Panchaka

Definition

Panchaka is an inauspicious run of five nakshatra-segments (lunar mansions) that Vedic electional astrology — muhurta, the art of picking a good moment — tells you to avoid for certain acts. Charak places it from the second half of Dhanishtha to the end of Revati, while the Moon transits the signs Kumbha and Meena. Joshi lists the segments as the second half of Dhanishtha plus the whole of Shatabhisha, Purvabhadrapada, Uttarabhadrapada and Revati. The name is the Sanskrit Pancaka, the inauspicious 'group of five'.

In Tradition

Across these classical-and-modern muhurta sources, Panchaka is read as a recurring inauspicious nakshatra-zone running roughly from the latter part of Dhanishtha through Revati — a stretch when certain undertakings are best put off. Both Charak and Joshi single out two acts to keep clear of in this period: cremating a body, and thatching or laying a roof.

In Practice

A jyotishi (Vedic astrologer) won't elect a Panchaka window for the specific acts the sources name. Charak says that during Panchaka you should not cremate the dead, travel south, make cots, gather grass and wood, or thatch a roof. Joshi likewise avoids it for laying a roof, and calls for a remedial rite, the 'Panchaka Shanti', if a body must be cremated during Nakshatra Panchaka. Joshi also describes a separate Baana — also called Panchaka — reckoned instead from the Sun's degree within any sign and split into five conditions, Roga, Agni, Nripa, Chora and Mrityu Baana, each barring its own class of activity. The Mrityu Baana, the death-Baana (Sun at 1, 10, 19 or 28 degrees of any sign), is especially avoided for marriage and counts among the ten Dasha-Doshas; you find the five by adding a fixed number to the Sun's degrees and dividing by nine, a remainder of five marking a Baana.

Historical Origin

Charak gives the nakshatra-span Panchaka in Elements of Vedic Astrology. The Baana or Mrityu Panchaka, and the Nakshatra Panchaka with its Panchaka Shanti remedy, are laid out in K. Joshi's Muhurta: Traditional & Modern. Both are modern presentations of traditional muhurta material, and the bundle supplies no earlier dating.

Further Reading

• Charak, Elements of Vedic Astrology
• Joshi, Muhurta: Traditional & Modern