Panchang
The five limbs of a civil day at a chosen place: Tithi (lunar day), Vara (weekday), Nakshatra (the Moon’s mansion), Yoga, and Karana, with sunrise and the day’s muhurta windows. Choose a date and place, then calculate.
What is a Panchang?
Panchang means five limbs. For a civil day at a chosen place those limbs are Tithi (lunar day), Vara (weekday), Nakshatra (the Moon’s mansion), Yoga (a combined Sun–Moon angle), and Karana (half a Tithi). The names on the page are the limbs in force at local sunrise. End times mark when a limb gives way to the next.
Sunrise, sunset, and the Moon’s rising
Sunrise and sunset are the horizon events that divide day from night for this location. Moonrise and moonset are the Moon’s corresponding crossings. Because they depend on latitude, longitude, and date, a Panchang calculated for one city will not match another city’s clocks.
Rahu Kala, Yamaganda, Gulika, Abhijit
These are electional windows counted as fractions of the time between local sunrise and sunset. Rahu Kala, Yamaganda, and Gulika are weekday slices that are poor times to begin certain work. Abhijit Muhurta sits near the middle of the day and is favorable. They belong to the muhurta system; they are not astronomical warnings.
How to read the table
Read the five names first, then the end times, then sunrise and sunset, then the weekday windows. Choghadiya, further down, cuts the same sunrise-to-sunset and sunset-to-sunrise spans into eight named periods each.
Common questions
- What is Panchang?
- Panchang means five limbs: Tithi (the lunar day, from the angle between Sun and Moon), Vara (the weekday), Nakshatra (the Moon’s mansion among 27), Yoga (a combined solar-lunar angle), and Karana (half of a Tithi). The names of the day are those limbs at local sunrise. Sunrise, moonrise, and the electional windows all belong to the place you enter, which is why a Panchang changes from city to city.
- Why do Panchang times differ by city?
- Sunrise and the Moon’s position relative to the local horizon depend on longitude and latitude. Limbs are named for sunrise, so two cities can show different Tithis on the same civil date.
- What is Rahu Kala?
- Rahu Kala is a weekday portion of daylight, counted from local sunrise and sunset, a poor window for beginning certain activities.