Provenance & Authority

This is the trust contract for every astrological statement made by the project. A computed fact, a textual rule, a regional convention, and a project heuristic are different kinds of claim. None inherits the authority of another merely because they appear in the same response.

The machine-readable companion is provenance.json. Tests validate its vocabulary, identifiers, source references, and evidence gaps.

Evidence classes

Class	Meaning	Suitable user-facing language
astronomical	Computed from an ephemeris or documented astronomical algorithm	"computed", with system and ayanamsa
textual	A rule attested in an identified textual edition at a precise locator	"according to [text/tradition]"
published_panchangam	Compared with a named external panchangam for a date and place	"externally verified" only for the recorded cells
regional_convention	A living or regional practice that is not universal	"in the configured Telugu/South Indian tradition"
project_heuristic	A product scoring or presentation choice	"project score/rank", never "scripturally ordained"

Verification states

State	Meaning
verified	Evidence has been inspected and a precise locator or comparison record exists
partially_verified	Some representative cases or part of the claim have been checked
engine_pinned	A regression test preserves current output; it is not independent verification
needs_locator	A plausible authority is known, but chapter/verse/page is not yet recorded
heuristic	Intentionally a product judgment, not a textual claim
contradicted	Inspected evidence materially conflicts with configured behavior; the profile must not be called verified

Source editions

The register identifies editions rather than citing titles alone. Page numbers must always be interpreted against the named edition.

• BS-IYER-1884 — Varahamihira, The Brihat Samhita, translated by N. Chidambaram Iyer, South Indian Press, 1884. Public scan: https://archive.org/details/b29353130.
• BS-SASTRI-BHAT-1946 — Varahamihira, Brihat Samhita, Sanskrit text and English translation by V. Subrahmanya Sastri and M. Ramakrishna Bhat, 1946. Public scan: https://archive.org/details/Brihatsamhita.
• BVR-MUHURTHA-1993 — the bibliographic record for B. V. Raman, Muhurtha (Electional Astrology), UBS Publishers' Distributors, 1993, ISBN 9788185674681, 181 catalogued pages. This is a modern synthesis and secondary authority, not scripture. Google Books and Open Library independently expose this record; no scan of that 1993 edition has been inspected for the registered claims.
• BVR-MUHURTHA-CHISTABO-2020 — the artifact actually inspected for located Raman claims: a 78-physical-page Simon/Chistabo re-edited PDF made in 2020. Its notice on physical PDF p. 3 / internal folio II declares bracketed additions, typo corrections and appendix omission. The artifact is pinned at 2,172,882 bytes and SHA-256 b8b878a444a487c83810329fdf8f057c40e92221a867db480d864da8be21a133. Its exact relationship to the 181-page 1993 edition remains unverified. Physical PDF pp. 4–36 map to internal printed pp. 1–33; physical p. 37 is unnumbered; physical pp. 38–78 map to internal printed pp. 34–74. Located claims cite both identities and both page systems; claims without a locator remain work-only rather than implying artifact inspection.
• MC-HINDI-IA — Rama Daivajna, Muhurta Chintamani, Sanskrit text with Hindi commentary, undated public scan. Verse numbers and printed pages are stable in the registered Internet Archive object, but the scan does not expose publisher/date metadata; citations disclose that limitation.
• DP-DAY-PAGE — Drik Panchang day/festival pages for a recorded city and date. This is an external published-panchangam comparison surface, not a textual authority for every project rule.
• SWISSEPH — Astrodienst, Swiss Ephemeris 2.10 Programmer's Documentation, together with the repository's pinned pyswisseph runtime. The registered claims cite the relevant API sections. This supports astronomical positions and event models, not interpretive judgments.
• SS-BURGESS-WHITNEY-1860 — Ebenezer Burgess, edited with notes by William Dwight Whitney, Translation of the Surya-Siddhanta: A Text-Book of Hindu Astronomy, Journal of the American Oriental Society 6 (1860), pp. 141–498. The engine contract records chapter, verse and edition-page locators against this edition.

Generic references to Dharmasindhu, BPHS and other editions of the named texts still require edition-level normalization. Registering one exact edition for one claim does not automatically verify every rule that cites the same title. Until an edition and locator are recorded for the specific claim, it remains needs_locator.

