What is a Panchang? The five limbs explained simply
Tithi, vara, nakshatra, yoga and karana: what each limb of the Hindu Panchang measures, how it comes from the Sun and Moon, and how to read today's.
A Panchang is the Hindu almanac that tells you what kind of day it is. The word comes from pancha (five) and anga (limb): every day is described by five measurements of the Sun and the Moon. Festivals, fasts, muhurats and daily rituals are all decided from these five limbs.
1. Tithi: the lunar day
A tithi is a lunar day. It is measured by the angle between the Moon and the Sun: each time the Moon moves 12 degrees further ahead of the Sun, one tithi ends and the next begins. A full cycle has 30 tithis, 15 in the bright half (Shukla Paksha) ending at Purnima and 15 in the dark half (Krishna Paksha) ending at Amavasya.
Because the Moon's speed varies, a tithi can last anywhere from about 19 to 26 hours. The tithi running at sunrise is usually taken as the tithi of the day. Sometimes a tithi begins and ends between two sunrises and is "skipped" (kshaya); sometimes one covers two sunrises (vriddhi). This is why festival dates can surprise people who follow the common calendar.
2. Vara: the weekday
Vara is the weekday, each named after a planet: Sunday (Sun), Monday (Moon), Tuesday (Mars), Wednesday (Mercury), Thursday (Jupiter), Friday (Venus) and Saturday (Saturn). In the Panchang a day runs from sunrise to sunrise, not from midnight, so something that happens at 3 am still belongs to the previous vara.
3. Nakshatra: the Moon's star
The zodiac is divided into 27 nakshatras of 13 degrees 20 minutes each, from Ashwini to Revati. The nakshatra of the day is the one the Moon is passing through. The Moon spends about a day in each, completing the circle in a little over 27 days. Your birth nakshatra is used for your name's first syllable, for kundli matching and for many muhurats.
4. Yoga: the Sun and Moon together
Yoga is found by adding the positions of the Sun and the Moon and dividing the total into 27 parts of 13 degrees 20 minutes. The 27 yogas run from Vishkambha to Vaidhriti. Most are mild, but Vyatipata and Vaidhriti are traditionally avoided for auspicious work.
5. Karana: half a tithi
A karana is half of a tithi, 6 degrees of the Moon's lead over the Sun, so there are 60 karanas in a lunar month. Eleven karanas fill them: seven movable ones (Bava, Balava, Kaulava, Taitila, Garaja, Vanija and Vishti) that repeat through the month, and four fixed ones (Shakuni, Chatushpada, Naga and Kimstughna) that come once around Amavasya. Vishti karana, also called Bhadra, is avoided for new beginnings.
Sidereal positions and local sunrise
Vedic Panchangs measure the Sun and Moon against the fixed stars (the sidereal zodiac), usually with the Lahiri ayanamsa, India's official standard. And because each day starts at sunrise, a Panchang is local: the tithi at sunrise in Kolkata can differ from the tithi at sunrise in Mumbai on the same date.
More than five limbs
A modern Panchang also lists sunrise and sunset, moonrise, Rahu Kaal, Yamaganda, Gulika, Choghadiya, Abhijit muhurat, and the day's festivals and fasts. All of these are derived from the same Sun and Moon positions and the local day.
Why do Panchangs sometimes disagree?
Two printed Panchangs can give slightly different times because they use different ayanamsas, different sunrise definitions or different cities. A Panchang calculated for your own city removes most of these differences.
Read today's Panchang
Vedic Drishti's Panchang calculates all five limbs and the daily timings with Swiss Ephemeris, the Lahiri ayanamsa and your city's real sunrise. Choose your city, for example Varanasi, Kolkata or Bengaluru, and see how the day is made.