The Five Limbs of the Panchang Explained
The word Panchang means “five limbs”. Here is what each limb measures and why the values change with your location.
The Panchang (also written Panchangam) is the traditional Hindu almanac. Families consult it to find festival dates, fasting days and auspicious times for weddings, housewarmings and new ventures. The name comes from Sanskrit: pancha (five) and anga (limb).
1. Tithi — the lunar day
A tithi measures the angle between the Moon and the Sun. Each time the Moon moves 12° further ahead of the Sun, a new tithi begins, so a lunar month has 30 tithis — 15 in the waxing fortnight (Shukla Paksha) ending at Purnima (full moon) and 15 in the waning fortnight (Krishna Paksha) ending at Amavasya (new moon). Because the Moon’s speed varies, tithis do not match calendar days neatly.
2. Vara — the weekday
Vara is the day of the week, each associated with a graha: Sunday with the Sun, Monday with the Moon, Tuesday with Mars, and so on. In traditional reckoning a day runs from one sunrise to the next, not from midnight.
3. Nakshatra — the lunar mansion
The zodiac is divided into 27 nakshatras of 13° 20′ each, starting from Ashwini. The nakshatra of the day is the one the Moon is passing through. Nakshatras are central to Vedic astrology, from naming ceremonies to compatibility matching.
4. Yoga — the combined position
The Panchang yoga is calculated by adding the longitudes of the Sun and the Moon and dividing the result into 27 equal parts. Each of the 27 yogas has a name — Vishkambha, Priti, Ayushman and so on — and a traditional quality. (This is a different concept from the many planetary yogas discussed in birth-chart analysis.)
5. Karana — half a tithi
A karana is half of a tithi, so there are 60 in a lunar month. There are 11 karanas in total: seven “movable” karanas that repeat in a cycle and four “fixed” ones that occur once each month. Vishti, also called Bhadra, is traditionally avoided for new beginnings.
Why the Panchang depends on where you are
Because the traditional day starts at sunrise, the tithi or nakshatra “of the day” depends on local sunrise time — which differs between Chennai, Delhi and London. Inauspicious periods such as Rahu Kalam, Yamagandam and Gulika Kalam are also worked out from local sunrise and sunset. That is why a reliable Panchang must be calculated for your location rather than copied from another city. AstroGuruPlus will add a location-based Panchang once it can be produced from verified calculations.
This article is for general education and cultural interest. It is not a personal reading or professional advice.