Kharmas: Meaning, Dates and Why Weddings Pause

Kharmas is the name for two month-long periods each year when the Sun is in sidereal Sagittarius (Dhanu) or Pisces (Meena): roughly mid-December to mid-January, and mid-March to mid-April. Weddings, griha pravesh and other major ceremonies are traditionally paused during it, especially in North India, while worship, charity and everyday life carry on as usual.

What Kharmas means

The name joins khar, a donkey, and maas, a month. A folk tale explains it: the Sun’s chariot horses grow tired after circling the sky all year, so the Sun rests them and harnesses donkeys instead, and the chariot slows for a month. When the month is over, the rested horses return to the chariot.

The astrological picture is simpler. Kharmas is a solar period. It begins at a Sankranti, the moment the Sun enters a new sign, and ends at the next one:

Because it follows the Sun rather than the Moon, Kharmas falls at nearly the same calendar dates every year. It drifts only slowly, because the Panchang measures the Sun against the fixed stars: Makar Sankranti, for example, has moved from the 14th of January towards the 15th over recent decades.

Why weddings pause

Classical muhurat texts do not use these two solar months for weddings, and families have followed that rule for generations. The usual explanation points to Jupiter. Sagittarius and Pisces are Jupiter’s own signs, and Jupiter is the planet of blessings, wisdom and, in a bride’s chart, of the husband. While the Sun passes through Jupiter’s signs, Jupiter’s good influence on ceremonies is held to be weakened, so new sanskaras wait.

This is a matter of tradition. It says nothing about any couple and carries no penalty for anyone who marries at another time.

Kharmas is also one reason Indian weddings come in seasons. In North Indian practice, several restrictions remove whole stretches of the year: Chaturmas takes out the monsoon months, the Sun in Cancer, Leo or Virgo takes out mid-July to mid-October, most of which Chaturmas already covers, and Kharmas takes out a month around midwinter and another in spring. What remains are two main seasons: from Devuthani Ekadashi to the winter Kharmas, and from Makar Sankranti to the start of Chaturmas, with pauses for Holashtak and the spring Kharmas. Our vivah muhurat guide explains the seasons in detail.

What is postponed and what carries on

Practice varies on purchases such as a house, vehicle or gold. Some families avoid them in Kharmas, and others do not. Our Muhurat finder applies Kharmas to wedding dates, and its griha pravesh search uses only the classical months, which leave out Pausha and Chaitra, the two lunar months that Kharmas mostly covers. Its searches for a business opening, vehicle, property or gold do not apply Kharmas, so families who keep it for those can simply pass over the weeks in question.

Kharmas ends on a festive note. Makar Sankranti, which closes the winter spell, is celebrated across India as Pongal, Uttarayan and Magh Bihu, with Lohri the night before, and Mesha Sankranti, which closes the spring spell, brings the solar new year in many regions, including Vaisakhi, Puthandu, Vishu and Pohela Boishakh.

How to find the Kharmas dates for your city

Rather than relying on a list, it is easy to find the exact dates yourself.

With the Panchang. Open our free Panchang, choose your city and step through the dates. The calendar section shows the Sun sign for the day. When it reads Dhanu or Meena, Kharmas is running. On the day the Sun changes sign, the same section adds a line, “Sun enters”, with the sign and the local time, and the day’s observances list the Sankranti by name, such as Dhanu Sankranti or Makara Sankranti. Those two days are the boundaries.

With the Muhurat finder. Open our Muhurat finder, choose marriage and a search of three, six or twelve months. Below the list of dates, a card headed “Periods excluded by tradition” shows each restriction it applied, including “Kharmas (Sun in Sagittarius or Pisces)”, with the number of days it removed. The wedding dates resume after Kharmas ends.

Two details explain small differences between almanacs:

• The finder skips any day touched by Kharmas. If the Sun enters Sagittarius or Pisces at any point in a Panchang day, which runs from sunrise to sunrise, the whole day is passed over, as many almanacs do.
• A Sankranti after sunset. When the Sun changes sign in the evening, many almanacs keep the festival the next morning. Our Panchang does this for Makar Sankranti, which is why the festival can be marked a day after the moment itself.

For families abroad, the moment of each Sankranti is the same everywhere, but the local date can differ, especially in the Americas. Always look at a Panchang set to your own city.

Kharmas and the other blocked periods

Kharmas is one of several periods tradition sets aside. This is how our Muhurat finder applies each one:

Our guide to how a shubh muhurat is chosen explains the reasoning behind each, and the griha pravesh muhurat guide covers the months used for a house-warming.

Using Kharmas well

Tradition treats Kharmas as a pause for new ceremonies, not for life, and it gives the month a positive purpose of its own. Common practices include:

• Worship of the Sun. Offering water to the rising Sun (arghya) and reciting prayers to Surya, whose journey defines the month.
• Reading and listening. The Bhagavad Gita, the Ramayana or the Bhagavata Purana, alone or at a katha with the family.
• Charity. Gifts of food, grain and, in the winter spell, blankets and warm clothes.
• Pilgrimage and holy bathing, especially around Makar Sankranti, when many families bathe in a river or at a tirtha.

None of this is required, and families keep the month in their own way. What tradition asks is simply that new sanskaras wait until the Sun moves on.

Kharmas in South India and in other customs

In Tamil Nadu the Dhanu month is Margazhi, one of the most devotional months of the year. Devotees rise before dawn, draw kolams and recite the Thiruppavai, and Vaikuntha Ekadashi, one of the most important Ekadashis in South Indian temples, usually falls in it. Weddings are uncommon in Margazhi, but for reasons of devotion rather than any sense of ill omen. Elsewhere the same month is called Dhanurmasa. Regional calendars treat the spring month differently, so it is worth asking your family priest which custom you follow.

Kharmas is sometimes loosely called Malmas, but that name belongs to Adhik maas, the extra lunar month added every few years. The two are different: Kharmas is solar and comes every year, while Adhik maas is lunar and occasional.

Planning around Kharmas

• Book early. The weeks just before and after Kharmas are popular for weddings, and venues fill quickly.
• Check your city. The boundary days come from the Sankranti in your local time.
• Use the time well. Many families use Kharmas for the quieter work of a wedding year: horoscope matching, shopping lists, guest lists and visits to elders, with the ceremonies themselves timed by a full vivah muhurat afterwards.
• Ask when a date is fixed for you. If work, travel or visas leave no choice of date, talk it through with your family priest, who can explain what your tradition allows. A date outside the usual seasons is a practical decision, not a misfortune.