Panchang — the Hindu Almanac

The Panchang (panchangam) is the Hindu almanac — a lunisolar calendar that records the position of the Sun and the Moon for every day at a given place. Because it is computed for a location, the same date can carry slightly different readings in Delhi and in Chennai. Everything in Vedic astrology that depends on when — festivals, fasts, ceremonies, muhurat — is read off the Panchang.

The five limbs of the Panchang

The word panchanga literally means "five limbs". Those five are:

• Vaar — the weekday, each ruled by a planet (Sunday by the Sun, Monday by the Moon, and so on).
• Tithi — the lunar day: the angle between the Sun and the Moon in steps of 12°. Fifteen tithis make a paksha (waxing shukla or waning krishna), thirty make a lunar month.
• Nakshatra — the lunar mansion the Moon occupies, one of 27 segments of 13°20' each, every one with its own lord and temperament.
• Yoga — the combined longitude of the Sun and the Moon divided into 27 parts; it colours the quality of the day.
• Karana — half a tithi; there are eleven karanas and two fall within every lunar day.

Why it matters

Each limb changes at its own pace, and the combination is what makes one day suitable for a task and the next one poor for it. A wedding, a house-warming, the start of a business, a journey or a naming ceremony is traditionally fixed by checking the tithi and nakshatra first, then the yoga and karana, and finally the inauspicious windows of the day such as Rahu Kaal.

Reading the Panchang

A Panchang is always read from sunrise, not from midnight — the Hindu day begins when the Sun rises at your place. The tithi and nakshatra shown for a date are the ones running at sunrise; both usually change at some point during the day, and the exact moment of change is what decides which day a festival falls on.

Alongside the five limbs, a full Panchang lists the sunrise and sunset, the lunar month (maas), the season (ritu), the Vikram and Shaka samvat years, the ayana, and the Moon's and Sun's signs.

Panchang on LiveHoroscope

Use Today's Panchang for the full daily reading of any major city — the five limbs, sunrise and sunset, samvat years and the Moon's position — computed with the Lahiri ayanamsha. For hour-by-hour timings during the day, see Choghadiya & Hora.