The Complete Guide to the Panchang

What is a Panchang?

The word panchang comes from the Sanskrit pancha (five) and anga (limb) — the "five limbs" of time. For thousands of years, Hindu households have consulted the panchang to know the character of a day: whether it favours a journey, a purchase, a ceremony or the start of new work, and which hours to seek or avoid. It is at once a calendar, an astronomical table and a guide to muhurat (auspicious timing).

Unlike the Gregorian calendar, which is purely solar, the Hindu calendar is luni-solar: it tracks both the Sun (which governs the day, the seasons and the solar months) and the Moon (which governs the tithi, paksha and lunar months). Because the Moon moves quickly and unevenly, the panchang changes meaningfully every day — and even differs a little from city to city — which is why it must be computed for a specific place and date rather than read from a fixed table.

The five limbs of the panchang

Every daily panchang answers five questions, the pancha-anga:

• Tithi — which lunar day is it?
• Vaar — which weekday, and which planet rules it?
• Nakshatra — which lunar mansion is the Moon in?
• Yoga — what is the combined Sun–Moon angle?
• Karana — which half-tithi is running?

Around these five, the panchang adds the day’s sunrise and sunset, the lunar month (masa) and season (ritu), and the timing windows — choghadiya, Rahu Kaal, Yamaganda, Gulika, Abhijit and Brahma Muhurat — that turn the five limbs into practical guidance. Each is explained below; open any city on the panchang by city page to see today’s live values.

Tithi — the lunar day

A tithi is a lunar day: the time it takes the Moon to move 12° further from the Sun. Thirty tithis make one lunar month, divided into two fortnights of fifteen. The waxing fortnight, from new moon to full moon, is the Shukla Paksha; the waning fortnight, from full moon back to new moon, is the Krishna Paksha. The fifteenth tithi of Shukla is Purnima (full moon) and the fifteenth of Krishna is Amavasya (new moon).

Because the Moon’s speed varies, a tithi does not match a clock day — it may start or end at any hour, and occasionally the same tithi is current at two sunrises (a repeated tithi) or is skipped entirely (a kshaya tithi). By convention the tithi prevailing at sunrise is the one assigned to the day. The thirty tithis also fall into five natures that guide what a day suits — Nanda (joyful), Bhadra (healthy), Jaya (victorious), Rikta (empty, best avoided) and Purna (full). Learn each one on the tithi pages.

Vaar — the weekday

The vaar is the weekday, and each of the seven is ruled by a planet and dedicated to a deity: Sunday–Sun, Monday–Moon, Tuesday–Mars, Wednesday–Mercury, Thursday–Jupiter, Friday–Venus and Saturday–Saturn. The ruling planet colours the day’s character — Thursday suits learning and ceremonies, Friday favours marriage and the arts, Tuesday and Saturday carry the intensity of Mars and Saturn. The weekday also fixes the day’s Rahu Kaal, Yamaganda and Gulika periods. Explore each on the weekday pages.

Nakshatra — the lunar mansion

The ecliptic is divided into 27 nakshatras, or lunar mansions, each 13°20′ wide. The Moon spends roughly one day in each, and the nakshatra it occupies at sunrise is the day’s ruling nakshatra. Every nakshatra has a presiding deity, a symbol, a ruling planet, and classifications — gana (temperament: deva, manushya or rakshasa), nadi (ayurvedic constitution) and yoni (animal symbol) — that are central to Vedic matchmaking (guna milan). Each nakshatra is further split into four padas (quarters), which decide the traditional naming syllable in namkaran. There is a great deal to each one; the 27 nakshatra pages cover deity, mythology, personality, career, remedies and naming letters, and the birth nakshatra calculator finds yours from a birth date, time and place.

