Today's Panchang Bhopal

What is a panchang?

A panchang is the Hindu almanac for one day at one place. The word comes from pancha (five) and anga (limbs), because every day is described by five values: tithi, vara, nakshatra, yoga and karana. Families have used it for centuries to pick dates for weddings, pujas, travel, a new job or buying a car, and to know which days are fasting days.

The panchang above is calculated live for the city and date you pick. It is not copied from a printed book, so it works for any city in the world, and the times are in that city's own time zone.

The five limbs, in plain words

1. Tithi (lunar day)

The Moon moves away from the Sun by about 12 degrees a day. Every 12 degrees is one tithi, so a lunar month has 30 tithis. The first 15 belong to Shukla Paksha (waxing Moon, from new moon to Purnima) and the next 15 to Krishna Paksha (waning Moon, ending on Amavasya). A tithi can start at any hour and it does not line up with midnight, which is why panchangs always show an end time.

2. Vara (weekday)

Vara is the weekday, but in the Vedic system the day starts at sunrise, not midnight. Each vara is ruled by a planet: Ravivar by the Sun, Somvar by the Moon, Mangalvar by Mars and so on. Rahu kaal, choghadiya and hora all depend on the vara.

3. Nakshatra (lunar mansion)

The sky is split into 27 nakshatras of 13°20' each. The nakshatra of the day is the one the Moon is passing through. It is the most used limb for muhurat. Rohini, Mrigashira, Hasta, Anuradha and Revati, for example, are liked for weddings.

4. Yoga

Add the sidereal longitude of the Sun and the Moon, divide the circle into 27 parts, and you get the yoga. There are 27 of them, from Vishkambha to Vaidhriti. Most are fine, a few such as Vyatipata and Vaidhriti are avoided for new starts.

5. Karana (half tithi)

Each tithi has two halves, called karanas. There are 11 karanas: 7 repeat through the month (Bava, Balava, Kaulava, Taitila, Gara, Vanija, Vishti) and 4 appear once. Vishti, also called Bhadra, is the one people check most because good work is usually not started during Bhadra.

Other things you see on this page

Item	What it means
Sunrise and sunset	The panchang day runs from one sunrise to the next. All slots below are worked out from these two times.
Rahu kaal	About 90 minutes of the day ruled by Rahu. People avoid starting new work in it.
Yamaganda and Gulika	Two more daily slots of the same length. Yamaganda is avoided, Gulika is avoided for good events.
Abhijit muhurat	About 48 minutes around local noon, seen as a strong window for most work. Many traditions skip it on Wednesdays.
Brahma muhurta	About 96 to 48 minutes before sunrise. The classic time for meditation and study.
Amrit kaal and Varjyam	Short windows tied to the nakshatra. Amrit kaal is good, Varjyam is avoided.
Hindu month and samvat	Shown in both systems: amanta (month ends on Amavasya, used in Gujarat, Maharashtra and the south) and purnimanta (month ends on Purnima, used in the north).

How we calculate it

Everything here is astronomy, not guesswork. We take the true positions of the Sun and the Moon for the exact minute, convert them to the sidereal zodiac with the Lahiri ayanamsa (the one the Indian government calendar uses), and find the moment each limb changes. Sunrise and sunset are computed for the latitude and longitude of your city with the Sun's upper edge on the horizon, which is the drik method most modern panchangs follow. Because of this, times can differ by a minute or two from a printed panchang, and a lot more if that panchang was made for a different city.

How to use today's panchang

• Check the tithi before a vrat. Ekadashi, Pradosh and Purnima fasts follow the tithi, not the date.
• Before starting something new, look at Rahu kaal and Bhadra and pick a time outside them. Abhijit or a good choghadiya is a good choice.
• For bigger events like a wedding or griha pravesh, use the muhurat finder, which scans the whole year with the full rules.
• Change the city if you live abroad. A panchang for Delhi is not right for London or New York, sunrise is different and sometimes even the tithi at sunrise changes.

Want to know what today means for you personally? The panchang is the same for everyone in a city. Your kundli is not. Ask Mygrah's AI about your own chart and it will read today's transits against your birth details.