The five limbs
Each limb measures something different about the relationship between the Sun and the Moon on a given day. Together they form the framework behind the traditional Hindu calendar and behind muhurta, the selection of auspicious timings.
None of these begin at midnight. A tithi can start mid-afternoon and end the following morning, which is why a Panchang lists start and end times rather than simply naming a day.
- Tithi - lunar day, based on the angular separation between Sun and Moon; 30 in a lunar month
- Vara - the weekday, each ruled by a planet
- Nakshatra - the lunar mansion the Moon occupies; 27 in the zodiac
- Yoga - derived from the combined longitudes of Sun and Moon; 27 in the sequence
- Karana - half a tithi; 11 karanas cycle through the lunar month
Rahu Kaal, Yamaganda, and Gulika
These are the three inauspicious windows most commonly observed across India. Each is calculated by dividing the period between sunrise and sunset into eight equal parts and assigning one part according to the weekday. Because the calculation is anchored to sunrise, the timings are genuinely different in Mumbai and Guwahati on the same day.
Traditional practice avoids starting new ventures, journeys, or auspicious ceremonies during these windows. It is worth being proportionate about it - the tradition treats them as periods to avoid initiating things, not as dangerous hours. Ongoing work continues normally, and observance varies considerably by region and family.
- Rahu Kaal - roughly 90 minutes daily, shifting by weekday
- Yamaganda - a separate eighth of the day, also weekday-dependent
- Gulika Kaal - associated with Saturn, calculated on the same eightfold division
- Night versions exist, computed from sunset to the following sunrise
Choghadiya and practical muhurta
Choghadiya divides the daylight period into eight parts and the night into eight more, each named and each associated with a planetary lord. The names carry their traditional character - Amrit, Shubh, Labh, and Char are generally regarded as favourable, while Rog, Kaal, and Udveg are avoided for new beginnings.
Choghadiya is popular in western India, particularly Gujarat and Maharashtra, for everyday timing decisions - when to leave on a journey, when to open a shop, when to sign something. It is the lightest form of muhurta, meant for daily use rather than for major life events, which are traditionally timed against the full chart.
Why location changes everything
Sunrise in Kolkata and sunrise in Ahmedabad differ by well over an hour, and India runs on a single time zone. Every window on this page - Rahu Kaal, Choghadiya, Gulika - is derived from local sunrise and sunset, so a Panchang computed for Delhi is simply wrong for Chennai.
Dasha geocodes your city and computes the day from actual local solar times using the Swiss Ephemeris. Tithi, nakshatra, yoga, and karana transitions are given with the exact clock times at which they change.
- Rahu Kaal, Yamaganda, and Gulika windows for your city
- Full day and night Choghadiya tables
- Tithi, vara, nakshatra, yoga, and karana with transition times
- Sunrise and sunset used as the basis for all divisions
Using the Panchang without over-reading it
The Panchang is a calendar, not an oracle. Its long-standing role is coordination - fixing festival dates, deciding when a ceremony happens, agreeing on a shared reckoning of the lunar month across a community. That is a genuinely useful function and it does not require believing anything in particular.
If you use muhurta for personal timing, use it lightly. A good decision made during Rahu Kaal remains a good decision, and the tradition never claimed otherwise.
The lunar calendar underneath
The Panchang sits on top of a lunisolar calendar. A lunar month runs from one new moon to the next, and twelve of those fall short of a solar year, so an extra month - Adhik Maas - is inserted periodically to keep the calendar aligned with the seasons. That is why festival dates move against the Gregorian calendar each year while staying anchored to the same part of it.
Regions differ in where the month begins. The amanta reckoning, common in western and southern India, ends the month at the new moon. The purnimanta reckoning, common in the north, ends it at the full moon. The tithis themselves are identical either way; only the month labels shift, which is why the same day can carry different month names in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.
- Tithi, nakshatra, and yoga are the same everywhere on a given day
- Month names and era counts vary by region and calendar tradition
- Adhik Maas keeps the lunar year aligned with the solar seasons