Somavara

Somavara (somavara) is the Vedic name for Monday, the day of the week ruled by the Moon. The name is built from "soma," one of the Moon's names, and "vara," day of the week — hence the lunar coloring of the day: shifting moods, feelings, a pull toward rest and care. By nature it's a gentle, "cool" day, and tradition ties it to home, nurturing, and water-related matters.

Place in the system

Somavara is the second of the seven varas, right after solar Ravivara; next comes Mangalavara, Mars's day. Vara is one of the five limbs of the panchanga, alongside the lunar day tithi, the union of luminaries yoga, the half-tithi karana, and the lunar station nakshatra. Nakshatra tracks which station the Moon is passing through, while vara tracks which graha rules the day itself.

Each of the seven varas corresponds to its own graha, and Somavara is tied to the Moon. The ruling planet also sets the count of planetary hours: the first hora of Somavara belongs to the Moon, and the full daily sequence of horas unfolds from it.

Practical meaning

In jyotish, the Moon is the karaka (natural significator) of the mind and feelings; it's tied to one's mother, water, food, the home, and everything fluid and changeable in a person. Tradition carries these same themes over to the day it rules. The Moon's qualities reach their fullness in its own sign — Cancer — and in exaltation in earthy Taurus.

Varas are divided by nature into gentle and harsh; Somavara belongs to the gentle days, true to its ruler. That said, the Moon's benefic nature in tradition is conditional: it's held gentle above all in the bright half of the month (Shukla Paksha), and that gentleness weakens on the wane — though different schools draw the line differently. When choosing a time (muhurta), such a day is tied to delicate, welcoming matters: caring for home and family, spending time with one's mother and close ones, gentle reconciling conversations, matters connected to water, food, and nourishment, as well as healing and rest. The Moon's coolness supports undertakings that call for calm and pliancy, not force.

Conversely, matters that call for firmness, struggle, and a sharp push aren't usually set on the gentle Moon: for those, tradition prefers days of grahas with a more decisive character. The Moon's changeability has its flip side too — a lunar day is easily colored by mood, and important decisions made on it sometimes turn out shaky. Schools place the emphasis differently here, and the overall reading of a vara's favorability isn't given by it alone, but together with the day's other limbs.

In daily practice

In timing the day, vara is read as a background that colors the day with its graha's character. Somavara's day leans toward gentle, nurturing matters: caring for home and health, spending time with close ones, calm restorative work, anything tied to water and food. Harsh matters that call for force aren't usually set on the cool Moon.

How favorable such a day is for you personally is refined by personal calculations from your birth chart. Tara Bala is counted from your birth nakshatra, while Chandra Bala is the strength of the transiting Moon relative to your natal one; on a lunar day, this personal lunar background is especially relevant. And within any day, an unfavorable stretch, Rahu Kala, is marked off — a window of the shadow graha Rahu that important beginnings aren't set on. Somavara itself remains a day of feeling and calm: a time for care, delicate conversations, and recovery, not for struggle and sharp moves.