Introduction of Panchang

The Panchanga
Besides the interpretation of the Grahas, Rashis and Bhavas, there is an almost entirely separate category of information that can be used for characterizing the person. These datas are traditionally referred to as Panchanga (“Five limbs”), and consists of the following:
Varana ——–week day
Nakshtra —-lunar constellation
Tithi ———–lunar day
Karana —–half lunar day
Yago ——-combination of Deposition of the sun and moon.
Each of these are measurements of time, and closely related to the ancient Indian calendar. Besides measuring time, each element also has a quality, which can be used for the chart interpretation. A complete overview is given in the Panchanga Details report.

Tithi : From new Moon to the next new Moon, the month is divided in 30 tithis. The first 15 form the waxing phase of the Moon, called Shukla Paksha. The 15 tithis from full Moon to new Moon are called Krishna Paksha. The tithi that ends in the exact moment of Full Moon, is called Purnima (“full”). The tithi that ends in the exact conjunction of Sun and Moon is called Amavasya. The 14 tithis after Amavasya are simply called by their number (in Sanskrit), and so are the 14 tithis following Purnima. The two sets are kept apart by adding Shukla or Krishna to their name.

Varana : Each weekday has a planetary ruler, which in itself is the characteristic element. In other words, people born on Sunday have qualities as indicated by the Sun, people born on Tuesdays have qualities of the Moon, etc. Note that the astrological notion of a day is from Sunrise to Sunrise. The order of the weekdays itself is based on the rulers of the horas. There are 24 horas in a day, and their rulers follow from the slowest to the fastest Graha (Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon). Every day starts with a particular hora at sunrise, and ends with the 24th hora from that. The next day will start with whatever is the next Graha in order. For example, a Sunday would always start with the Hora of the Sun at Sunrise, and end with the 24th hora ruled by Mercury (count yourself: 1.Su, 2.Ve, 3.Me, 4. Mo, 5.Sa,…24.Me). The weekday following Sunday would therefore start with the 25th Hora, the one after Mercury’s, which is the Moon’s. The fact that the 25th Hora after the Sun’s is the Moon’s, is the reason that Mondays follows Sunday. The 25th Hora after the Moon’s is Mars’, so Tuesday is the next day.

Nakshatra : The Nakshatra :  the Moon is in will give the results as described in the section on Nakshatras.

Karana : One lunar month has 30 Tithis. Each Tithi is divided in two equal halves, called Karanas. Therefore, one lunar month has 60 karanas in total. There are only 11 different Karanas though, which repeat to span the full cycle of 60 karanas. The first karana on the day of new Moon is Kimstughna, followed by 8 cycles of Bava, Balava, Kaulava, Taitula, Garaje, Vanija, Visthi. The last 3 karanas are Shakuni, Chatushpat and Naga.

Yoga : Whereas the Tithi and Karana were based on taking the distance from Sun to Moon, the Yoga in derived from adding up their positions. The formula is: Moon’s longitude+Sun’s longitude+80 From this sum, multiples of 360 should be substracted to get a degree in the 0-360 range. Then the nakshatra has to be determined. Each yoga corresponds to one of the Nakshatras .