# Aaj Ka Panchang: Today's Tithi, Nakshatra and Rahu Kaal The panchang is the Hindu almanac, and its name means five limbs: tithi, vaara, nakshatra, yoga and karana. Together they describe the quality of a day rather than only its date. Choose your city and this page returns all five for today, with the day's timings computed from your own local sunrise. ## What is a panchang? A panchang is the Hindu calendar for a single day, and the word means five limbs, the five elements that describe it. Tithi is the lunar day, vaara the weekday, nakshatra the lunar mansion the Moon is crossing, yoga a combination of the Sun's and Moon's longitudes, and karana half a tithi. A Gregorian date tells you where you are in the solar year; a panchang tells you what kind of day it is, which is what muhurat, vrat and festival dates are all read from. ### Tithi: the lunar day A tithi is the interval in which the Moon gains 12 degrees on the Sun, so thirty of them make one lunar month. Because both bodies change speed, a tithi runs anywhere from about 19 to 26 hours, and it begins and ends at a clock time rather than at midnight. Vrats and most festival dates are fixed to a tithi, which is why a panchang always prints the moment one ends rather than only naming it. ### Vaara: the weekday, counted from sunrise The vaara is the day of the week, but the traditional day starts at sunrise rather than at midnight, so the hours between midnight and dawn still belong to the vaara before. Each weekday is ruled by a graha (Sunday the Sun, Monday the Moon, Tuesday Mars and so on around the seven), and that rulership is what orders the Choghadiya sequence and fixes where Rahu Kaal falls in the day. ### Nakshatra: the mansion the Moon is crossing The ecliptic is divided into 27 nakshatras of 13°20′ each, and the nakshatra of a day is the one the Moon occupies. The Moon crosses roughly one a day, so like the tithi it changes at a specific time and not at midnight. After the tithi it is the most used element on the page: muhurta rules are stated in nakshatras, and the nakshatra of a birth is what starts the Vimshottari dasha. ### Yoga: the Sun and Moon added together The yoga is found by adding the Sun's longitude to the Moon's and dividing the result into 27 named parts. It is not the yoga of a birth chart, which is a combination of grahas, and it is not the yoga of practice. The shared word causes more confusion than anything else on a panchang. Two of the 27, Vyatipata and Vaidhriti, are the ones the muhurta texts single out to avoid. ### Karana: half a tithi A karana is half a tithi, so two fall inside each one and sixty inside a lunar month. Eleven karanas fill those sixty: seven repeat in rotation through the month and four are fixed, appearing once each around the new moon. It is the element consulted least in ordinary use, and it still appears on every panchang because a muhurat can be rejected on the karana alone. ## What is a tithi and why does it not match the date? A tithi is the time the Moon takes to gain 12 degrees on the Sun, and that takes anywhere from about 19 to 26 hours depending on how fast the two are moving. So a tithi does not begin at midnight and does not last a day: it starts and ends at a specific clock time, often mid-afternoon. This is why the same festival can fall on different English dates in different places, and why a panchang always gives the moment a tithi ends rather than just naming it. ## What are the nakshatra, yoga and karana on a panchang? The nakshatra is which of the 27 lunar mansions the Moon is crossing. It changes roughly once a day and is the single most used element after the tithi. The yoga is one of 27 combinations formed from the Sun's and the Moon's longitudes added together, not to be confused with the yogas found in a birth chart. The karana is half a tithi, so two of them fall in each; there are eleven, four of them fixed. ## Why is the panchang different for each city? Because it is anchored to local sunrise, not to a national clock. The vaara, the weekday in the traditional reckoning, begins at sunrise rather than at midnight, and every window derived from it moves with it. Sunrise in Kolkata and in Ahmedabad differ by most of an hour on the same day, so their Rahu Kaal, Choghadiya and Hora windows differ by the same amount. A panchang printed for the whole country is approximating; this one is computed for the city you choose. ## Which sunrise does the panchang use? The Hindu convention: the moment the Sun's centre reaches the true horizon, which is what the traditional almanacs reckon from. This is not the same as the sunrise a weather app gives, which usually marks the upper limb clearing the horizon with atmospheric refraction applied, and lands a few minutes earlier. Those few minutes propagate into every window on the page, which is why a panchang can