Gandant & Gand Mula Shanti

Getting a birth chart done is the first thing Hindus do after the birth of a baby. The objective of doing it immediately after birth is to check various yogas and dosha in the birth chart and perform any remedies if required. Especially there are certain doshas for which shanti (remedy) is required almost during initial few days of the birth.

Some of the important considerations in baby astrology are Gandant/ Moola, Yamal birth, Trik Birth/ Trikhal Dosha, birth with the teeth, same nakshatra as parents, sankranti birth, birth during eclipse (Grahan), amavasya birth, krishna chaturdasi birth etc. Recently I talked about the natal and neonatal teeth in a recent article. In this article, the first topic that I want to take is Gandant or Gandmoola.

Gand means inauspicious in Sanskrit. Certain part of nakshatra, lagna and tithi are called Gandant. Mathematically speaking, Gandant is nothing but a sandhi (junction point). Three sandhi areas are considered here – combined position of Sun and Moon (Tithi), Moon alone (Rashi and Nakshatra) and Lagna. Generally Sandhi areas are considered inauspicious in Vedic astrology. It is how Gandant is defined -

* The last 2 Ghatikas (48 minutes) of Purna Tithi (5th, 10th, 15th) and the first 2 Ghatikas (48 minutes) of Nanda Tithi (1st, 6th, 11th) are known as Tithi Gandanta.

* Similarly the last two Ghatikas (48 minutes) of Revati and first two Ghatikas (48 minutes) of Ashvini, the last two Ghatikas (48 minutes) of Aslesha and first two Ghatikas (48 minutes) of Magha and the last two Ghatikas (48 minutes) of Jyeshtha and first two Ghatikas of Mula are known as Nakshatr Gandanta.

* The last half Ghatika (12 minutes) of Meena and first half Ghatika (12 minutes) of Mesh, the last half Ghatika (12 minutes) of Kark and first half Ghatika (12 minutes) of Simh, the last half Ghatika (12 minutes) of Vrischik and first half Ghatika (12 minutes) of Dhanu are known as Lagn Gandanta.

Tithi, Nakshatra aand Lagna calculation can be found in various astrology software. You can use our free online astrology software www.astrosage.com for this purpose.

It is said in Saravali that the baby born during Gandant doesn’t live. If fortunately she lives, it will be inauspicious for the mother but the native will be rich and fortunate.

In my opinion the birth chart of the baby should be analyzed in totality on Vedic astrology principles and we should perform any remedy only if we find problems after analyzing overall birth chart. Gandant and other doshas can be one of the considerations but should not be the only consideration. If an astrologer doesn’t see any defect in the birth chart from the health and age perspective, there is no need to fear of anything. For a baby, health is for utmost importance and it is what an astrologer should analyze thoroughly after the birth. In fact, all Vedic astrology books talk about balarishta in detail.

I am not aware of any research done in the area of above doshas like Gandant, so I must say that we don’t have enough information to accept or reject it. Generally, there are lots of points made in classical astrology texts and most of these cannot be taken literarily and I believe the same for Gandant and other above mentioned doshas. I also sometimes suspect the authenticity of classical texts as all our classical texts are known to be modified over a period of time. For example take ‘Brihat Parasha Hora Shastra’ the most exhaustive and referred about text in Vedic astrology. Graha Shanti prakaran has been dealt in the end of the book and that gives me some reason to think that it has been added on later by pundits. Though I am not a historian and I’ll leave authenticity of these texts as a topic of research for them only, but I want to suggest reader of my blog not to be scared of these doshas. In case you believe in remedies, you can perform those just to get mental peace.

Remedies for Gandant
Parashar Hora talks in detail about remedies for Gandant. I am attaching this file which give you the detailed procedure for the remedies for Gandant dosha.

Related Posts:
1. Natal and Neonatal Teeth
2. Hindu Baby Names Table for Rashi and Nakshatra