Paksha

Definition

A paksha is a lunar fortnight — one half of a lunar month, made up of fifteen lunar days (tithis); two pakshas make a full lunar month. The Shukla Paksha is the bright, waxing half, running from the new Moon to the full Moon: the Moon is filling out, and it is read as strong and benefic. The Krishna Paksha is the dark, waning half, running from the full Moon back to the new Moon: the Moon is shrinking, and it is read as weak and malefic.

In Tradition

Across the classical and modern Jyotish literature, which half of the month the Moon sits in is treated as a decisive measure of its strength: a waxing (Shukla) Moon is read as strong and benefic, a waning (Krishna) Moon as weak. Saravali makes this paksha strength the governing factor when reading the Moon's sign-placement — a full Moon delivers its favourable results in full, while a decreasing Moon yields them diminished.

In Practice

A jyotishi reads the birth paksha to gauge the Moon's strength and the general tenor of the chart. Raman holds that benefics are powerful in the bright half and malefics in the dark half, that from the eighth day of the Shukla Paksha the Moon is full and strong, and that it is weak from the eighth day of the Krishna Paksha. deFouw and Svoboda read the waxing tithis as growth, preservation and plenty, so a bright-fortnight birth tends to improve over time, while the waning tithis suggest stagnation and dearth. Ponde says someone born in the waxing half is better equipped to develop their talents. In mundane work, Chaitra Shukla Pratipada (the first tithi of the bright half of the month Chaitra — the Hindu New Year) is used to cast an annual horoscope that sets the year's trend, and a paksha or lunation chart of each new and full Moon serves for short-range prediction, watching the house the lunation falls in.

Historical Origin

The paksha is attested in the classical Sanskrit treatise Saravali (Ch.23) and across modern Jyotish manuals: Raman's Hindu Predictive Astrology, Charak's Elements of Vedic Astrology, Ponde's Hindu Astrology: Planets in Stars, Levacy's Beneath a Vedic Sky, deFouw and Svoboda's Light on Life, and the mundane treatment in Mehta and Rao's work on mundane astrology.

Further Reading

• Santhanam, Saravali
• Raman, Hindu Predictive Astrology
• Charak, Elements of Vedic Astrology
• Ponde, Hindu Astrology: Planets in Stars
• Levacy, Beneath a Vedic Sky
• deFouw & Svoboda, Light on Life
• Mehta & Rao, Mundane Astrology