Chaturthi tithi is the fourth lunar day of the fortnight. In the waxing half the Moon runs from thirty-six to forty-eight degrees in front of the Sun; in the waning half, from 216 to 228. It belongs to Ganesha, and the two Chaturthis of every month carry his two regular observances: Vinayaka Chaturthi in the bright half and Sankashti Chaturthi in the dark half, when the fast is broken only once the Moon has risen. It is also the first of the Rikta tithis, the empty days that muhurta sets aside for clearing rather than beginning, and that label worries more people than it should. What follows covers what it means to be born on chaturthi tithi, what the Moon looks like in each half, what Rikta does and does not imply, and how the tithi sits beside the rest of a chart cast in the kundali calculator.
The tithi before this one is Tritiya, the day of Gauri, and the one after is Panchami.
Conventions used. Tithis are counted in twelve-degree steps of the Moon’s elongation from the Sun, using the tithi in force when the child was born. Signs use the Lahiri ayanamsa. Moonrise and moonset times are Delhi figures from Swiss Ephemeris positions over 1950 to 2010, and the birth shares come from random moments across the same years.
Born on Chaturthi? Read the chart, not just the label.
A consultation places your birth tithi next to what decides more: the Moon's sign, star and strength, Mercury and the lagna, and the dasha you are running, and explains what the chart actually promises.
In this article
- Chaturthi tithi, the fourth lunar day
- The Moon on Shukla Chaturthi
- The Moon on Krishna Chaturthi, and the Sankashti moonrise
- Ganesha, remover of obstacles
- What Rikta means, and what it does not
- Mercury, the tithi’s planet
- Taurus and Aquarius: the burnt signs
- Why the Moon is not watched on Ganesh Chaturthi
- Chaturthi in muhurta
- Chaturthi and the KP method
- Two Chaturthi births
- Frequently asked questions
Chaturthi tithi, the fourth lunar day
Chaturthi means the fourth. Most tithi lists, including the Muhurta Chintamani, give Ganesha as its deity, though a few older lists name Yama. It opens the Rikta class of tithis, which recurs on Navami and Chaturdashi, and in the weekday scheme of planetary lords it falls to Mercury. Its burnt signs are Taurus and Aquarius. Shukla Chaturthi accounted for 3.3 percent of births in the sample and Krishna Chaturthi another 3.3 percent. The chaturthi tithi meaning, then, is a mix of two strong threads: the god who removes obstacles, and a class of days reserved for removing things.
The Moon on Shukla Chaturthi
On Shukla Chaturthi the Moon is a thickening crescent, ten to seventeen percent lit, in the second sign from the Sun in about 60 percent of births and in the third sign in the rest. In the evening sky it is well placed, setting a median of about three hours after the Sun in Delhi. By phase it is still counted weak, since the Moon only becomes a benefic from the eighth day of the bright half, but it is gaining steadily. People born on shukla chaturthi are usually read as mentally quick and resourceful, still building emotional confidence, and inclined to solve problems before they talk about feelings.
The Moon on Krishna Chaturthi, and the Sankashti moonrise
By Krishna Chaturthi the Moon has lost only a slice of its light, 84 to 91 percent of the disc still showing, and it keeps its strength by phase. It sits in the eighth sign from the Sun in about 60 percent of births and in the ninth in the rest. Its rising is the centre of the observance. Sankashti Chaturthi fasts, and the Karva Chauth fast kept by married women on the Krishna Chaturthi after the Ashvin full moon, are broken only after the Moon is seen, and across the sample the Moon rose a median of about three hours after sunset on these evenings, anywhere from two hours to three and a half. When a Sankashti falls on a Tuesday it is called Angaraki Chaturthi and counted especially powerful. People born on krishna chaturthi carry a full, generous Moon into a tithi associated with patience and waiting, and the tradition sees in them a capacity to endure a difficult stretch and come out with something to show for it.
