The Panchang in brief
Five limbs that describe a day: tithi, vara, nakshatra, yoga and karana.
- 5-minute lesson
- Basic course: Jyotish Shishya
- Vedic astrology
- Five limbs of a day
- Tithi: the Moon's day
- Vara, nakshatra, yoga, karana
A first look at the lesson
The Panchang (five limbs) describes any day by five measures: tithi (the lunar day), vara (the weekday), nakshatra (the Moon's), yoga and karana. Every Hindu calendar prints them, and muhurta, the choosing of good times, starts from them.
A tithi is the time the Moon takes to gain 12° on the Sun. 360° ÷ 12° = 30 tithis in a lunar month: 15 in the waxing half (shukla paksha), ending at Purnima, the full moon, and 15 in the waning half (krishna paksha), ending at Amavasya, the new moon.
Words in this lesson
More lessons on this subject
- The birth chart (D1)A birth chart is the sky held still at the moment and place of birth: houses, signs and grahas.
- North, South and East Indian chartsOne chart, three drawings: houses fixed in the North; signs fixed in the South and East.
- Lagna chart and Moon chartThe same grahas counted from the Moon: the Moon chart, read beside the Lagna chart.
- Divisional charts: D9 and D10Cut every sign into equal parts and a new chart appears: the navamsha (D9) and the dashamsha (D10).
Your first lesson takes about five minutes
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