disagree with another by a small and very consistent amount. We state the convention rather than leave you to work out which one produced the number. ## What is Rahu Kaal and should I avoid it? Rahu Kaal is an inauspicious window of roughly ninety minutes that falls once each day, in a position that depends on the weekday and on your city's sunrise and sunset. Tradition avoids starting new or auspicious work during it; work already under way is not held to be affected, and ordinary life is not expected to stop. Our Rahu Kaal calculator gives the window for any city and date, alongside Yamaganda, Gulika and the Abhijit muhurat. ## What is Abhijit muhurat? Abhijit is the eighth of the fifteen equal parts of the daylight period, the one straddling local noon, and it is held to be auspicious for beginning work on almost any day. It is the most generally useful window on a panchang, because it needs no chart and no consultation: it is simply there each day, and it moves with your sunrise like everything else here. The usual exception given is Wednesday, which several traditions omit. ## How do I use a panchang to pick an auspicious time? Read it in layers. The tithi and nakshatra say what kind of day it is; the Choghadiya and Hora divide that day into shorter windows; Rahu Kaal, Yamaganda and Gulika mark the periods to keep clear. For routine timing (a purchase, a journey, a first day at work), the day's good Choghadiya and the Abhijit window are enough. For something that only happens once, our muhurat finder searches ahead across several days rather than making do with today. ## What is the difference between a panchang and a calendar? A calendar answers what the date is; a panchang answers what the day is like. The Hindu calendar is luni-solar: months follow the Moon while the year is kept in step with the Sun, so its months drift against the Gregorian ones and an extra month is inserted periodically to correct them. That is why festivals move by a couple of weeks year to year without moving at all in their own reckoning, and why a panchang is consulted for a date rather than simply read off a wall. ## Frequently asked questions ### What is Panchang? Panchang means 'five limbs', the five elements that define a Vedic day: tithi (lunar day), vara (weekday), nakshatra (the Moon's constellation), yoga and karana. Together they determine which activities suit a given day. Because every one of them is calculated from local sunrise, a panchang is specific to a city, not to a country. ### What is tithi? A tithi is a lunar day: the time the Moon takes to gain 12 degrees on the Sun. Because the Moon's speed varies, a tithi runs anywhere from about 19 to 26 hours, so it does not line up with the calendar date. Festivals and vrats are fixed by tithi, which is why their dates move each year. ### What time is Rahu Kaal today? Rahu Kaal falls at a different time each weekday and depends on your city's sunrise and sunset, so there is no single answer. The day from sunrise to sunset is divided into eight parts and one of them is Rahu Kaal, by a fixed order that starts with the eighth part on Sunday. Enter your city above for today's exact window. ### What is Choghadiya used for? Choghadiya divides the day and the night into eight roughly 90-minute windows, each labelled Amrit, Shubh, Labh, Char, Udveg, Rog or Kaal. It is the quickest way to pick a workable time for something ordinary (a journey, a purchase, a conversation) when a full muhurat is more than the occasion warrants. Amrit, Shubh and Labh are the favourable ones. ### What is Abhijit Muhurat? Abhijit is the roughly 48-minute window straddling local solar noon, the eighth of the fifteen day muhurats. It is regarded as auspicious for almost any undertaking and is often used when there is no time to elect a proper muhurat. The usual exception is Wednesday, which many traditions exclude. ### Why is aaj ka panchang different in Mumbai and Delhi? Every timing on a panchang is counted from the local sunrise, and sunrise in Mumbai and Delhi can differ by half an hour or more on the same date. Rahu Kaal, Abhijit, the Choghadiya and the Hora all move with it. The tithi and nakshatra can also differ, because each is the one running at that city's sunrise. Pick your own city above for your own times. ### What should I check in the panchang before a puja? Check the tithi and nakshatra first, because most pujas and vrats are fixed to one of them. Then pick a time inside the day: Abhijit Muhurat or an Amrit, Shubh or Labh Choghadiya, and outside Rahu Kaal, Yamaganda and Gulika. For a once-in-a-lifetime event such as a wedding or a griha pravesh, use the muhurat finder, which searches weeks ahead. --- Source: https://vedicsense.in/panchang Method: nirayana (sidereal) rashis, Lahiri ayanamsha, whole-sign bhavas, planetary positions to arc-second accuracy.