The Five Limbs of the Panchang

Panchang (also Panchangam) means "five limbs": pancha, five, and anga, limb. It is the traditional Indian almanac, and its five limbs are five different ways of measuring the same day. Every festival date, every choice of a good time for a wedding or a house-warming, and every birth chart begins with these five: tithi, vara, nakshatra, yoga and karana.

All five come from just two bodies, the Sun and the Moon.

Limb	What it is	Measured from	How many
Tithi	Lunar day	Moon's distance from the Sun	30
Vara	Weekday	Sunrise to sunrise	7
Nakshatra	The Moon's star	Moon's position in the zodiac	27
Yoga	Sun and Moon combined	Sum of the Sun's and Moon's positions	27
Karana	Half a tithi	Moon's distance from the Sun	11

1. Tithi: the lunar day

A tithi is the time the Moon takes to move 12 degrees further away from the Sun. Since the full circle is 360 degrees, a lunar month has 30 tithis: 15 in the waxing half (Shukla paksha, new Moon to full Moon) and 15 in the waning half (Krishna paksha, full Moon to new Moon).

The names run from Pratipada (1st) to Chaturdashi (14th) in each half. The 15th of the bright half is Purnima, the full Moon, and the 15th of the dark half is Amavasya, the new Moon.

Because the Moon's speed changes, a tithi lasts anywhere from about 19 to 26 hours and can begin at any time of day. That is why a tithi does not line up with a calendar date, and why a festival sometimes falls on different dates in different places.

Tithis are grouped in five families, which is how almanacs judge their suitability:

Group	Tithis	Traditionally suited to
Nanda	1, 6, 11	Celebrations, enjoyment
Bhadra	2, 7, 12	Steady, lasting work
Jaya	3, 8, 13	Efforts that need to succeed against odds
Rikta	4, 9, 14	Clearing, finishing, removing; usually avoided for new beginnings
Purna	5, 10, 15	Completion, most auspicious work

The tithi at birth is also read for temperament; see What Your Birth Tithi Says About Your Mind and Destiny.

2. Vara: the weekday

The seven weekdays are named after the seven visible planets: Sunday for the Sun, Monday for the Moon, Tuesday for Mars, Wednesday for Mercury, Thursday for Jupiter, Friday for Venus and Saturday for Saturn.

The one point that surprises people: in the Panchang the day begins at sunrise, not at midnight. A child born at 3 a.m. on what the calendar calls Tuesday is, by the Panchang, still born on Monday.

The weekday decides the daily inauspicious periods as well, which are explained in Rahu Kalam Yamagandam and Gulika Kalam.

3. Nakshatra: the Moon's star

The zodiac is divided into 27 nakshatras of 13°20' 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.

The nakshatra is the most used limb in astrology. The birth star sets the starting point of the dasha system, it is the basis of marriage matching, and for choosing a day it is compared with a person's own birth star by counting, as described in Tara Bala Meaning and Calculation.

4. Yoga: the Sun and Moon together

Add the longitude of the Sun to the longitude of the Moon. The total, divided into 27 parts of 13°20', gives the yoga of the moment. There are 27 of them, from Vishkambha to Vaidhriti, each with its own quality. They are listed in The 27 Nithya Yogas in Panchang.

Do not confuse these with the planetary yogas of a birth chart, such as Gaja Kesari. The Panchang yoga is purely a measure of the day.

5. Karana: half a tithi

A karana is half a tithi, the time the Moon takes to gain 6 degrees on the Sun. A lunar month therefore has 60 karanas, but only 11 names:

• Seven movable karanas that repeat eight times in order: Bava, Balava, Kaulava, Taitila, Gara, Vanija and Vishti. They fill 56 of the 60 places.
• Four fixed karanas that occur once a month around the new Moon: Shakuni, Chatushpada, Naga and Kimstughna.

The month's first half-tithi (the first half of the bright Pratipada) is always Kimstughna. The seven movable karanas then run from the second half-tithi onward, and the other three fixed karanas close the month.

Almanacs usually treat Vishti, also called Bhadra, as a time to avoid starting important work. It lasts only about half a day each time it occurs, so it is easy to plan around.

A worked example

Suppose that at a given moment the Sun is at 10° Libra and the Moon at 25° Sagittarius. Counted from the start of Aries, the Sun is at 190° and the Moon at 265°.

Tithi. Moon minus Sun = 265 - 190 = 75°. Divide by 12: 6.25. Six tithis are complete and the 7th is running. Since the difference is less than 180°, it is the bright half: Shukla Saptami.

Nakshatra. Divide the Moon's 265° by 13°20' (13.333): 19.87. Nineteen stars are complete, so the Moon is in the 20th star, Purva Ashadha (which runs from 13°20' to 26°40' of Sagittarius).

Yoga. Sun plus Moon = 190 + 265 = 455°. Subtract 360: 95°. Divide by 13.333: 7.12. Seven yogas are complete, so the 8th yoga, Dhriti, is running.

Karana. Divide the same 75° by 6: 12.5. Twelve half-tithis are complete and the 13th is running. The 1st is Kimstughna and the cycle of seven starts at the 2nd, so the 13th is the fifth name in the cycle's second round: Gara.

Vara. The weekday is simply the day running since the last sunrise.

So the five limbs of that moment would be read as: Shukla Saptami, the weekday of that sunrise, Purva Ashadha, Dhriti yoga and Gara karana. A printed or software Panchang also gives the clock time at which each one ends.

How the Panchang is used

For choosing a time (muhurta). A good time is one where the limbs support the purpose: a suitable tithi and weekday, a nakshatra that agrees with the person's birth star, and no Vishti karana or unfavourable yoga. Daily windows such as the Abhijit Muhurta are added on top of this.

For festivals and observances. Almost every Hindu festival is fixed by a tithi, sometimes with a nakshatra: Ekadashi fasts by the 11th tithi, for example.

For the birth chart. The five limbs at the moment of birth are recorded at the head of every traditional horoscope. They describe the quality of the day a person was born into and are read alongside the planets.

A sense of proportion. The Panchang is a tool for choosing well when there is a choice. No single limb makes a day "bad". A day with a Rikta tithi may have an excellent nakshatra, and ordinary life goes on every day of the month. Where a date cannot be chosen, sincere effort and a calm mind matter more than the almanac.

Why the Panchang differs by place

All five limbs change at fixed moments for the whole world, but the clock time of those moments, and of sunrise, depends on where you are. A tithi that ends at 5:40 a.m. before sunrise in one city may end after sunrise in another, which changes the tithi named for the day. This is why a Panchang is always calculated for a particular place, and why almanacs from different regions sometimes show a festival on different dates.

Summary

The Panchang measures each day in five ways. The tithi is the Moon's distance from the Sun in steps of 12 degrees; the vara is the weekday counted from sunrise; the nakshatra is the star the Moon occupies; the yoga comes from adding the Sun's and Moon's positions; and the karana is half a tithi. Together they are the basis of the Hindu calendar, of choosing a good time, and of the opening lines of every horoscope.

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