Chandrabalam and Tarabalam: Checking a Day Against Your Own Birth Chart

Most of a Panchang is the same for everyone in a city: the tithi, the nakshatra, Rahu Kalam, Choghadiya. Chandrabalam and Tarabalam are different, because they depend on you. They compare where the Moon is today with where it was at your birth, and ask whether the relationship is a supportive one.

They are traditionally used as a second filter. First a day is chosen for its general qualities. Then a person who will be taking part, such as the one starting a business, travelling or being married, checks that the day also suits them. When both checks are favourable together, the day is said to have strength for that person.

For Chandrabalam you need only your Janma Rashi, the sign the Moon occupied at your birth. For Tarabalam you need your Janma Nakshatra, the star the Moon was in. Neither needs your exact birth time to a minute unless the Moon was close to a sign or star boundary at birth, but both need a reasonably trustworthy birth time and place.

If you do not know them, the Moonsign page on this site works them out from your date, time and place of birth. If the birth time is uncertain, treat the answer with care. A Moon that changes sign during the birth day can give two possible answers.

Count from your birth Moon sign to the sign the Moon is in today, counting your own sign as 1. The number you land on is the Moon's house from your birth Moon. The site uses these bands, which several checked sources agreed on: the count is favourable at 1, 3, 6, 7, 10 and 11; neutral at 2 and 5; and unfavourable at 4, 8, 9 and 12.

The Moon spends about two and a quarter days in each sign, so a given count lasts for a couple of days and the whole cycle of twelve takes about a month. That is why Chandrabalam is described as something that comes and goes: six of the twelve counts are favourable, so on average about half of all days are good for you under this test, and most months give a run of several favourable days.

On 30 October 2026 in New Delhi the Moon is in Mithuna, in the nakshatra Mrigashira. Here is what that gives each birth Moon sign, as calculated by this site.

• Mesha: count 3, favourable.
• Vrishabha: count 2, neutral.
• Mithuna: count 1, favourable.
• Karka: count 12, unfavourable.
• Simha: count 11, favourable.
• Kanya: count 10, favourable.
• Tula: count 9, unfavourable.
• Vrischika: count 8, unfavourable. This is the position called Chandrashtama.
• Dhanu: count 7, favourable.
• Makara: count 6, favourable.
• Kumbha: count 5, neutral.
• Meena: count 4, unfavourable.

The count of 8 has its own name, Chandrashtama, the Moon in the eighth house from your birth Moon. It is the one most commonly singled out as a day to avoid starting something new. The counts of 4, 9 and 12 are also on the unfavourable list. The counts of 2 and 5 are neutral on this site. Some almanacs treat them as mildly favourable and others as mildly weak, which is one of the places the sources differ.

Another difference is the starting point. Some families count from the birth Moon sign and some use the sign of the name syllable when the birth time is unknown. The birth sign is the standard method. If you use the name sign, check that your family's tradition accepts it.

Tarabalam works with stars rather than signs. The 27 nakshatras are grouped into nine Taras, repeating three times. To use it, count from your birth nakshatra to the nakshatra the Moon is in today, counting your own star as 1. Divide the count by 9 and take the remainder; if there is no remainder, use 9. The result tells you the Tara.

The nine Taras, in order, are Janma (birth), Sampat (wealth), Vipat (danger), Kshema (well-being), Pratyak or Pratyari (obstacle), Sadhaka (achievement), Vadha or Naidhana (harm), Mitra (friend) and Parama Mitra (best friend). Sampat, Kshema, Sadhaka, Mitra and Parama Mitra are the favourable ones. Vipat, Pratyak and Vadha are the unfavourable ones. Janma, the day the Moon returns to your own star, is treated as mixed by many and avoided for new beginnings by some.

This site does not calculate Tarabalam. The Chandrabalam page mentions it as the companion check, and the Dainik page no longer shows a Tarabalam section. Here are three worked examples you can do by hand.

• Birth star Rohini (4th of 27), today's star Mrigashira (5th): count 2, so Sampat, favourable.
• Birth star Rohini, today's star Pushya (8th): count 5, so Pratyak, unfavourable.
• Birth star Rohini, today's star Hasta (13th): count 10, which leaves remainder 1, so Janma.

The usual advice is to look for a day on which both are favourable. If only one is, many people accept the day for ordinary matters and look for another for something important. A day with an unfavourable count of 8 or a Vipat, Pratyak or Vadha Tara is the one most often postponed.

These checks are never used alone. They sit beside the tithi, the nakshatra, the weekday, Rahu Kalam and the Lagna, which matter just as much. Some traditions add a third personal check, Gurubala, based on where Jupiter is in relation to your birth sign. This site does not compute that either.

For a wedding, personal checks are usually applied to both the bride and the groom. That is beyond what a calendar for a city can do, because it would have to know the couple's charts. The Marriage Muhurat calendar on this site therefore does not apply Chandrabalam or Tarabalam. Its use of the word Tara is a different thing: it checks that Jupiter and Venus are visible, not combust. If your family applies personal checks to the wedding date, do them for both people before you book.

You choose your birth Moon sign and a date and city. The page finds the Moon's sign for that day, counts the house, and shows the result, along with a table of all twelve birth signs so you can check the whole family at once. It reads the same Moon sign that the day page reports, which is one sign per day. Since the Moon changes sign about every two days, it may move into the next sign later in the day, so on a day with a sign change the count can change at that time.

The page takes your Janma Rashi from you and does not need your birth details. It does not compute Tarabalam, Gurubala or any chart-based strength. It gives the count and a category, and leaves the decision to you and, for an important event, to your priest.

Use the personal checks at the end of the process, not the start.

• Find your Janma Rashi and Janma Nakshatra on the Moonsign page.
• Choose the day first by tithi, nakshatra and weekday.
• Check Chandrabalam for that day on the Chandrabalam page.
• Work out Tarabalam by hand if your tradition uses it.
• If the Moon changes sign during the day, note the time and plan around it.
• For a major event, confirm with a priest who knows your chart.