Purnima tithi is the full moon day, the fifteenth and final tithi of the bright fortnight, during which the Moon moves from 168 to 180 degrees ahead of the Sun and reaches its exact opposition at the tithi’s very end. It has no twin in the dark half; its counterpart there is Amavasya, the new moon. About one birth in thirty falls on Purnima, and many families take special pleasure in a full moon birth. The tithi’s deity is Chandra, the Moon itself, its class is Purna, fullness, and in the weekday scheme its planet is, a little unexpectedly, Saturn. The sections below take in what a full moon birth signifies, the Moon’s position and strength, how the Hindu months came to be named after full moons, why only this tithi can host a lunar eclipse, and the modest share of the reading that belongs to the tithi once your chart from the kundali calculator is laid out.
The day before is Chaturdashi, and the day after is Krishna Pratipada, the first day of the waning Moon.
Conventions used. A birth falls on Purnima when the Moon’s lead over the Sun is between 168 and 180 degrees at the moment of birth. Sidereal signs and nakshatras use the Lahiri ayanamsa. Birth shares come from random moments in 1950 to 2010, and eclipse and nakshatra counts from every full moon in those years, all computed with the Swiss Ephemeris.
Born on Purnima? A full Moon still needs a full reading.
A consultation reads your Moon's sign, nakshatra and aspects, its opposition to the Sun, Saturn and the lagna, and the dasha you are running, and shows what the chart actually promises.
In this article
- Purnima tithi, the full moon day
- The full moon comes at the end of the tithi
- The Moon at its strongest, and opposite the Sun
- Chandra, the deity of the full moon
- Saturn as the tithi’s planet
- The last Purna tithi, with no burnt signs
- The months are named after full moons
- Lunar eclipses fall only on Purnima
- Purnima in muhurta
- Purnima and KP
- Two Purnima births
- Frequently asked questions
Purnima tithi, the full moon day
Purnima means the full one. It is the fifteenth tithi of the bright half, presided over by Chandra in the Muhurta Chintamani, the third of the Purna tithis, sometimes described as Saumya, gentle, and, by the weekday reckoning of tithi lords, Saturn’s. It is one of only two tithis with no burnt signs; the other is Amavasya. Purnima claimed 3.3 percent of the sampled births. The purnima tithi meaning is the Moon at its most complete: light, fullness and a mind turned outward.
The full moon comes at the end of the tithi
A point that surprises many people is that the astronomical full moon, the moment of exact opposition, is the end of Purnima, not its middle. The tithi covers the twelve degrees leading up to that moment, so a child born on Purnima is born as the Moon is still filling, at 99 percent or more of its light, and one born a few minutes after the exact full moon is already a Krishna Pratipada birth. Because the tithi changes there, the minutes around the full moon also form one of the tithi gandanta junctions; the Panchami article tabulates all six, and very few Purnima births land in this one.
The Moon at its strongest, and opposite the Sun
By phase, the Purnima Moon is as strong as the Moon ever gets, a full natural benefic at the top of its cycle. It is also opposite the Sun: four Purnima births in five place it exactly seven signs from the Sun, and the fifth one sign short of that. The opposition gives the full moon birth its characteristic double quality. The Moon, standing for the mind, feelings and public life, is at its brightest and most visible, while the Sun, standing for will and identity, faces it from the other side of the chart. Traditional readings describe Purnima natives as warm, expressive, emotionally generous and often drawn toward other people, relationships and public roles, with the work of their lives often lying in bringing what they want and what they feel into agreement.
Chandra, the deity of the full moon
On Purnima the Moon is its own deity. Chandra, or Soma, rules the mind, the mother, nourishment and the tides of feeling, and the full moon is his day of fullest presence; monthly worship such as the Satyanarayana katha is often kept on it. A birth under Chandra at his fullest is linked in the tradition with an open heart, imagination, a talent for caring for others and a strong responsiveness to surroundings, sometimes shading into sensitivity to mood. How grounded that sensitivity is depends above all on the Moon’s sign and the aspects it receives.
Saturn as the tithi’s planet
In the weekday count of tithi lords, Saturn takes Saptami and Purnima. Setting the planet of limits and duty over the tithi of the full Moon looks paradoxical, but the tradition often reads Purnima that way: fullness that carries responsibility, a bright nature that becomes dependable with age. In a Purnima chart Saturn is worth reading after the Moon, especially any aspect between the two. A well-placed Saturn tends to steady the Purnima temperament; a Saturn that afflicts the Moon can make the emotional life heavier than the phase alone would suggest.
The last Purna tithi, with no burnt signs
Purnima closes the Purna class after Panchami and Dashami, the tithis of completion; muhurta rates any of the three as Siddha when it coincides with Jupiter’s weekday. Unlike every tithi from Pratipada to Chaturdashi, it burns no signs at all, so the shunya rule does not touch a Purnima chart. That fits the tithi’s character: at the full moon, nothing is held back.
