Panchang Explained

Open any Hindu household calendar and beside each date you will see a cluster of small words: a tithi, a nakshatra, a yoga, a karana. Together with the weekday these make up the five limbs that give the panchang its name. Each limb is a different way of describing where the Sun and Moon stand on that day.

The idea is old, but the calculations are astronomical rather than mysterious. The Moon moves about twelve to thirteen degrees a day against the stars, much faster than the Sun, and almost every element of the panchang measures some aspect of that movement. Because sunrise and the Moon's position differ by place, panchangs are prepared for particular cities, which is why a festival can fall on different days in Delhi and Chennai, or in India and America.

A traditional panchang also lists sunrise and sunset, the Moon's sign (rashi), eclipses, festivals, fast days and times regarded as auspicious or inauspicious. Its central purpose has always been practical: to tell a family when to keep a vrat, perform a shraddha or begin an important undertaking.

A tithi is the time it takes for the Moon to gain twelve degrees on the Sun. At new moon (Amavasya) the two are together. As the Moon pulls ahead, every twelve degrees of separation completes one tithi, so after 180 degrees it is full moon (Purnima) and after 360 degrees it is new moon again. That gives thirty tithis in a lunar month: fifteen in the bright half (Shukla paksha) and fifteen in the dark half (Krishna paksha).

Because the Moon's speed varies, a tithi is not a fixed length. It can run from roughly 19 to 26 hours and averages a little under a solar day. This is why tithis do not line up neatly with calendar days. By tradition, the tithi prevailing at sunrise (udaya tithi) names the day. Occasionally a tithi begins after one sunrise and ends before the next, so it never touches a sunrise and is 'lost' (kshaya tithi). At other times one tithi spans two sunrises and appears on two days (adhika or vriddhi tithi).

The fifteen tithi names repeat in each half, and tradition groups them into five classes: Nanda, Bhadra, Jaya, Rikta and Purna. Rikta ('empty') tithis, the 4th, 9th and 14th, are traditionally avoided for new beginnings, though they are also the days of major festivals such as Ganesh Chaturthi and Rama Navami. Many vrats are tied to tithis, Ekadashi above all.

Here are all thirty tithis of a lunar month in order, with the traditional group of each and some of the observances that fall on it. Festivals in the dark half depend on whether a region counts months the Amanta or Purnimanta way; where it matters, the month named is the Purnimanta one used across most of North India.

Vaar (vāra or vāsara) is simply the day of the week, and it is the one limb that needs no calculation. The seven days are named after the seven visible heavenly bodies: Ravivar (Sun), Somvar (Moon), Mangalvar (Mars), Budhvar (Mercury), Guruvar or Brihaspativar (Jupiter), Shukravar (Venus) and Shanivar (Saturn). In the panchang the day is traditionally counted from sunrise to sunrise rather than midnight to midnight.

Each weekday is associated with a deity in popular devotion. Monday fasts are kept for Shiva, Tuesdays for Hanuman, Thursdays for Vishnu and Brihaspati, and Saturdays for Shani and Hanuman. These are customs of devotion; families and regions vary.

The Moon's path around the sky is divided into 27 equal parts of 13°20′ each, called nakshatras or lunar mansions, from Ashvini to Revati. The Moon takes about 27.3 days to circle the sky, so it spends roughly one day in each. The nakshatra of the day is simply the segment the Moon is passing through. Each nakshatra is further split into four quarters (padas) of 3°20′, giving 108 padas in all.

The nakshatra a person is born under is traditionally used to suggest the first syllable of their name, and many festivals combine a tithi with a nakshatra; Onam, for example, is reckoned by the Shravana (Thiruvonam) nakshatra. Our separate page on the 27 Nakshatras lists them all with their deities and symbols.

Yoga here has nothing to do with the yoga of postures and meditation. It is a number found by adding the longitudes of the Sun and the Moon and dividing the total into 27 parts of 13°20′. The 27 yogas run from Vishkambha, Priti, Ayushman and Saubhagya through Siddhi, Shiva, Siddha and Shubha to Brahma, Mahendra and Vaidhriti. Panchangs traditionally treat a few of them, such as Vyatipata and Vaidhriti, as unsuitable for starting auspicious work.

A karana is half a tithi, that is, six degrees of the Moon's gain over the Sun, so there are sixty karanas in a lunar month. There are eleven karana names. Seven are 'movable' (chara): Bava, Balava, Kaulava, Taitila, Gara, Vanija and Vishti (also called Bhadra). These repeat eight times to cover 56 half-tithis. The other four are 'fixed' (sthira) and always fall in the same place: Shakuni in the second half of Krishna Chaturdashi, Chatushpada and Naga in the two halves of Amavasya, and Kimstughna in the first half of Shukla Pratipada. Vishti or Bhadra karana is traditionally avoided for beginning auspicious work, which is why panchangs flag 'Bhadra' times, for example around Raksha Bandhan and Holika Dahan.

Rahu Kaal (Rahu Kalam) is a period of about an hour and a half each day that tradition, especially in South India, treats as unsuitable for starting new ventures. To find it, the daylight from local sunrise to sunset is divided into eight equal parts. The first part is never Rahu Kaal; which of the other seven it falls in depends on the weekday.

Because sunrise and sunset change through the year and from place to place, the clock times below are only examples for a day running from 6 am to 6 pm. A local panchang gives the exact window. Traditional guidance is that work already under way can continue normally; the custom concerns beginning something new.

A muhurta is both a unit of time and an auspicious moment. As a unit it is one-thirtieth of a day and night, about 48 minutes. The Manusmriti sets out the old scale: eighteen blinks make a kashtha, thirty kashthas a kala, thirty kalas a muhurta, and thirty muhurtas a day and night. The early-morning period before sunrise called Brahma Muhurta is traditionally prized for prayer, study and meditation.

In everyday speech, 'muhurat' means a time judged favourable for a particular act: a wedding, griha pravesh, mundan, starting a business or buying a vehicle. Priests and astrologers choose it by combining the five limbs: a suitable tithi, weekday, nakshatra, yoga and karana, while avoiding windows such as Rahu Kaal and Bhadra. Different traditions and regional panchangs use different rules, so it is normal for two sources to suggest slightly different times. These are matters of tradition and faith, and many families simply ask their own purohit.