Chaturdashi tithi is the fourteenth lunar day, the last before the fortnight closes. In the bright half the Moon is 156 to 168 degrees ahead of the Sun, almost full and up for nearly the whole night; in the dark half it is 336 to 348 degrees ahead, a last sliver that rises just before dawn and leaves the night almost entirely dark. Its deity is Shiva, it is the third and last of the Rikta tithis, and in the weekday scheme its planet is Venus. It is also the tithi about which families worry most, because classical texts single out births on Krishna Chaturdashi for a propitiatory rite. This article explains what it means to be born on chaturdashi tithi, the Moon and the night in each half, the classical threads of the tithi, what that old concern about Krishna Chaturdashi births actually amounts to, and why the tithi counts for far less than the full picture the kundali calculator gives you.
Chaturdashi follows Trayodashi and leads into Purnima in the bright half and Amavasya in the dark half.
Conventions used. Each of the thirty tithis spans twelve degrees of the Moon’s separation from the Sun, and a birth takes the one in force when it happens. Placements use the Lahiri sidereal zodiac. The night-time figures come from Delhi calculations, and the shares from a random sample of birth moments between 1950 and 2010, both from Swiss Ephemeris positions.
Born on Chaturdashi? Let the whole chart answer your worries.
A consultation reads your Moon, Venus and the lagna, the houses they rule and the dasha you are running, and puts any concern about a Chaturdashi birth into proper perspective.
In this article
- Chaturdashi tithi, the fourteenth day
- Shukla Chaturdashi: the night before the full moon
- Krishna Chaturdashi: a night almost without a Moon
- Moonlight at the end of each fortnight
- Shiva, and the last Rikta tithi
- Venus, Shukracharya and Shiva
- Four burnt signs instead of two
- The Krishna Chaturdashi fear, and Parashara’s shanti
- Shivaratri, Naraka Chaturdashi and Anant Chaturdashi
- Chaturdashi and KP
- Two Chaturdashi births
- Frequently asked questions
Chaturdashi tithi, the fourteenth day
Chaturdashi means fourteen. The Muhurta Chintamani gives Shiva as its deity; it closes the Rikta class after Chaturthi and Navami; some lists call it Ugra, fierce; the weekday count gives it to Venus; and it is the only tithi with four burnt signs, Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces. Each half took about 3.3 percent of births in the sample. The chaturdashi tithi meaning is shaped above all by where it sits, on the threshold of the full moon or the new moon, a tithi of culmination and of ending.
Shukla Chaturdashi: the night before the full moon
On Shukla Chaturdashi the Moon is 96 to 99 percent lit and indistinguishable from full to most eyes. It rises before sunset and stays up nearly all night. In 60 percent of shukla chaturdashi births it is in the sixth sign from the Sun, otherwise in the seventh, and by phase it is at its strongest short of Purnima itself. The traditional reading is of emotional abundance and warmth, a person who gives generously and feels things fully, with a certain intensity that comes from a Moon so close to its peak.
Krishna Chaturdashi: a night almost without a Moon
On Krishna Chaturdashi the Moon is only 1 to 4 percent lit, a hair-thin crescent that rises shortly before the Sun and is soon lost in the dawn. In 60 percent of krishna chaturdashi births it sits in the sign just behind the Sun’s and in 40 percent it shares the Sun’s sign, though it is still twelve to twenty-four degrees away, outside the combustion orb that begins on Amavasya. By phase it is at its weakest short of the new moon. The traditional picture for this half is inward, intense and sometimes solitary, with a capacity for depth and endurance that the Moon’s own sign and aspects will either support or complicate.
Moonlight at the end of each fortnight
The two Chaturdashis sit at opposite extremes of moonlight, and the difference is easy to measure. The table shows how much of the night, from sunset to sunrise, the Moon spent above the horizon in Delhi on the last two nights of each fortnight.
| Tithi | Moon’s lead over the Sun | Share of the disc lit | Moon above the horizon (median share of the night) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shukla Chaturdashi | 156 to 168 degrees | 96 to 99 percent | 92 percent |
| Purnima | 168 to 180 degrees | 99 to 100 percent | 98 percent |
| Krishna Chaturdashi | 336 to 348 degrees | 1 to 4 percent | 8 percent |
| Amavasya | 348 to 360 degrees | Under 1 percent | 2 percent |
That is why Shivaratri, kept on a Krishna Chaturdashi, is a vigil through a nearly moonless night. The Moon appears only in the last hour or so before dawn, a thin crescent, and in the tradition’s imagery it is the same crescent Shiva wears in his hair.
Shiva, and the last Rikta tithi
Shiva is the ascetic and the destroyer, the god of endings that make new beginnings possible, and Chaturdashi, standing at the end of each fortnight, is his tithi in both halves. Every Krishna Chaturdashi is a Masik Shivaratri, and since the evening before, Trayodashi, is Pradosh, Shiva is honoured two days running at the close of each dark fortnight. Chaturdashi is also the last Rikta tithi, after Chaturthi and Navami, so muhurta keeps it clear of weddings and other auspicious beginnings and reserves it for completing, clearing and letting go. As a birth deity Shiva suggests intensity, independence, a capacity for renunciation and resilience, and a mind drawn to what lies beneath appearances. The Rikta label belongs to the choosing of dates, not to the worth of a person born on one.
Venus, Shukracharya and Shiva
In the weekday count Venus takes Shashthi and Chaturdashi. The pairing of Shiva’s tithi with Venus looks odd until one recalls that Venus, as Shukracharya, the teacher of the asuras, was Shiva’s devotee and received from him the knowledge that revives the dead. In a Chaturdashi chart Venus is worth reading carefully: its dignity, exalted in Pisces or debilitated in Virgo, both among this tithi’s burnt signs, its house and the houses it rules. A strong Venus often gives Chaturdashi natives a feeling for beauty and art alongside their intensity.