The months are named after full moons
The twelve lunar months take their names from the nakshatra in which the full moon falls, or should fall: Chaitra from Chitra, Vaishakha from Vishakha, and so on round the year. The sky does not follow the names exactly, because the Moon’s position at full moon shifts from year to year. The table shows each month, the nakshatra it is named after, and how often the full moon of that month fell in the namesake nakshatra or the one next to it across 1950 to 2010, taking the month as it is counted where months end at the new moon.
| Month | Named after | Full moon in or beside that nakshatra | Purnima observance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chaitra | Chitra | 100 percent | Hanuman Jayanti in much of the north |
| Vaishakha | Vishakha | 100 percent | Buddha Purnima |
| Jyeshtha | Jyeshtha | 97 percent | Vat Purnima |
| Ashadha | Purva and Uttara Ashadha | 100 percent | Guru Purnima |
| Shravana | Shravana | 73 percent | Raksha Bandhan |
| Bhadrapada | Purva and Uttara Bhadrapada | 100 percent | Purnima Shraddha, opening Pitru Paksha |
| Ashvin | Ashvini | 95 percent | Sharad Purnima, Kojagari |
| Kartika | Krittika | 100 percent | Kartik Purnima, Dev Deepawali, Guru Nanak Jayanti |
| Margashirsha | Mrigashira | 100 percent | Dattatreya Jayanti |
| Pausha | Pushya | 82 percent | Shakambhari Purnima |
| Magha | Magha | 92 percent | Magha Purnima, the great bathing day |
| Phalguna | Purva and Uttara Phalguni | 100 percent | Holika Dahan |
Across all twelve months, the full moon fell in the exact namesake nakshatra 53 percent of the time and in it or next to it 95 percent of the time. For a Purnima birth, that means the Moon’s nakshatra is usually predictable from the month, though, as always, the chart itself settles it.
Lunar eclipses fall only on Purnima
A lunar eclipse can only happen at full moon, when the Moon, opposite the Sun, passes close enough to Rahu or Ketu to enter the Earth’s shadow. Most full moons miss: across 1950 to 2010, 18.5 percent of full moons carried a lunar eclipse of any kind, and 11.7 percent a partial or total one, the rest being faint penumbral eclipses that most people never notice. Solar eclipses, in the same way, belong only to Amavasya. A lunar eclipse birth always puts the Moon close to a node, which many families read as grahan dosha. The site’s guide to grahan dosha explains how that combination is actually judged: by the house it falls in, the lords involved and the dasha, not by the fact of the eclipse itself.
Purnima in muhurta
Purnima is a day for worship rather than for new ventures in most muhurta practice, and the site’s marriage muhurat guide notes that Purnima and Amavasya are generally avoided for weddings. It is favoured for fasts, vows, charity, sacred bathing and the monthly Satyanarayana katha. As with every tithi, these are rules about choosing a day; they say nothing about the life of a person born on one.
Purnima and KP
In KP the full Moon is judged like any other significator. Its results come through the houses it occupies and owns and, more importantly, through its star lord, as the site’s article on occupants and owners in KP explains, and the sub-lords of the cusps decide what is promised. The brightness of a Purnima Moon adds nothing to that analysis, and a Purnima birth is not treated as fortunate in itself. What KP does take seriously is the Moon’s position for the dasha: the nakshatra it occupies at birth sets the whole Vimshottari sequence, whatever the tithi.
Two Purnima births
The first example, particulars changed, is a man born on the night of Guru Purnima as Pisces rose. His Sun was at 20 degrees Gemini in the fourth house and the full Moon, at 16 degrees Sagittarius in Purva Ashadha, stands high in the tenth, 176 degrees ahead. The Moon is in a sign of Jupiter, his lagna lord, as the page on the Moon in Sagittarius describes, and it sits in the house of career. He teaches mathematics at a government school and runs a free evening coaching class that has sent several of his students to engineering colleges, a Guru Purnima birth that turned, fittingly, into a teacher’s life.
A woman born at moonrise on Sharad Purnima, details altered, during a partial lunar eclipse. Aries is rising with the Moon at 5 degrees Aries and Rahu beside it in the lagna, while the Sun at 5 degrees Libra sets in the seventh with Ketu: the Moon 179.7 degrees ahead of the Sun, a Purnima birth a few minutes before the eclipse’s maximum. Her grandmother had a grahan shanti performed and worried for years. The Moon-Rahu conjunction in the lagna has shown itself mainly as an unusual, restless curiosity. She is an astronomy educator at a planetarium, and she tells visiting schoolchildren about the eclipse she was born under.
Frequently asked questions
What is Purnima tithi?
The fifteenth tithi of the bright fortnight, when the Moon moves from 168 to 180 degrees ahead of the Sun. The exact full moon falls at its end.
Is it lucky to be born on Purnima?
Many families think so, and the Moon is at its strongest by phase. A Purnima birth is still judged by the whole chart, especially the Moon’s sign, aspects and relationship with Saturn.
Is the exact full moon part of Purnima tithi?
It marks the end of it. The tithi covers the twelve degrees before exact opposition, and a birth just after the full moon falls on Krishna Pratipada.
What does it mean to be born during a lunar eclipse?
The Moon was close to Rahu or Ketu at birth. That conjunction is judged by its house, its lords and the dasha, as the grahan dosha guide explains; the eclipse itself is not a verdict.
Which deity and planet rule Purnima?
Its deity, per the Muhurta Chintamani, is Chandra, the Moon himself. Its planet, counting tithi lords in weekday order, is Saturn.
Does Purnima have burnt signs?
No. Purnima and Amavasya are the only tithis with no shunya signs, so that rule does not apply to a Purnima chart.
Why are the Hindu months named after full moons?
Each month takes its name from the nakshatra in which its full moon falls, such as Chaitra from Chitra. Across 1950 to 2010 the full moon fell in or beside the namesake nakshatra 95 percent of the time.
A full Moon, read in full.
A consultation reads your Moon's sign, nakshatra and aspects, Saturn and the lagna, and the dasha that the Moon's nakshatra set in motion, and shows what the chart promises beyond the full moon birth.