Panchang Today

Panchang means "five limbs" — the five measurements that describe a day in the Vedic calendar: tithi, vara, nakshatra, yoga and karana. Together they turn a plain calendar date into a description of where the Sun and Moon actually stand, which is what traditional timing decisions are based on.

Unlike the Gregorian calendar, which counts fixed 24-hour days, the panchang follows the sky. A tithi can run 19 hours or 26. A nakshatra can end in the afternoon. This is why two people can disagree about "today's date" in the Hindu calendar and both be right — they are reading different limbs, or different cities.

Tithi is the lunar day — the time the Moon takes to gain 12 degrees on the Sun. Thirty tithis make a lunar month, fifteen in the waxing paksha and fifteen in the waning. Vrats and festivals are fixed to tithis, not to calendar dates, which is why Diwali moves every year.

Vara is the weekday, ruled by a planet — Sunday by the Sun, Monday by the Moon, and so on. It sets Rahu Kaal and the hora sequence for the day.

Nakshatra is the lunar mansion: which of the 27 star-segments the Moon occupies. It is the limb most used for naming, for muhurat selection, and for judging the temperament of a day.

Yoga is derived from the combined longitudes of the Sun and Moon — 27 of them, some auspicious, a few (like Vyatipata and Vaidhriti) traditionally avoided for new beginnings.

Karana is half a tithi. Eleven karanas rotate through the month and are consulted mostly for short, practical undertakings.

Every limb is anchored to sunrise. Because sunrise differs across India by well over an hour from the east to the west, the tithi running at sunrise in Guwahati may not be the tithi running at sunrise in Mumbai — so the two cities can legitimately observe the same vrat on different days.

This is the single most common source of confusion when people compare two panchangs. A pan-India reference (traditionally Kashi/Varanasi) is used as a default, but for anything you are actually timing — a vrat, a muhurat, a puja — use your own city.

Start with the tithi and its end time: that tells you what lunar day you are in and when it turns over. Check the nakshatra next, since most muhurat rules key off it. Then scan the inauspicious windows — Rahu Kaal, Yamaganda and Gulika Kaal — which are the periods to avoid beginning something new.

If you are choosing a time rather than just reading the day, move on to the Choghadiya and the hora, and to Abhijit Muhurat around solar noon, which is treated as broadly auspicious on every day except Wednesday.