What are the five elements of the panchang?

The five limbs are the tithi, the lunar day measured by the Moon pulling 12 degrees ahead of the Sun; the vara, the weekday with its ruling planet; the nakshatra, the 13-degree-20-minute lunar mansion the Moon occupies; the yoga, found by adding the Sun's and Moon's positions; and the karana, half of a tithi. Each runs on its own cycle, so the combination changes every day.

Is the panchang based on the Moon?

Mostly, yes. Four of the five limbs are read from the Moon: the tithi and karana measure its separation from the Sun, the nakshatra marks the mansion it occupies, and the yoga adds its position to the Sun's. Only the vara, the weekday, runs on its own seven-day planetary cycle. The panchang is, above all, a calendar of the Moon's dance with the Sun.

Why do two panchangs show different details for the same date?

Almanacs differ in convention, not in method. Some regions count the lunar month from new moon to new moon, others from full moon to full moon, so month names can shift. Different ayanamsa values move the nakshatra and yoga boundaries slightly. And because every limb is timed from local sunrise, the same date reads differently in different cities. The five-limb system underneath is the same everywhere.

What is the panchang used for?

Three things, mainly. It fixes the sacred calendar: festivals and fasts are set by tithi, not by civil date. It supplies the raw material for muhurta, the choosing of auspicious times for weddings, travel, and new ventures. And it serves as a daily companion: many households still begin the day by checking the tithi, the nakshatra, and the windows of the hours ahead.

Panchang (Panchanga): The Five Limbs of the Vedic Day

Q: What does panchang mean?

Panchang comes from the Sanskrit panchanga, 'five limbs': pancha (five) plus anga (limb). It names the traditional daily almanac of Vedic astrology, which describes every day by five measurements: the tithi or lunar day, the vara or weekday, the nakshatra the Moon occupies, the yoga formed by the Sun and Moon together, and the karana, which is half a tithi. The five together describe the character of the day.

The panchang (Sanskrit panchanga, "five limbs") is the daily almanac of Vedic astrology. For any date and place it reports five measurements of the sky at once: the tithi, or lunar day; the vara, the weekday and its ruling planet; the nakshatra, the lunar mansion the Moon occupies; the yoga, a combination of the Sun's and Moon's positions; and the karana, half of a lunar day. Four of the five are built on the Moon, which makes the panchang, above all, a Moon calendar. Read together, the five limbs describe the quality of a day: what it favours, and what is better left for another time.

This page is the map of the whole system. It explains what each limb measures, how the lunar month holds them together, and how a single day is read, with each limb linking to its own full guide.

What does panchang mean?

Panchanga combines pancha, five, and anga, limb: the almanac with five limbs. Each limb is one measurement of the day. In northern India the word is usually shortened to panchang; in the south the same almanac is called a panchangam. Whatever the spelling, the contents are the same five readings of the Sun and the Moon.

Long before printed calendars, this was how a household kept time. The panchang gives the date, and it also gives the day's character: which deeds the day favours, which hours to use, which to let pass. Festivals, fasts, weddings, and the opening of new ventures are all fixed by it, and in many homes the day still begins with a glance at its columns.

The five limbs at a glance

The table below is the heart of this page. Each limb measures a different relationship between the Sun, the Moon, and the day, and each runs on its own cycle, so the five-line combination is different every day. Every limb links to its own full guide.

Limb	Plain English	Cycle	How it is measured
Tithi	Lunar day	30 per lunar month	Each 12 degrees the Moon gains on the Sun
Vara	Weekday	7 days, each with a planetary lord	Sunrise to sunrise
Nakshatra	The Moon's mansion	27	The 13°20′ division of the zodiac the Moon occupies
Yoga	Sun and Moon combined	27	The two longitudes added, divided by 13°20′
Karana	Half a lunar day	60 per month, from 11 names	Each 6 degrees the Moon gains on the Sun

A calendar of the Moon

Four of the five limbs are read from the Moon. The tithi and the karana measure how far it has pulled ahead of the Sun, the nakshatra names the mansion it is passing through, and the yoga adds its position to the Sun's. Only the vara, the weekday, keeps its own seven-day rhythm.

The Vedic day itself, and its weekday, runs from sunrise to sunrise rather than midnight to midnight. Within that day, each limb ends at its own moment: a tithi might end mid-afternoon, the nakshatra after nightfall, the yoga the next morning. That is why a printed panchang shows a clock time beside every entry, and why the almanac for Mumbai differs from the one for Toronto on the same date.

Tithi: the lunar day

The tithi is the heart of the almanac. As the Moon races ahead of the slower Sun, the gap between them widens, and each time it opens by another 12 degrees a new tithi begins. Thirty tithis, 12 degrees each, complete the 360-degree circle of one lunar month.

Fifteen tithis belong to the bright fortnight, as the Moon waxes from new to full, and fifteen to the dark fortnight as it wanes back. The bright half is read as a time of growth and beginnings, the dark half as a time of completion and release. Two tithis stand above the rest: amavasya, the new moon, kept for the ancestors, and purnima, the full moon, prized for sacred acts. The great festivals ride on the tithi too, which is why Diwali falls on a different civil date every year. The full tithi guide covers all 30 and their five quality groups.

