Panchang for a Date and Place

A Panchang is used to plan as well as to look back. Families check the tithi and nakshatra before a wedding, a griha pravesh or the first day of a new venture, and many people look up the Panchang of their own birth to learn their janma tithi and janma nakshatra. You can use this page for either purpose: enter a future date to see what it holds, or a past date and time to see the Panchang of that moment. The place matters because the local time at that place decides the weekday.

The tithi is the lunar day. It comes from the angle between the Moon and the Sun, which grows by twelve degrees for each of the thirty tithis in a lunar month. The first fifteen form the bright half (Shukla paksha) and the next fifteen the dark half (Krishna paksha).

The nakshatra is the lunar mansion the Moon occupies, one of twenty-seven. The yoga comes from the sum of the Sun's and Moon's longitudes, also in twenty-seven parts. The karana is half a tithi, so there are sixty karanas in a lunar month. The fifth part is the vara, or weekday.

Because every part depends on the positions of the Sun and Moon, the Panchang changes through the day. A tithi lasts a little under a day on average and the Moon changes nakshatra roughly once a day. Enter the exact time you care about, such as the start of an event, rather than just the date.

The result shows the number and name of each part. The tithi is shown with its paksha and its number out of thirty, and the yoga with its number out of twenty-seven, so it is easy to compare with a printed almanac.

Sun and Moon positions are sidereal with the Lahiri ayanamsa. The tithi and yoga are computed from those positions at the moment you entered, and are not tied to the value at sunrise.

The weekday follows the local civil calendar date at the place you entered. Printed Panchangs begin the day at sunrise, so between midnight and sunrise the weekday here can be the next day compared with an almanac. A sunrise calculator is planned and will also unlock Rahu Kaal, Choghadiya and Hora. These results have not yet been compared with published reference Panchangs.