The five limbs of a day

Tithi: the lunar day

Tithi measures the Moon's distance from the Sun in steps of 12 degrees. Thirty steps complete a lunar month, fifteen waxing in Shukla paksha and fifteen waning in Krishna paksha. The Moon and Sun move at speeds that keep changing, so a tithi can run anywhere from under twenty-one hours to nearly twenty-six, which is why the same tithi occasionally touches no sunrise at all, or touches two. A day takes the name of whichever tithi is running at sunrise, not the one running at midnight or at any other clock hour, so a tithi that starts late one evening can still name the whole day that follows it.

Vara: the weekday

Vara is the ordinary weekday, and each carries the temper of the graha whose hours govern it, Ravi through to Shani. It weighs less by itself than tithi or nakshatra, but it colours what the other limbs decide.

Nakshatra: the Moon's mansion

The Moon's mansion for the day, one of the twenty-seven, is the single strongest voice in a panchangam. It sets the day's character, and, for a birth, the janma nakshatra a whole reading opens from.

Yoga: Sun and Moon together

Yoga sums the Sun's position and the Moon's, rather than measuring the distance between them. It splits the total into twenty-seven parts, each named for a distinct quality, from Vishkambha through to Vaidhriti. A few, Vyatipata and Vaidhriti among them, are held to favour little; most are neutral or mildly good.

Karana: half a tithi

Karana is the finer grain, half a tithi rather than a whole one. Eleven names cover sixty half-tithis across a lunar month. Seven movable karanas, Bava through Vishti, repeat eight times over. Four fixed ones, Shakuni, Chatushpada, Naga and Kimstughna, sit once each at the month's two ends. Vishti, called Bhadra in common speech, is set apart from the rest as one to plan around.

The day's other periods

Beyond the five limbs, a panchangam marks stretches of the day to keep clear or to prefer. Rahu kalam, Yamagandam and Gulika kalam each take one-eighth of the daylight, in an order fixed by weekday. Each is set aside from ordinary beginnings.

For a day with sunrise at 6:00 and sunset at 18:00. The eighths stretch and shrink with the real day at your place.

Durmuhurtam marks one or two short stretches on most days, drawn from the fifteen equal muhurtas the daylight splits into. Varjyam falls inside the running nakshatra, at a point that nakshatra fixes. Abhijit muhurta, the eighth of those fifteen muhurtas, straddles local noon and is counted favourable on every day but Wednesday.

Why a place, not just a date

Every one of these measures moves with sunrise, and sunrise itself moves with the place. A panchangam printed for one city can misname a tithi, or shift Rahu kalam by minutes, for another city on the same date. So a computed panchanga takes a place along with the date. The festivals that lunar months set are read the same way, which is part of why a reader outside India can keep a date a day apart from family there.

The panchanga of your birth day

The five limbs of your birth day, tithi, vara, nakshatra, yoga and karana, are computed exactly for your birth minute, at your birth place. They are printed in every reading, with the Avakhada details beside them. The free Darshanam, the five-week reading, carries them too.

Read from your chart

A general almanac speaks to everyone; your panchanga speaks to you. Darshanam, the free five-week reading, is built from your birth minute, and brings your kundali with it.