Four burnt signs instead of two
Every other tithi burns two signs, or none at the full and new moons; Chaturdashi burns four, Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces, the signs of Mercury and Jupiter. Under the rule the houses holding those signs give somewhat less and Mercury and Jupiter act with less force as their lords, subject to the usual exceptions. Because four of the twelve signs are involved, a Chaturdashi chart will almost always have several houses touched by the rule, which is itself a good reason to treat it lightly. A well-placed Jupiter or Mercury keeps its strength whatever the tithi; the burnt-sign note is a nuance, not a subtraction.
The Krishna Chaturdashi fear, and Parashara’s shanti
The concern many families have about a krishna chaturdashi birth comes from the classical texts themselves. Parashara includes a short chapter on births on the dark-half Chaturdashi, divides the tithi into six parts, attaches increasingly difficult results to the later parts, and prescribes a shanti, a propitiatory rite, to be performed for the child. Amavasya births receive similar treatment. Those results belong to their time and genre, and responsible practitioners today do not use them as predictions. The site’s position, set out in the article on the ethics of prediction, is that no chart factor should be used to predict harm to a person or their family. A family that wishes to perform the shanti may do so as an act of devotion; the child’s life will be read from the whole chart.
Shivaratri, Naraka Chaturdashi and Anant Chaturdashi
The greatest Chaturdashi of the year is Maha Shivaratri, the Krishna Chaturdashi that falls in February or March, kept with fasting and an all-night vigil for Shiva, with the most important worship at nishita, the hour around midnight. Naraka Chaturdashi, the Krishna Chaturdashi just before the Diwali new moon, remembers Krishna’s defeat of the demon Narakasura and is kept in many homes as Choti Diwali with an early-morning oil bath. In the bright half, Anant Chaturdashi in Bhadrapada honours Vishnu as Ananta and is the day Ganesha images are immersed at the end of Ganeshotsav, Narasimha Jayanti in Vaishakha marks the man-lion avatar’s appearance at dusk, and Vaikuntha Chaturdashi in Kartika is the rare day on which Vishnu and Shiva are worshipped together.
Chaturdashi and KP
The birth tithi has no part in a KP judgment, and for a tithi burdened with fears that is worth saying plainly. A KP reading judges each matter through the sub-lord of its cusp and times it through the dasha, and nothing in that method singles out a person because of the lunar day of birth. The site’s article on fate and free will in KP explains why even a clear promise in the cusps describes tendencies and timing rather than a fixed sentence. For a family anxious about a Chaturdashi birth, that is the most useful thing a KP reading can offer: an answer based on the chart, not the date.
Two Chaturdashi births
The first birth, particulars changed, came on the morning of Maha Shivaratri with Aries on the ascendant. The Sun was at 25 degrees Aquarius in the eleventh, and the Moon, a thread of a crescent at 7 degrees Aquarius in the same sign, is eighteen degrees behind it: Krishna Chaturdashi. His grandmother had the shanti performed a few weeks after his birth and never spoke of it again. Mars, his lagna lord, is exalted in Capricorn in the tenth, and the Moon’s sign, described on the page for the Moon in Aquarius, suits an independent spirit. He is a mountaineering instructor in the Garhwal Himalaya, leading groups into Shiva’s own country every season.
A man born in the late evening of Anant Chaturdashi, details altered, with Taurus rising, the Sun at 15 degrees Leo in the fourth and the Moon at 22 degrees Capricorn in the ninth, 157 degrees ahead: Shukla Chaturdashi, a Moon all but full. He was born while his city’s Ganesha images were being taken to the river for immersion. He is now an environmental engineer whose work is keeping that same river clean, including after festival immersions, and his Moon in the ninth house of dharma, together with Saturn as his yogakaraka, ruling both the ninth and the tenth, suits work that asks for patience and a sense of duty.
Frequently asked questions
What is Chaturdashi tithi?
The fourteenth lunar day of each fortnight: the Moon 156 to 168 degrees ahead of the Sun on Shukla Chaturdashi, the night before the full moon, or 336 to 348 degrees on Krishna Chaturdashi, the night before the new moon.
Should parents worry about a Krishna Chaturdashi birth?
No. Classical texts prescribe a shanti for such births, but their list of results is not used as prediction by responsible practitioners. The person’s life is read from the whole chart.
How do Shukla and Krishna Chaturdashi differ?
Shukla Chaturdashi has an almost full Moon up for about nine-tenths of the night. Krishna Chaturdashi has a thin crescent that appears only in the hour or so before dawn, weak by phase.
Why is Shivaratri kept on Chaturdashi?
Chaturdashi is Shiva’s tithi, and the dark-half Chaturdashi gives the darkest night before the new moon, which suits a night-long vigil for him. Every Krishna Chaturdashi is a monthly Shivaratri.
Which deity and planet rule Chaturdashi?
The Muhurta Chintamani names Shiva. The weekday reckoning of tithi lords gives the fourteenth tithi to Venus.
What are the burnt signs of Chaturdashi?
Four instead of the usual two: Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces, ruled by Mercury and Jupiter. Because so many signs are involved, the rule is best treated lightly.
Should a shanti be done for a Krishna Chaturdashi birth?
That is a family’s choice, made in devotion. It is not required for the child’s wellbeing, and the chart as a whole, not the tithi, is what an astrologer should read.
A worrying date is not a reading. Your chart is.
A consultation reads your whole chart, the Moon, Venus, the lagna and the dasha you are running, and answers any concern about a Chaturdashi birth calmly and on the evidence.