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How To Read Panchanga
How To Read Panchanga
Tithi, Waar, Nakshatra, Yoga and Karana are the vital among the several
parameters of time measuring. The publication that describes these five
parameters together is called panchanga. These five parameters are presented in
the same order in any panchanga. Span of each of these parameters is different,
so is beginning and ending of each of them.
Following is the method to read the panchanga for a particular day:
A typical page of the panchanga has the first horizontal row which gives shaka,
samvatsara name, chaandra maasa, paksha (viz. shukla, the waxing phase of
moon or krishna, the waning phase of moon), the particular Gregorian month
and year, the Hizari year, Samvat year and the Parsi year. Second row has
headings for the respective columns, which include tithi. Waar. Ending time of the
tithi. Nakshatra, the constellation close to the Moon. Ending time of the
Nakshatra (the time when the moon leaves the particular constellation. Yoga (a
relatively complex parameter linked to positions of Sun and Moon). Ending time
of yoga. Karana (the half portion of a tithi). Ending time of karana. Dinamaana,
the time span between sunrise and sunset. Hizari year date. Sun rise. Sun set.
Time of the moon entering a particular zodiac sign and the Gregorian date.
The next column in the same row contains raatrimaana (the gap between sunset
and sunrise) of the last day of the relevant fortnight, the ayanansh, name of the
prevailing ayana and ritu (season). Note: The panchangas measure the day
continuously from a sunrise to another sunrise. That is, if the day begins with the
sunrise at 06:20 hours, the time is measured continuously upto the next sun rise
which may go beyond 24 hours count. So whenever one comes across the
timing like 29:33 hours in the panchanga, just deduct 24 from it to get the next
morning timing viz. 5:33 hours in this case.
Let us read the panchanga of, say, October 7th, 2000. Open the page containing
October 7th, 2000.(refer to the Gregorian date column).
It tells us that the particular date (October 7th, 2000.) falls under shaka 1921
which is the Pramaathi Samvatsara, the Hindu month of Aashwina, Shukla
paksha - the waxing phase of moon.
denotes that the day is in dakshinayana -the Sun moving towards (southern)
makara vritta (the tropic of Capricorn) and the Sharad ritu.
At the sunrise the tithi was navami, that is the 9th lunar date, and the weekday
is Tuesday. The third column conveys the change of tithi. Here it changes at 8:25
hours and the dashami, the 10th lunar date of Ashwina begins.
Next column tells us that the moon is in Shravana nakshatra and it leaves the
constellation at 11:53 hours.
The next ten columns if referred to their headings can be understood trivially. (In
case of karana which the half part of a tithi, the Date Panchanga mentions only
first half, since the second half ends with the end of the particular tithi. Yet it
needs an experts advice to determine the karana for a particular moment.)
The next wide column to the Gregorian date contains the shastrartha for the
day. For October 7th, 2000. it says that the day is Mahanavami and it is of
navaratrotthapana -end of navaratra, the Vijaya Dashami or the Dasara Day. The
rest of the information of the day continues elsewhere on the same page with a
reference to the same Gregorian date in parenthesis.