Chatushpada

Chatushpada (Chatushpada) is the ninth karana, one of the fixed halves of a lunar day in the Indian calendar. Its name translates as "four-footed," and it falls on the first half of Amavasya, the dark new moon. In muhurta tradition, the karana Chatushpada is held unfavorable: joyful matters aren't started in its hours, and the stretch is given over to memorial matters, offerings, and the care of four-footed livestock.

Place in the system

Karana is the finest-grained of the five limbs of the panchanga, alongside the lunar day tithi, the Moon's station nakshatra, the union of luminaries yoga, and the day of the week vara. Each karana equals half a tithi: two of them pass in a single lunar day, and sixty over a full lunar month.

There are only eleven karana names. Seven of them are movable (chara) and repeat eight times over the month, while four are fixed (sthira): each takes one set place in the month and doesn't come again. Chatushpada is the second of this four. Before it, on the second half of the fourteenth day of the waning moon, comes Shakuni; Chatushpada itself occupies the first half of Amavasya, after which Naga takes the new moon's second half, and the lunar month is then opened by Kimstughna on the first half of the first day of the waxing moon.

Practical meaning

Tradition counts Chatushpada among the papa-karanas (unfavorable stretches), unsuited to bright beginnings. Its hours aren't given to a wedding or engagement, naming a child, moving into a new home, a long trip, or opening a new venture. In this Chatushpada joins Shakuni and Naga — three of the four fixed karanas, gathered around the new moon and tied more to closing and quiet than to a loud, good start.

That said, Chatushpada has its own circle of fitting matters, and its very name points to it. "Four-footed" is the karana of four-footed livestock: tradition ties its name to matters of domestic animals. Since the stretch falls on Amavasya itself, memorial rites for ancestors are also tied to it — shraddha and tarpana — and with them offerings, distributing food and gifts in memory of the departed, reciting mantras. This is a karana not of joy, but of labor, duty, and remembrance.

In daily practice

When the first half of the new moon falls on Chatushpada, this stretch isn't chosen for an important, joyful start — a wedding, a move, a long trip, a major deal, opening a venture, tradition will put these off to a brighter window. But for memorial and ritual matters, offerings to ancestors and giving out gifts, and the care of livestock, its hours aren't held a hindrance.

Karana is usually read last, on top of a picture of the day that's already taken shape: first tithi and nakshatra set the day's general tone, vara and yoga add their own touches, and only then does karana refine whether the particular half of the day suits an undertaking. When choosing a muhurta, Chatushpada is a marker to avoid for benefic matters and set aside for the memorial and ritual instead. How favorable the day itself is for you personally is shown separately by Tara Bala, from your birth nakshatra. If a bright undertaking falls on this fixed karana, it's usually shifted past the new moon, to the nearest waxing day.