Vara: the weekday and its planet

The vara is the weekday, the one limb the whole world still keeps. Each of the seven days is ruled by one of the seven visible planets: Sunday by the Sun, Monday by the Moon, Tuesday by Mars, Wednesday by Mercury, Thursday by Jupiter, Friday by Venus, and Saturday by Saturn.

The day takes on its lord's temperament. A Thursday, ruled by the teacher Jupiter, favours study and counsel; a Saturday, ruled by patient Saturn, suits slow and serious labour. That order is not arbitrary: it falls out of the ancient sequence of planetary hours, and the vara guide walks through the arithmetic, along with Rahu Kalam, the daily window the tradition steps around.

Nakshatra: where the Moon is tonight

The third limb names the nakshatra, the lunar mansion the Moon occupies that day. There are 27, each 13 degrees 20 minutes wide, and the Moon spends about one day in each. The Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra carries the full 27-fold scheme, which the almanac dips into daily.

Each mansion has its own nature and its own favoured deeds. A soft, nourishing star such as Rohini suits gentle beginnings; a sharp, fierce one suits bold or cutting acts. The day's nakshatra is distinct from your fixed birth star, though the two are compared in day-picking; the find your nakshatra page explains that fixed point.

Yoga: the two lights added together

The fourth limb is the nitya yoga. Where the tithi measures the gap between the Sun and the Moon, the yoga measures the two added together: one combined reading of where both lights stand. The sum, divided by 13 degrees 20 minutes, falls into one of 27 named yogas.

Each carries a flavour, auspicious or otherwise: Siddhi, accomplishment, is welcomed; Vyatipata, calamity, counsels routine work instead. One caution prevents endless confusion: this daily yoga shares nothing but a name with the planetary yogas of a birth chart, such as Gaja Kesari. The yoga guide lists all 27 with their meanings.

Karana: the half-day

The fifth limb is the karana, half of a tithi: the time the Moon takes to gain 6 degrees on the Sun. A lunar month holds 60 of them, filled from a repeating set of 11 names, seven movable and four fixed. It is the finest grain of the almanac's measure.

For most purposes one karana matters above the rest: Vishti, also called Bhadra, which tradition sets aside for anything auspicious. It returns eight times a month and passes within hours, so planning around it is easy. The karana guide lays out the full cycle.

The lunar month, and the extra month that keeps time in step

Woven through all five limbs is the lunar month, a little over 29 and a half days from new moon to new moon. Southern and western India count the month new moon to new moon (the amanta system); the north counts full moon to full moon (purnimanta). The months themselves are named for the nakshatra near the full moon: Chaitra from Chitra, Vaishakha from Vishakha, Kartika from Krittika, Margashirsha from Mrigashira.

Twelve lunar months come to about 354 days, roughly 11 days short of the solar year. Left alone, the calendar would drift through the seasons, so roughly every two and a half to three years an extra month, the adhika masa, is inserted to bring the Moon's count back in step with the Sun's. The almanac quietly keeps the two in harmony, which is why festival dates wander within a window but never leave their season.

What is the panchang for?

The almanac's deepest purpose is muhurta, the art of choosing the right moment to begin: a wedding, a foundation, travel, a first lesson. The chooser weaves the five limbs together, a favourable tithi, a fitting vara, a kind nakshatra, a fortunate yoga, a suitable karana, and finds the window where they align.

The same five readings serve the sacred calendar, fixing every festival and fast to its tithi. They also serve horary work: Prasna Marga, the classical manual of judging a question from the moment it is asked, weighs the panchanga of that moment. And for daily life, today's panchang is the working summary: the five limbs, sunrise and sunset, and the windows of the day ahead.

Reading one day, limb by limb

Picture a single day's entry. The almanac says: the bright tenth tithi, a day of fullness; a Thursday, ruled by Jupiter; the Moon in Pushya, a gentle, nourishing star; the yoga Siddhi, accomplishment; a movable karana. Every thread is favourable, and such a day fairly invites a beginning.

Another day reads differently: a rikta ("empty") tithi, a harsh yoga, Vishti karana through the morning. The counsel is not alarm but patience: use the day for routine work, clearing, and rest, and begin the new venture tomorrow. That is the almanac's whole voice, a quiet note on when to act and when to wait.

Why two panchangs can disagree

Two printed almanacs can name the same day a little differently, and the reasons are conventions rather than contradictions. Amanta and purnimanta regions attach different month names to the same fortnight. Different traditions use slightly different ayanamsa values, the offset that anchors the sidereal zodiac, which can shift a nakshatra or yoga boundary by a few minutes; the ayanamsa guide explains that offset.

Location matters too. Every limb's ending time is quoted in local clock time, and the day itself begins at local sunrise, so a panchang is always computed for a place. The principles, though, are everywhere the same.

Where to go next

Start with the working tool: today's panchang computes all five limbs for your location and explains each line. Then go deep on the limbs themselves, beginning with the tithi, the heart of the system, and ending with muhurta, the art the whole almanac exists to serve. To see how the same sky is read at the moment of a birth, a free birth chart shows the five limbs of your own birth moment alongside the chart itself.