Current ledger summary

• Drik astronomical positions are computed from Swiss Ephemeris and have representative external comparisons.
• The 2027–2028 forward-festival fixture contains 1 DP-verified cell and 29 engine-pinned cells. Engine-pinned means regression-protected, not independently verified.
• The seven classical Gochara favourable-house sets have an exact Brihat Samhita 104.4 locator. Vedha mappings and exemptions are independently verified against Phaladeepika 26.3–8 and Jataka Parijata Volume III. Phaladeepika 26.2 supports the configured node houses 3, 6, 10 and 11 by treating Rahu and Ketu like Surya; node Vedha remains unverified. Its 26.1 and 26.22–23 verify the Moon-sign reference and underlying adverse Shani houses, but not the product's conventional names or phase labels.
• Daily website prose has its own daily_horoscope.llm_interpretation claim. Only its declared transit triples are engine-verified; prose and advice stay heuristic even when every cited calculation is correct.
• Muhurtam activity rules, Panchanga Shuddhi, and several dosha/yoga tables still have source work recorded at their actual verification state.
• Bhumi Puja / foundation laying is an activity-level exception: its profile has a page-level locator and criterion-by-criterion implementation crosswalk. Full election-chart and site-placement conditions remain visible manual checks.
• Well digging has the same activity-level treatment: the admitted Nakshatras and rising Rasis are automated from Chapter XII, while planetary Kendra and water-quality conditions remain explicit practitioner checks.
• The former generic “Property / Land purchase” option is now scoped narrowly to buying land for building, matching Raman's separate treatment of land and completed houses. Its weekday, Nakshatra and Rikta-Tithi rules have a precise Chapter XII locator; the Drik browser also post-screens three deterministic Guru/Kuja predicates while lordship relationships remain manual.
• Namakarana now has a Chapter VIII rule-level profile: its Nakshatra, weekday and rejected-Tithi lists are automated, while birth-day timing and election-chart/name criteria remain visible manual checks.
• Annaprasana has a Chapter VIII profile cross-referenced to Chapter V's general Panchanga-Suddhi Tithis; the Drik browser post-screens the vacant 10th and three named Graha-house exclusions, while age-month and qualitative Lagna requirements remain explicit manual prerequisites.
• Karnavedha uses the named raman-karnavedha-daylight-v1 policy. Python, MCP and the browser evaluate the actual Tithi and Nakshatra transition spans once over [local sunrise, local sunset) and fail closed on uncertainty; the Drik browser separately evaluates a vacant eighth house from candidate-time DashaFlow facts. Child-age guidance remains informational. The registered Vidyamadhava and Muhurta Chintamani alternatives are disclosed, not blended.
• Mundana/Chaula now enforces Shukla Paksha, non-combust Guru/Shukra, exact Tithi/Nakshatra/weekday/Lagna criteria and a cross-surface solar-noon cutoff; age, pregnancy, seasonal wording and chart placements remain manual.
• Vidyarambha/Aksharabhyasa now has exact weekday, Nakshatra and movable-or-common Lagna gates. On the Drik website, its scoped Chapter VIII first-letter-writing assessor rejects an occupied eighth and tests Budha, Shukra and Guru all in the ninth as one preference-only AND/co-location predicate. The owner-approved convention makes the hard reject win and the trio changes neither score nor tier. The overall chart assessment remains partial/provisional pending the shared baseline; age and forenoon/noon guidance remain informational. Chapter XI education elections and Muhurta Chintamani 5.37–5.38 remain separate lineages.
• Upanayana now preserves Paksha-specific Tithis by exact name and enforces lunar-month, Uttarayana solar-Rasi, weekday, Nakshatra, Lagna and before-noon gates; age, conditional combustion and full chart judgment remain manual.
• Vehicle purchase has a deliberately narrow verified Chapter IV preference: five movable Nakshatras receive +1. Its other ranking preferences remain uncited project rules rather than inheriting that claim's authority.
• Absolute score thresholds and relative ordering are project heuristics.

Activity-level coverage is tracked separately in Muhurtam Activity Provenance Coverage. The browser-only chart and personal-role subset is documented independently in Muhurtam election-chart screening; it does not give Python/MCP or the unresolved qualitative clauses a stronger verification state.

The candidate-time calculation has a deliberately split authority boundary. DashaFlow supplies Lahiri planetary Rashi and degree facts. The selected-city lagna.json data—generated and validated from this repository's frozen Drik/Lahiri calculation—supplies the canonical Lagna for each sampled civil minute, and the browser recomputes every Whole Sign house from those two facts. Sidecar Lagna and house fields are diagnostic only. Around a known local Lagna transition, a five-minute guard prevents the documented Drik Panchang/DashaFlow minute-level convention difference from becoming a false automated verdict: partially overlapping windows retain Lagna-dependent rules as unknown for review. This is a computation-assurance policy, not new textual authority for the underlying electional rule.

It currently records 34 verified canonical profiles, no contradicted profiles and 1 explicit project heuristic across all 35 canonical profiles. The accepted API catalogue also has the legacy litigation alias for court, so there are 36 accepted keys; aliases are not counted as distinct elections. No activity remains implicitly covered by a title-level citation. tools/check_activity_provenance.py enforces verified, contradicted and heuristic links against the ledger and fails if a profile has no explicit disposition.

Citation acceptance rule

A claim may move to verified only when its ledger entry contains:

1. a stable claim identifier;
2. an evidence class;
3. a named source edition;
4. a chapter, verse, table, or edition-specific page locator;
5. a short scope note stating what the citation does—and does not—support;
6. a maintainer review date.

For a published-panchangam comparison, replace items 3–4 with the page URL, city, date, captured values, tolerance, and date inspected.

Product-language rule

• Display facts as facts: "Moon enters Karka at 14:32."
• Attribute doctrine: "For Vivaha, this configuration is avoided in the configured Muhurta tradition."
• Disclose convention: "Some South Indian traditions observe this rule."
• Label heuristics: "Best available project score," not "Excellent Muhurtam," unless it also clears the absolute quality threshold.
• Medical, legal, and financial timing is supplementary cultural guidance and never a substitute for qualified professional advice.