Gandanta is the joint where a water sign ends and a fire sign begins. Three star junctions fall exactly there: Revati – Ashwini, Ashlesha – Magha, Jyeshta – Moola. The rising sign has the same three joints (Pisces – Aries, Cancer – Leo, Scorpio – Sagittarius), and Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra adds three tithi joints. The books agree on where the junctions are. They do not agree on how wide the window is: 2 ghatikas on each side (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra pp. 1026–1027, Kalaprakasika p. 12), 4 nadikas or 7½ ghatis (Jataka Parijata p. 614), or a whole navamsa (the translators' notes and Rath).
☕ A knot between two signs
Ganda means a knot, and anta an end. The zodiac's twelve signs run in a repeating order of fire, earth, air and water. Three times round the circle a water sign is followed by a fire sign: Pisces by Aries, Cancer by Leo, Scorpio by Sagittarius. The books call that joint gandanta. Because each sign holds two and a quarter stars, a star also ends exactly at each of these joints, so the star junctions Revati – Ashwini, Ashlesha – Magha, Jyeshta – Moola are gandanta too.
Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (Vol. 2, ch. 92, pp. 1026–1027) names three kinds. The star kind is the end of Revati, Ashlesha or Jyeshta and the start of the star after it. The rising-sign kind is the moment the lagna crosses one of the three sign joints. The tithi kind is the end of a Purna tithi and the start of the Nanda tithi after it. The same verse names what the junction is weighed for: a birth, a journey, and auspicious functions such as a marriage. Kalaprakasika (p. 12) gives the same star junctions, and lists its own tithi and sign junctions, which differ in small ways the table below shows.
The books agree on where the junction is. They give five widths for it, from a few minutes to several hours, and none of them says whether its ghatika is 24 clock minutes or a sixtieth of the star's own length. These books belong to one tradition, so the places they share are one handed-down rule, not several proofs of it. This page builds on the nakshatra page; the counting from your birth star is on the tara bala page.
Nava Panchangam shows one part of this: in “Find my best window”, a time for an occasion that touches a star junction carries a gentle caution, using the 2 ghatikas on each side that Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra and Kalaprakasika agree on, read as a share of the star's length. The tithi and sign kinds are not shown, because the books do not settle them. Nava Panchangam does not use this rule in its day score. This page explains it as the books give it.
Where the books agree, and where they do not
- Star: Revati – Ashwini
- Star: Ashlesha – Magha
- Star: Jyeshta – Moola
- Rising sign: Pisces – Aries
- Rising sign: Cancer – Leo
- Rising sign: Scorpio – Sagittarius
- Tithi: Panchami – Shasthi
- Tithi: Dasami – Ekadashi
- Tithi: Pournami – waning Prathamai
- 2 ghatikas each side: Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra's verse and Kalaprakasika
- 4 nadikas: Sripati, quoted in Jataka Parijata's notes
- 7½ ghatis at each junction: Jataka Parijata's verse
- One navamsa on the ending side: the translators' notes, and Rath
- Abhukta Moola at Jyeshta – Moola: 6 ghatikas before and 8 after
Frequently Asked Questions
Is gandanta the same as Ganda yoga?
No. Ganda and Atiganda are two of the 27 daily yogas, made from the Sun's and Moon's longitudes added together. Gandanta is a junction at the end of a star, a sign or a tithi. The words share a root, knot, and nothing else.
How often does a gandanta come?
The Moon passes each of the three star junctions about once a month, so the star kind comes about three times a month. The rising sign passes all twelve signs every day, so the lagna kind comes three times every day, for a few minutes each. The tithi kind comes at the tithi joints the book lists.
How wide is it, then?
The books give five answers: 2 ghatikas on each side (Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra and Kalaprakasika), 4 nadikas (Sripati, quoted in Jataka Parijata's notes), 7½ ghatis (Jataka Parijata's verse), one navamsa on the ending side (the translators' notes and Rath), and a wider Abhukta Moola at Jyeshta – Moola. None says whether its ghatika is clock time or a share of the star's length. An astrologer chooses the reading.
What is Abhukta Moola?
The widest window, at the Jyeshta – Moola junction only. Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (p. 1027) gives it as the last 6 ghatikas of Jyeshta and the first 8 of Moola. Jataka Parijata's translator gives a narrower one, 1 ghatika before and 2 after (p. 614).
Does Nava Panchangam show gandanta?
Only the star junction, and only for occasions. In “Find my best window”, a time for an occasion that touches a star junction shows a gentle caution (2 ghatikas on each side, as a share of the star's length). The day score does not use gandanta, and the tithi and sign kinds are not shown, because the books it cites do not settle them.
From the sources
The three kinds of junction, the five widths side by side, how the two books' tithi and sign lists differ, and what this page leaves out.
🔗 The three kinds of junction
Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra names three kinds, each at three places. This is the list the app's arithmetic holds:
| Kind | The three junctions |
|---|---|
| Star (nakshatra) | Revati – Ashwini, Ashlesha – Magha, Jyeshta – Moola |
| Rising sign (lagna) | Pisces – Aries, Cancer – Leo, Scorpio – Sagittarius |
| Tithi | Panchami – Shasthi, Dasami – Ekadashi, Pournami – waning Prathamai |
For the tithi kind the verse names the 5th, 10th and 15th tithis and the ones after them. Counted within each half of the month, the same rule also reaches waning Panchami – waning Shasthi, waning Dasami – waning Ekadashi, Amavasai – Prathamai; the verse does not say which reading it means.
📏 Five widths, side by side
All five sources put the junction in the same place. They differ on how far the window reaches either side of it.
| Source | Width | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra's verse; Kalaprakasika | 2 ghatikas before the junction and 2 after | pp. 1026–1027; p. 12 |
| Sripati, as Jataka Parijata's translator quotes him | 4 nadikas; which side is not said | p. 614 |
| Jataka Parijata's verse | 7½ ghatis at each junction; which side is not said | p. 614 |
| The translators' notes in Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra and Jataka Parijata; Rath's worked examples | one navamsa (a quarter of the star, 3° 20′ of the Moon's path), on the ending side | pp. 111–112; p. 80; pp. 241, 359, 543 |
| Abhukta Moola, Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (Jyeshta – Moola only) | the last 6 ghatikas of Jyeshta and the first 8 of Moola | p. 1027 |
A ghatika is a sixtieth of a day, 24 minutes, but some rules use a sixtieth of the star's own length instead, and none of these books says which it means here. A navamsa is much wider: the Moon takes some six hours to cross one.
📖 How Kalaprakasika's lists differ
Kalaprakasika (p. 12) gives the same three star junctions, 2 ghatikas each side. For tithis it names only the last two ghatikas of Panchami, Dasami, Pournami, Amavasai: the ending side alone, and the new moon is on its list. For signs it takes the last navamsa of Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces and the first of Aries, Leo and Sagittarius, where Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra's lagna kind is half a ghatika either side of the joint.
✂️ What this page leaves out
Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (pp. 1026–1027) and Kalaprakasika (p. 12) attach, next to these definitions, what a gandanta birth is said to mean for the child and the family, and Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra's chapter goes on to rites. Jataka Parijata uses the junction only for births. This page keeps the definitions and the widths, and leaves all of that out.