Ganesha, remover of obstacles
Ganesha is worshipped first, before any other deity and before any undertaking, because he is the lord of obstacles, both the one who places them and the one who clears them. He is also the god of intelligence and discernment. As the deity of a birth tithi, he points toward a mind that notices what is in the way and works out how to get round it: practical intelligence, a knack for diagnosis, patience with problems that others give up on. In practice many people born on Chaturthi end up in work that consists of removing obstacles for others, in engineering, repair, law, medicine, accounts or counselling.
What Rikta means, and what it does not
Rikta means empty. The Rikta tithis, Chaturthi, Navami and Chaturdashi, are the days muhurta keeps free of auspicious beginnings such as weddings and housewarmings and reserves instead for clearing, ending, confronting and cutting away. The rikta tithi label is a muhurta category: it describes what a day is suited to, not the worth of a person born on it, and a birth on Chaturthi is read by the same rules as any other.
| Rikta tithi | Moon’s lead over the Sun | Deity and planet | Burnt signs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chaturthi | 36 to 48 degrees (Shukla), 216 to 228 (Krishna) | Ganesha; Mercury | Taurus, Aquarius |
| Navami | 96 to 108 degrees (Shukla), 276 to 288 (Krishna) | Durga; the Sun | Leo, Scorpio |
| Chaturdashi | 156 to 168 degrees (Shukla), 336 to 348 (Krishna) | Shiva; Venus | Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces |
The three are spread across the fortnight at the fourth, ninth and fourteenth days, and each is tied to a deity who destroys or removes: Ganesha the obstacle, Durga the demon, Shiva the world at the end of its cycle. The theme is clearance, which is a necessary part of any life.
It helps to see the five classes as a cycle rather than a ranking. Nanda, joy, opens each run of five; Bhadra, welfare, builds on it; Jaya, victory, pushes through; Rikta, emptiness, clears what has served its purpose; and Purna, fullness, completes the round before Nanda begins again. A cycle needs its clearing phase as much as its opening one, and the tradition does not treat Rikta days as bad days, only as days with a particular job.
Mercury, the tithi’s planet
Counting the tithis against the planets in weekday order, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury and on, puts Chaturthi and Dwadashi under Mercury. It is an apt match for Ganesha’s tithi, since both stand for intelligence, speech, calculation and discrimination. In a Chaturthi chart, Mercury deserves a careful look: whether it is in its own signs Gemini or Virgo, exalted in Virgo or debilitated in Pisces, how close it is to the Sun, and which houses it rules. A strong Mercury gives the tithi’s practical intelligence something to work with. Mercury is also the planet most often combust, since it never strays far from the Sun, and the site’s article on combust Mercury explains why that is far less damaging than it sounds; retrograde Mercury is covered alongside it.
Taurus and Aquarius: the burnt signs
For a Chaturthi birth the dagdha signs are Taurus and Aquarius, ruled by Venus and Saturn. Where the rule is applied, the houses holding those signs are said to give their results a little less fully and the two lords to act with less force, subject to the familiar exceptions for a lord in a dusthana, a retrograde lord and malefics occupying the sign. In muhurta the same signs make a Chaturthi dagdha when the Sun is transiting them. For a birth chart it is a refinement to note, not a finding to build a reading on.
Why the Moon is not watched on Ganesh Chaturthi
On the Shukla Chaturthi of Bhadrapada, Ganesh Chaturthi itself, a widely kept custom forbids looking at the Moon. The story tells of the Moon mocking Ganesha and being cursed, and of Krishna, who glimpsed the Moon on this night, being falsely accused of stealing the Syamantaka jewel, which is why the fault is called mithya dosha, the fault of false blame. The custom concerns seeing the Moon on that one evening. It has nothing to say about being born on the day, and a child born on Ganesh Chaturthi carries no such fault.
