The panchang's five limbs: what tithi, yoga and karana actually mean

What is a panchang, and what do its five limbs actually track?

A panchang is the traditional Hindu almanac of a single day, named for its five measures (Sanskrit panch, five, + anga, limb): tithi (the lunar day), vara (the weekday), nakshatra (the Moon's lunar mansion), yoga (a calculated Sun–Moon combination) and karana (half a tithi). Together the five describe that day's character — not a list of lucky and unlucky hours, but the raw measurements an astrologer reads before choosing or judging a moment.

Sources & fixed facts (not folklore)

A tithi spans 12° of angular separation between the Sun and Moon, giving thirty tithis in a lunar month (fifteen in the bright, waxing paksha, fifteen in the dark, waning one). A nakshatra spans 13°20' of the ecliptic, fixed by the Moon's position alone — twenty-seven across a full circuit. A yoga also spans 13°20', but is computed differently: the sum of the Sun's and Moon's sidereal longitudes, not the Moon's position alone, which is why it also yields twenty-seven named values. A karana is exactly half a tithi — 6° of separation — and there are eleven named karanas in total: seven that repeat through the month and four that occur only once each.

Open any panchang and two of the five limbs already feel familiar. Tithi tells you it's ekadashi or purnima; nakshatra is the one people ask about for marriage matching. The other two — yoga and karana — get named in almost every table and explained in almost none. They deserve the same treatment.

Tithi and vara, briefly

Tithi is the lunar day: the time it takes the Moon to gain 12° on the Sun, so all thirty tithis together make one lunar month. Some, like the fourth, eighth and fourteenth, are traditionally set aside for beginnings; others are preferred. Vara is simply the weekday, and each of the seven is associated with a graha — Ravivar with the Sun, Somvar with the Moon, Mangalvar with Mars, Budhvar with Mercury, Guruvar with Jupiter, Shukravar with Venus, Shanivar with Saturn — lending its own flavour to work started that day.

Nakshatra, in one line

Nakshatra is the Moon's lunar mansion for the day, one of twenty-seven, and often the single most heavily weighted of the five limbs when choosing a muhurat. It has a full explanation of its own — what the twenty-seven mansions are, how padas subdivide them, and why they matter beyond any single day.

Yoga — and why it has nothing to do with the yogas in your chart

Panchang yoga is one of twenty-seven named values, computed by adding the Sun's and Moon's sidereal longitudes together and dividing the result into the same 13°20' slices a nakshatra uses. A specific group of nine — traditionally headed by Vishkambha, Atiganda, Shoola, Ganda, Vyaghata, Vajra, Vyatipata, Parigha and Vaidhriti — are considered inauspicious for beginnings in classical muhurta texts; the rest are treated as neutral or supportive.

It is worth being explicit about a genuine source of confusion: this "yoga" is a calendar property of the day itself, unrelated to the birth-chart combinations this site elsewhere calls a yoga — Raj Yoga or the Gaja Kesari Yoga, for instance, which describe planetary placements in a specific person's chart, not a feature of the calendar. The two ideas share one Sanskrit word and nothing else.

Karana — the finest division, and the one everyone already half-knows

Karana is half a tithi, so each lunar day carries exactly two. Eleven are named: seven "chara" (movable) karanas — Bava, Balava, Kaulava, Taitila, Garija (also called Gara), Vanija and Vishti — that repeat through the month, and four "sthira" (fixed) karanas — Shakuni, Chatushpada, Naga and Kimstughna — that each occur only once. Vishti karana is far better known by its other name: Bhadra. "Don't start anything during Bhadra" is common household wisdom across much of India, and it is this same half-tithi the elders mean — traditionally avoided for weddings, journeys and new beginnings the same way Rahu Kaal is, just measured from the Moon's angle to the Sun rather than from the clock.

Why check the panchang beyond choosing a muhurat

Most people who look at a panchang are not electing a moment to start something — they are asking whether today is ekadashi, whether a vrat falls this week, or when Rahu Kaal ends this afternoon. The five limbs are the same raw material either way; a personal, location-corrected reading of today's panchang is simply that same material read for right now, computed from your own city's sunrise rather than a generic national table.

When the five limbs do get used for electing a moment — a wedding date, a house move, a business launch — that fuller practice is muhurat, and it layers your own birth chart on top of the day's panchang rather than reading the day alone.

Astro Ratan can read out today's panchang — tithi, nakshatra, yoga and karana together — for the city you actually live in, and explain in plain language what each one means for the day. Message it on WhatsApp and ask.