Yoga and Karana

Yoga is the fourth limb — one of 27 combinations derived from the sum of the Sun’s and Moon’s longitudes. Some yogas (such as Siddha, Amrita and Shubha) are considered auspicious, while a few (such as Vyatipata and Vaidhriti) are avoided for important work. Karana, the fifth limb, is half a tithi: there are eleven karanas, of which seven repeat through the month and four are fixed. Together yoga and karana refine the overall auspiciousness that the tithi, vaar and nakshatra establish.

Lunar months, paksha, ritu and samvat

Twelve lunar months (masa) — Chaitra, Vaishakha, Jyeshtha, Ashadha, Shravana, Bhadrapada, Ashwin, Kartik, Margashirsha, Pausha, Magha and Phalguna — make the lunar year, each named after the nakshatra near which the full moon falls. Two systems mark the month: in amanta (South/West India) the month ends at Amavasya, while in purnimanta (North India) it ends at Purnima; the tithis are identical, only the Krishna-paksha month name shifts. Six seasons (ritu) — Vasanta (spring), Grishma (summer), Varsha (monsoon), Sharad (autumn), Hemanta and Shishira (winter) — span two months each. Years are counted in eras (samvat), most commonly the Vikram Samvat (about 57 years ahead of the Common Era) and the Shaka Samvat. When a lunar month gains an extra month to stay aligned with the solar year, it is called adhik maas (a leap month).

Choghadiya — the eightfold day

Choghadiya is the most popular everyday method of choosing a good time. The day (sunrise to sunset) and the night (sunset to next sunrise) are each divided into eight parts of about 90 minutes. Each part is one of seven choghadiya, ruled by a planet and classed by quality: Amrit (Moon), Shubh (Jupiter) and Labh (Mercury) are auspicious; Char (Venus) is neutral and considered good for travel; and Udveg (Sun), Kaal (Saturn) and Rog (Mars) are avoided for new work. The sequence rotates by weekday, so the same clock hour carries a different choghadiya each day. See the seven choghadiya explained or your city’s choghadiya today.

Rahu Kaal, Yamaganda and Gulika

Three inauspicious sub-periods are set purely by the weekday. Rahu Kaal is the best known — a window of about 1½ hours, found by dividing sunrise-to-sunset into eight parts and taking the part assigned to the day. It is traditionally avoided for starting important new work; ongoing activity is unaffected. Yamaganda and Gulika Kaal are two further eighth-parts, also weekday-based, treated with similar caution. Because all three depend on the exact sunrise and sunset, they differ by city and shift a little each day — look up your city’s Rahu Kaal today.

Choosing a muhurat

A muhurat is an auspicious moment selected for an activity. In practice you layer the factors: start from a favourable tithi and nakshatra, prefer an auspicious weekday and yoga, pick an Amrit/Shubh/Labh choghadiya (or the Abhijit Muhurat around midday, auspicious for almost everything), and avoid Rahu Kaal, Yamaganda, Gulika and Rikta tithis. Brahma Muhurat, the ~96 minutes before sunrise, is prized for meditation, study and prayer. Our muhurat planner does this layering for any date and city, and for weddings or housewarmings see the dedicated vivah and griha pravesh guidance — always confirming the final date with a pandit.

How the panchang is calculated

Panchang Daily uses drik ganita — observational calculation. The true positions of the Sun and Moon are computed for a city’s exact latitude and longitude, and the five limbs are derived from them; the sunrise-based windows come from the day’s real sunrise and sunset. This is more accurate than older tabular (vakya) methods. Traditional authorities may apply a particular ayanamsha (the correction for the precession of the equinoxes) or sunrise convention, and regional practice can differ by a day for some tithis and festivals — so for religious observance, confirm with your local panchang. Read more on the how we calculate page.

Putting it together

To read any day: check the tithi and paksha for the lunar date, the nakshatra for the Moon’s influence, the vaar for the ruling planet, then use the choghadiya and Abhijit Muhurat to pick an hour while avoiding Rahu Kaal. Begin with your city’s daily panchang, browse the festival calendar and Ekadashi dates, or open the monthly panchang calendar to plan ahead.