Chaturthi in muhurta
Because it is Rikta, Chaturthi is left out of the tithis chosen for weddings, and the site’s marriage muhurat guide lists it among the forbidden ones. The same texts recommend Rikta days for actions that cut or clear: settling a dispute, demolishing, ending an arrangement, beginning a difficult treatment. A Rikta tithi that falls on a Saturday is counted Siddha, a combination that turns a clearing day into a strong one. All of this concerns choosing a day for an action. None of it transfers to a person, who is born when they are born and whose chart is judged on its own merits.
Chaturthi and the KP method
In KP the birth tithi plays no part in judgment. Events are read through the four steps described in the 4-step theory, planet, star lord, sub-lord and the sub-lord’s star, and the Moon is assessed like every other significator. A Krishna Chaturthi Moon counts for no more in KP because it is bright, and a Rikta birth counts for no less. A KP practitioner will still mention the tithi, since clients often ask about it, but the answer to any real question comes from the cusps and the dasha.
Two Chaturthi births
A man born around sunrise on Ganesh Chaturthi, details altered, with Leo rising. The Sun is at 25 degrees Leo in the lagna and the Moon at 5 degrees Libra in the third house, forty degrees ahead: Shukla Chaturthi. Mercury, the tithi lord, is exalted in Virgo in the second house. His family half-worried about the Rikta label and half-celebrated the festival birthday. He qualified as a chartered accountant and now practises tax law, work that is almost entirely the removal of obstacles for clients, done through an exalted Mercury in the house of money and speech. The festival and the tithi gave the family a story; the Mercury gave him the career.
A woman born on a Sankashti evening, details altered, with Taurus rising and the Moon at 20 degrees Taurus, exalted and just rising in the lagna, as the Moon does about three hours after sunset on this tithi. The Sun is at 10 degrees Libra in the sixth: a Krishna Chaturthi birth, born at the moment the fast is broken. Taurus is one of the burnt signs of Chaturthi, and a reading years earlier had told her that her lagna and its lord Venus were therefore weak. Venus sits in its own sign Libra in the sixth house, clear of combustion. She heads the nutrition and dietary department of a large hospital, sixth-house work done by a well-placed Venus, and the burnt-sign warning has not shown itself in any way she can name.
Frequently asked questions
What is Chaturthi tithi?
The fourth lunar day of each fortnight: the Moon 36 to 48 degrees ahead of the Sun on Shukla Chaturthi, or 216 to 228 degrees on Krishna Chaturthi. It is Ganesha’s tithi and the first of the Rikta tithis.
Is being born on a Rikta tithi bad?
No. Rikta is a muhurta category for choosing days, suited to clearing rather than beginning. A person born on Chaturthi is judged by their chart like anyone else.
How do Shukla and Krishna Chaturthi differ?
Shukla Chaturthi has a growing crescent, weak by phase, setting about three hours after the Sun. Krishna Chaturthi has a mostly full, strong Moon rising about three hours after sunset, the moonrise that ends the Sankashti fast.
What is Sankashti Chaturthi?
The monthly Ganesha observance on Krishna Chaturthi, a fast kept until moonrise. When it falls on a Tuesday it is called Angaraki Chaturthi.
Which planet rules Chaturthi tithi?
Mercury, following the weekday sequence of tithi lords that begins with the Sun at Pratipada. Its deity is Ganesha in most lists.
What are the burnt signs of Chaturthi?
Taurus and Aquarius, ruled by Venus and Saturn. The rule is a small refinement with several exceptions and should not be read as a verdict on any house.
Why should the Moon not be seen on Ganesh Chaturthi?
A traditional custom, based on the story of the Syamantaka jewel, holds that seeing the Moon that night brings false blame. It concerns looking at the Moon on that evening, not being born on the day.
A Rikta birth is still a whole chart.
A consultation reads your Moon, Mercury and lagna lord, the houses they rule and the dasha you are running, and puts the birth tithi in its proper place as background.