What is panchang in ePandit?
Explainer · reviewed August 2026
Panchang is the daily calendrical bundle used in Vedic practice. In ePandit’s engine today, daily panchang details return nakshatra, nakshatra pada, vāra, hora ruler, tithi, and yoga for a given date, latitude, longitude, and timezone — when Swiss Ephemeris is available.
On this page
What the app shows today
Fields available today: nakshatra, nakshatra pada, weekday, hora ruler, tithi, and yoga. Sunrise timing is preferred; noon is a fallback only if sunrise calculation fails.
When a value cannot be computed
If the engine cannot compute a value for your date and place, the app says so and shows nothing in its place. It will never substitute a plausible-looking number, a nearby city, or an average. A panchang value that looks right and is not is worse than a blank, because there is no way for you to tell.
This applies to whole categories as well as single fields. We do not compute karana, and we do not compute the lunar month across an intercalary (adhika) month — so we say nothing about either, rather than reporting the value we could guess. Every field the app does show is calculated from Swiss Ephemeris positions for your own coordinates and the day's actual sunrise.
Install the app for place-based daily context
ePandit checks these rules against your own birth chart, and shows which are sourced to a classical text and which are our engine's.
Panchang
- Abhijit muhurta: the quiet window around noon The Muhūrta-cintāmaṇi divides the day into 15 muhurtas, and the eighth is Abhijit, about 48 minutes around local noon. Tradition treats it as a favoured window of the day, but it is not used on Wednesday.
- Chandra bala: today's Moon, counted from your birth sign Chandra bala counts today's Moon sign from your birth Moon sign. By the Muhūrta-cintāmaṇi the 1st, 3rd, 6th, 7th, 10th and 11th places are favourable, and in Shukla paksha also the 2nd, 5th and 9th. Tradition uses it only to choose a day for a new beginning.
- Choghadiya: the eight parts of the day Choghadiya divides the day and the night into eight parts each and names every part Amrit, Shubh, Labh, Char, Udveg, Kaal or Rog. It is widely followed in western India but is not found in the classical muhurta texts, so read it as tradition.
- Hora: the 24 hours of the day and their lords A hora is an 'hour' of the day, and each hora has a planetary lord, in the order Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars. The Muhūrta-cintāmaṇi says that work meant for a weekday may, if needed, be done in that weekday lord's hora.
- Karana: the measure of half a tithi Karana is the fifth limb of the panchang: one karana is half a tithi. There are 11 karanas, 4 fixed and 7 movable. The seventh movable karana, Vishti, is the "Bhadra" that tradition does not choose for new beginnings.
- Muhurta: how a good time is chosen Choosing a muhurta means reading the five limbs of the panchang (tithi, weekday, nakshatra, yoga, karana), the muhurta's lagna, and the person's tara bala and chandra bala. The classical text is the Muhūrta-cintāmaṇi; family tradition and practicality go along with it.
- Nakshatra in the panchang: where the Moon is today In the panchang, "today's nakshatra" is the nakshatra the Moon is in today. The 27 nakshatras are 13°20′ each, and the Muhūrta-cintāmaṇi sorts them into groups by nature to show which kind of task tradition matches with which group.
- Yoga: a measure made from the Sun and Moon together Yoga is the fourth limb of the panchang. Add the longitudes of the Sun and Moon and divide into 13°20′ steps, and you get 27 yogas, from Vishkambha to Vaidhriti. It is a different thing from chart yogas such as "raja yoga".
- Rahu kaal: a time window derived from sunrise and sunset Rahu kaal is a part of the day, about an hour and a half long, set by the weekday and derived from your city's sunrise and sunset. Tradition avoids starting new work in it; we show the window, but following it is your choice.
- Tara bala: counting today from your birth nakshatra Tara bala counts today's nakshatra from your birth nakshatra, giving one of nine taras. The Muhūrta-cintāmaṇi gives the rule; tradition uses it only to choose a day for a new beginning, and it is not a prediction.
- Tithi: the day the Moon makes Tithi is the first limb of the panchang. Each time the Moon pulls another 12° ahead of the Sun, one tithi is complete. A lunar month has 30 tithis, and most vrats follow the tithi that is running at sunrise.
- Vaar: the day from sunrise to sunrise Vaar, the weekday, is the second limb of the panchang. Each weekday has a planetary lord, and in the panchang the day changes at sunrise, not at midnight.