The gold buying calendar for Tamil Nadu

Akshaya Tritiya

Falling in the Tamil months of Chithirai or Vaikasi, Akshaya Tritiya is the single largest gold-buying day in India. The belief that gold bought on the day never diminishes means many households buy something, even if it is only a one gram coin.

Shops prepare months ahead and the advertising is heaviest around it. Read the offers carefully: a discount is almost always on the making charge, not on the metal, because no shop can discount a rate the association sets.

Diwali and Dhanteras

The Diwali period, in Aippasi or Karthigai, is the second peak of the year. Buying metal on Dhanteras is a north Indian tradition that has spread widely through Tamil Nadu.

Expect crowds. If you want a specific piece rather than whatever is in the case, ordering ahead of the rush is the practical move.

Pongal and the harvest

Pongal opens the Tamil month of Thai, and it follows the harvest — which is when cash reaches households in the delta districts and the interior towns. Jewellery buying rises accordingly, and it rises outside Chennai more than in it.

Thai is also considered favourable for weddings, so the weeks after Pongal carry wedding buying on top of festival buying.

Aadi and Margazhi — the quiet months

The Tamil months of Aadi (mid-July to mid-August) and Margazhi (mid-December to mid-January) are traditionally not chosen for weddings.

That makes them the quietest weeks in a jeweller's year, and it is the reason the Aadi discount sales exist at all: with fewer customers walking in, shops compete on making charges to bring them.

If you are buying jewellery to wear rather than for a specific muhurtham, these are the weeks when the making charge is most negotiable. The metal costs the same; the work costs less.

Why we do not list muhurtham dates

You will not find a list of auspicious wedding dates on this site, and that is deliberate.

Tamil panchangams come in two systems, Thirukanitha and Vakya, and they can differ by a day. Most sites publishing date lists do not say which system they follow. Beyond that, the muhurtham for a particular wedding is set against the couple's horoscopes, not read off a general list.

A wrong date here would cost a reader far more than a wrong rate would. Ask your family's panchangam or your astrologer — that is the only answer worth acting on, and we would rather say so than publish a list we cannot stand behind.