS p. 181, note

The marriage dates: Vivah muhurat 2026.

By birth sign

The Dharmasindhu counts the sign the eclipse stands in from one’s birth Moon sign: the 3rd, 6th, 10th and 11th are good; the 2nd, 5th, 7th and 9th middling; and the 1st, 4th, 8th and 12th bad, worst in the birth sign or star. Dharmasindhu p. 28

This one stands in Simha, in Pūrva Phalgunī: the Moon’s sidereal sign and star at greatest eclipse, by our reading, since the texts name no instant.

Worst of all, by the Dharmasindhu, for one whose birth sign is Simha or whose birth star is Pūrva Phalgunī. The Nirṇaya-sindhu widens the birth star to three: the star and the stars either side of it. Nirṇaya-sindhu p. 98

For a bad place the Dharmasindhu gives Garga’s śānti or a bimba-dāna: a gold serpent with a gold Sun or a silver Moon, in a bronze vessel filled with ghee, with sesame, cloth and a fee. Dharmasindhu pp. 28⁠–⁠29

It adds that one in whose birth sign the eclipse falls should not look at it at all. Dharmasindhu p. 29

Don’t know your rashi?