Today's panchang for Nagpur

Read at sunrise in Nagpur, on the Lahiri ayanamsa, in Indian Standard Time. A new panchang here every morning.

Tithi, nakshatra and yoga windows

The five limbs

Tithi

How far the Moon has pulled ahead of the Sun, counted in steps of twelve degrees. Thirty make a lunar month, and one runs from about twenty to about twenty seven hours.

Vara

The weekday, each carrying a planet. In the panchang it changes at sunrise, not at midnight.

Nakshatra

Which of the twenty seven parts of the star ring the Moon is passing through. It does most of the work in practice. The 27 nakshatras

Yoga

The Sun's and the Moon's positions added together and divided into twenty seven. Not to be confused with a yoga in a birth chart.

Karana

Half a tithi, six degrees, so sixty in a lunar month, filled by eleven names.

Five lines, and underneath all five there are only two moving objects: the Sun and the Moon. The panchang is the same for everybody in the same city on the same morning, so it does not read anyone's life. That is what a kundli is for.

Rahu Kaal and Abhijit muhurat

Rahu Kaal is one eighth of the daylight between sunrise and sunset, a different eighth for each weekday, and is classically kept away from beginnings. Abhijit muhurat is the eighth of fifteen equal parts of the daylight, the one around local noon, classically the most favourable of the day except on a Wednesday. Both are read from Nagpur's own sunrise and sunset.

Why a panchang is local

All five limbs are worked out from where the Sun and the Moon stood at sunrise, at your place, on that date. Sunrise in Nagpur is not sunrise in Delhi, and a tithi that ends at 09:40 here ends at a different clock time there. For another city, use the calculator.

Questions people ask

What are the five parts of the panchang?

Tithi, vara or weekday, nakshatra, yoga and karana. Tithi is the Moon's distance ahead of the Sun in twelve degree steps. Nakshatra is the part of the star ring the Moon is passing. Yoga is the Sun and Moon added together and divided into twenty seven. Karana is half a tithi. The weekday is the seven day cycle.

Why does the panchang day start at sunrise?

Because the tradition counts a day from sunrise to the next sunrise rather than from midnight. This is why the tithi and the weekday printed against a date are the ones running at that morning's sunrise, and why something at 3 am belongs to the previous panchang day.

Do I need a panchang for my city?

Yes, if you are using it to fix a time. The five entries change hands at clock times that depend on your longitude and your sunrise, so a panchang for another city can be minutes out for Nagpur. For a festival date it usually makes no difference. For a muhurta it can.

Can I see the panchang for another date or place?

Yes. The free panchang calculator takes any date and place, and an optional time. Leave the time blank to read the panchang at sunrise, the classical whole-day reading.

Read more

• The panchang, and how to read the five things in it
• Vaidhriti, Vyaghata and Saubhagya: the yogas in the panchang
• Daily horoscope: how to read one without being misled