What Is Panchang? Tithi, Vara, Nakshatra, Yoga and Karana

Five coordinates of a traditional day

Panchang means a five-part almanac. The five limbs are Tithi, Vara, Nakshatra, Yoga and Karana. They combine weekday naming with angular relationships of the Sun and Moon. These labels describe a calendrical system before any interpretation of an auspicious activity is added. A city’s daily Panchang is commonly sampled at sunrise, so it is essential to know both the location and the moment represented by a displayed label.

Tithi is not a 24-hour date

A Tithi spans 12 degrees of the Moon’s angular separation from the Sun. Thirty such intervals make a lunar month. Because the Sun and Moon do not move at perfectly uniform relative speeds, Tithis have unequal durations. One can begin in the afternoon and end the following morning. A civil date can therefore contain parts of two Tithis, while a sunrise-based calendar associates the day with the factor present at its reference moment.

Nakshatra and Yoga use different angles

The daily Nakshatra comes from the sidereal Moon longitude, divided into 27 sectors of 13°20′. Panchang Yoga also has 27 sectors, but uses the sum of the sidereal Sun and Moon longitudes. Adding two longitudes is not the same calculation as the Moon–Sun difference used for Tithi. The word Yoga has other meanings in astrology and in physical practice; a Panchang Yoga should not be confused with either of those simply because the label is familiar.

Karana and Vara

A Karana is half a Tithi, or six degrees of Moon–Sun separation. Seven names repeat through most of the month and four fixed Karanas occupy the remaining positions. Vara is the weekday in a sunrise-based day. These simple definitions matter when comparing calendars: the Tithi or Karana can change after sunrise, and the civil weekday at midnight does not always match the traditional day used for a pre-dawn ritual. A useful tool states the sampling time instead of hiding it.

A practical way to compare two cities

Choose the same civil date for New Delhi and Chennai. Note each sunrise and the Tithi shown at that moment. If a Tithi changes between those sunrises, the daily labels can differ even though the underlying astronomy is consistent. Then inspect the displayed Tithi end time. Do not solve the difference by copying a timing from one city to the other. The local sunrise, the activity’s rule and the calendar tradition all need to be considered together.

Reading the displayed Tithi end

Suppose a city’s sunrise occurs during Krishna Chaturdashi and the Tithi ends later that morning. The sunrise label can correctly say Chaturdashi while an evening observance follows the Amavasya interval that begins after it. The statements answer different timing questions. To avoid confusion, write down both the reference moment and the boundary time rather than assigning one label to every hour of the civil date. This distinction is particularly useful when reading the 2026 Diwali guide alongside the daily Panchang result.

Try a small learning exercise

Choose one date and two Indian cities. Record each sunrise, the Tithi at that instant and the next Tithi end. Check whether the factor changes between the two reference moments. Then write down whether you are comparing a daily sunrise label, a complete interval or a phase instant. Do not use the same word for all three. This small exercise turns a calendar discrepancy into a question that can be checked. It also shows why a published ritual time must keep its city and source rather than travel as a context-free screenshot.

The method used on this site

The daily Panchang is evaluated at local sunrise. Tithi uses Moon–Sun elongation, Nakshatra the sidereal Moon, Yoga the sidereal Sun-plus-Moon sum, and Karana a half-Tithi. Vara follows the sunrise-based day.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and further context

• getVEDANGA methodology — the implementation and its limits
• Astronomy Engine — astronomical calculations and validation
• NASA — the geometry of Moon phases

Sources have different roles: astronomical documentation supports the calculation, while traditional texts describe a historical framework. A citation does not by itself validate a personal prediction.