आज का पञ्चाङ्गToday's Panchang

What is Panchang? · पञ्चाङ्ग क्या है

Panchang (literally “five limbs” in Sanskrit) is the classical Hindu almanac — the daily state of the sky distilled into five data points. Every Vedic ritual, muhurta, and auspicious decision for the past three thousand years has been timed by panchang. It is the infrastructure beneath Jyotish.

Unlike a Gregorian calendar, which only tracks the civil date, panchang tracks the actual sky: where the Moon is relative to the Sun, which nakshatra the Moon occupies, which yoga the Sun+Moon form, which karana is active, and which day of the week the day belongs to. These five readings together define the quality of a day.

The five limbs

• Vara · वार — the weekday, ruled by one of seven planets (Sun = Ravi-vara, Moon = Soma-vara, Mars = Mangala-vara, and so on). The planet of the day colours everything else.
• Tithi · तिथि — the lunar day. Each tithi is a 12° elongation of the Moon from the Sun. There are 30 tithis per lunar month (15 waxing — shukla paksha, 15 waning — krishna paksha). Tithi governs ritual: Ekadashi fasts, Purnima ceremonies, Amavasya shraddhas.
• Nakshatra · नक्षत्र — the lunar mansion the Moon currently occupies. There are 27 (each 13°20′), each with a ruling deity and a ruling planet. Nakshatra governs emotional weather and karmic nuance — marriages, journeys, and undertakings are timed by it.
• Yoga · योग — 27 harmonic combinations of Sun and Moon longitudes. Some yogas (Siddhi, Amrita, Shubha) are strongly auspicious; a few (Vaidhriti, Vyatipata) are classical no-starts for any new work.
• Karana · करण — half of a tithi (six degrees of elongation). 11 karanas cycle through the lunar month, four of them fixed. Karana is used for fine-grained muhurta selection — the difference between a good hour and a great hour.

Auspicious windows · शुभ मुहूर्त

Two windows repeat every day and are treated as universally auspicious regardless of what else the panchang says:

• Brahma Muhurta — the 96-minute window before sunrise. The mind is at its clearest, sattva-guna at its peak. Classical recommendation: wake, bathe, meditate, chant, or study. No food, no activity that muddies the mind.
• Abhijit Muhurta — the 48-minute window around local solar noon. The only muhurta said to override most inauspicious combinations. Use it for signatures, launches, difficult conversations, any undertaking that needs a clean start.

Windows to avoid · अशुभ काल

Three inauspicious windows rotate weekly — their position in the day depends on which weekday you're in. They don't predict disaster; they mark periods when starting something new is less likely to stick.

• Rahu Kaal— Rahu's shadow hour. The classical “don't start now” window. Travel, purchases, signing deals, or any initiation is deferred past it. A 90-minute block.
• Yamaganda— Yama's window. Weaker than Rahu Kaal but similar advice — routine and rest are fine; beginnings are not.
• Gulika Kaal— Saturn's son Gulika. Things started here tend to be burdened. Reject this window for anything you want to endure.

Why location and date matter

Tithi, nakshatra, yoga, and karana are global — they describe the same sky everyone shares. The weekday and the muhurta windows, however, depend on local sunrise. This calculator uses classical approximate-sunrise timing (06:00 local) — sufficient for everyday planning. If you need exact minute-precision rahu kaal for a ritual, consult a local panchang after this one for confirmation.

Panchang for a different day

Pick any date in the form above — past, present, or future. The calculator reaches into Swiss Ephemeris for the exact Sun and Moon positions at that date's sunrise and derives the full panchang. Useful for picking a muhurta (auspicious moment), checking a ritual date, or just reading yesterday's sky.

The URL updates when you change the date or city, so the result is always shareable — bookmark it for tomorrow, or send the link to someone asking for a muhurta.