Shubh muhurat, a guide for auspicious beginnings, likely originated from tracking a woman’s menstrual cycle to align marriages with fertility, maximising chance of conception.
The custom of following the shubh muhurat—an auspicious time to commence any event or activity—is widely observed by people adhering to Hinduism, primarily in India. It is believed that if an event or activity is started at a specific time, it will yield fruitful results. People consult pandits and astrologers to determine auspicious times for a variety of activities, ranging from marriages and poojas to housewarmings, shop openings and even stock trading. These pandits and astrologers, in turn, refer to almanacs and provide what might seem to be arbitrary times for such events. We will explore this in detail, but you’ll have to bear with a somewhat lengthy discussion.
If we follow the logic of evolutionary theory, the idea of shubh muhurat may be developed alongside the idea of marriage—a supposedly lifelong union between a man and a woman. But before delving into this, we need to understand the origins of marriage itself. Sex, being one of the basic natural instincts of all sexually reproducing things, allows any male to mate with one or more females of the same species, and vice versa. Humans were no different. As their numbers grew and they realised they were physically weaker compared to other species and predators, they began living in groups. Thus, humans became social animals.
Thousands of years ago, these groups would constantly move from place to place, as agriculture had not yet begun and they had to hunt and forage for food. Men could mate with multiple women and, naturally, have children with them. However, the growing population within these groups led to food shortages. When food was scarce, people fought among themselves, with children and women—the weakest members—being the first to be killed. Men, being physically stronger, survived. But without women, men could not continue to perpetuate the species. Someone recognised this and decided that each man should mate with only one woman. There are various iterations of this rule, depending on how much the man could provide for the woman and their children, but that is a topic for another day. The essence is that this rule was created to control the growing population within groups.
One of the key points of evolutionary biology is natural selection, which involves survival and reproduction. Organisms with traits better suited to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce. The natural instinct of sex aids individuals to pass on their genes to the next generation through reproduction, and the more copies of your genes, the better (Dawkins, 2016). However, with the rule of only one mating partner, certain restrictions arose on multiplying your genes. If men wanted more copies of their genes but had only one mating partner, they had to develop strategies to maximise the number of their offspring. Thus, the primary strategy was to mate with a woman as soon as she is biologically fertile to give birth, which occurs at the onset of menstruation.
Such restrictions created two major problems for men: a) how to identify and convince a fertile woman to mate with you and b) how to tell other men that this woman was now going to be their biological mate. Thus, the concept of marriage emerged. Marriage is defined as “the state of being united as spouses in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law” (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). Essentially, marriage is a socially, culturally, and generally legally accepted union of (traditionally) a man and a woman.
So, where does muhurat come into all this? When two people marry, there is a custom of honeymoon in all cultures, under various names, but the underlying idea is the same—socially accepted intercourse between the newly married couple. When a woman is ovulating, her body releases a mature egg from one of her ovaries into the fallopian tube. If a sperm successfully reaches and penetrates the egg, fertilisation occurs. The fertilised egg, now called a zygote, starts developing, reaches the uterus, and implants into the thickened uterine lining (endometrium), where it continues to grow and develop into an embryo. Successful implantation leads to pregnancy, with the embryo developing into a fetus over the subsequent months. This ovulation period typically occurs around the middle of her menstrual cycle, roughly 14 days before the start of her next menstrual cycle. However, if intercourse occurs during menstruation, sperm cannot reach and fertilise the egg, as the endometrium sheds along with the unfertilised egg, thereby reducing the chances of conception.
Therefore, logically, if a woman is ovulating around the day of her wedding and/or honeymoon, this presents the earliest opportunity for a man to engage in socially accepted intercourse with the hope of progeny. Thus, the concept of muhurat came into being, which essentially tracks a woman’s menstrual cycle to ensure her honeymoon preferably coincides with her most fertile days or at least avoids her menstrual cycle. This increased the probability of her conceiving a child at the earliest opportunity, thereby maximising a man’s chances of having offspring and passing on his genes to the next generation.
The human mind is capable of forming associations between different phenomena. Sometimes, these associations may not make much sense. Cultures, traditions and associations are passed down from one generation to the next through cultural transmission, known as a meme (Dawkins, 2016). Thus, over time, like other superstitions, cultures, and traditions, the custom of performing activities at an ‘auspicious time’ or a muhurat became associated with everything, from starting a new business or trading to moving into a new house, conducting a pooja, and many other events and activities.
(The author, Madhura Gondhalekar is a Teaching Assistant, at SPJIMR.)
