PANCHANGA

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PANCHANGA

Literally 'five limbs' (pancha, 'five' and anga, 'limb'). The almanac

of the Hindus, so named because it deals with the five Hindu

divisions of time An 'auspicious' moment is considered very

important, for starting a ceremony, a journey, a new venture or the

commencement of studies. The panchanga is used to find

such 'auspicious' moments when the various permutations and

combinations of the five units of time are found congenial.

 

Panchanga The five limbs of the panchanga are:

 

1. Vara (solar day) 2. Tithi (lunar day) 3. Nakshatra (lunar

asterism) 4. Yoga (conjunction of planets) 5. Karana (half of a lunar

day) Vara (solar day), literally means a weekday. This is the time

from one sunrise to the next. For official purposes, one day is

reckoned from midnight to midnight. The solar day of the Hindus is

divided into four parts: divas (day), ratri (night), sandhya (morning

twilight), sandhyansha (evening twilight). One solar day is made of

60 ghatikas and also of 15 muhurtas. The Hindus follow a seven-day

week system and each day of the week is a vara.

 

Each vara is special to a particular presiding deity. The seven varas

are also associated with the seven planets of the Hindus. Ravivara is

sacred to Surya hence sun worship is enjoined on this day. Thursday,

Friday, Wednesday and Monday (Sukla Paksha) is considered good.

 

Ravivara is sacred to Surya hence sun worship is enjoined on this

day. Somvara is sacred to the moon. As the moon is an adornment of

Shiva, it is also sacred to him. Since he is an ascetic, people

observe fasts on this day to please him. By performing a vrata for 16

Mondays, it is believed that all wishes are fulfilled.

 

Mangalavara is sacred to Mars. It is named Mangala (auspicious) to

counter its malefic nature. It is sacred to Hanuman, the monkey god

who helped Rama recover his wife Sita from Ravana (see Ramayana).

Hanuman is said to have also freed the nine planets from Ravana's

hold. Mars and Saturn are the strongest and most malefic of the nine.

Devotees therefore believe that by praying to Hanuman on Tuesday, the

inauspicious effects of Mars are overcome, for, by freeing Mars, he

proved that he was the stronger of the two.

 

Budhvara is sacred to Mercury, the lovechild of the Moon, and

Brihaspativara or Guruvara to Jupiter, the preceptor of the gods.

Shukravara, in turn, is special to Venus, the puissant and wise guru

of the asuras, while Shanivara is the dreaded day that belongs to

Shani (Saturn), whose baleful glare causes untold harm (see also

Janmapatri).

 

Within any given day, there are certain time periods which are

particularly spiritually potent. To start with, we will mention three

such time periods in every day:

 

Brahma Muhoortham: the three hour time period culminating at dawn;

assuming a 6 a.m. sunrise, this would be between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m.

everyday.

 

Abhijit Muhoortham: high noon when the sun is at its zenith; assuming

a 6 a.m. sunrise, this would be at 12 noon.

 

Nitya Pradosha Kaalam: one and a half hours before dusk and half an

hour thereafter; assuming a 6 p.m. sunset, this would be between 4:30

p.m. and 6:30 p.m. everyday.

 

These times are also known as sandhi kaalam, junction times within a

day. The first is when the night meets the day, the second is when

morning meets afternoon and the third is when day meets night. The

Vedhas say that spiritual activities conducted during these time

periods are particularly effective. Spiritual aspirants should make

use of these potent time periods for rapid spiritual advancement.

 

Within any given day, there are also certain time periods which are

inauspicious. Two of these are Raahu Kaalam and Yama Gandam. The

Vedhas say that it's ideal if we can use these times totally for

worship. If these time periods are used for worship and not for

material activities, they yield manifold spiritual benefits.

 

Raahu Kaalam is dependent on the sunrise and sunset times for your

particular location, you must calculate it for each day using the Sun

rise.

 

Tithi (lunar day):

 

Tithi is defined as the time taken by the moon to gain 12 degrees on

the sun. The moon takes about 30 days (one lunar month) to go around

the earth's ecliptic. In each tithi, the moon travels 12 degrees

ahead of the sun (i.e. if the sun and the moon are present in a

specific position relating to the earth, after one tithi, the moon

would be ahead of the sun by 12 degrees) hence completing 360 (12

degrees x 30 days) degrees in a terrestrial month. In one month,

there are 28 tithis, one poornima or full moon and one amavasya or

new moon. The first tithi begins after the amavasya. There are 14

tithis in the shukla paksha (light half) and 14 in the Krishna paksha

(dark half) of a month (see also Hindu Calendar). The names of the 14

tithis are Prathma (first), Dvitiya (second), Tritiya (third),

Chaturthi (fourth), Panchami (fifth), Shashti (sixth), Saptami

(seventh), Ashtami (eight), Navami (ninth), Dashmi (tenth), Ekadashi

(eleventh), Dvadashi (twelfth), Triodashi (thirteenth), and

Chaturdashi (fourteenth). Because the movement of the moon is

irregular, a tithi ranges from 54 to 65 ghatikas. Hence when a tithi

begins at sunrise and stretches to 60 ghatikas, it is equal to a

solar day. But at times there are two or sometimes three tithis in

one day and conversely one tithi might extend to three days. The

former case is considered to be auspicious while the latter is not

good for occasions like marriages or marching on an invasion.

 

Each tithi has its own spiritual specialities. Here is a sampling:

Amavasya Ideal for pithru worship

Chathurthi Ideal for Ganapathi worship

Panchami Ideal for worshipping the Universal Mother

Sashti Ideal for Muruga worship

Ashtami Ideal for Krishna worship

Navami Ideal for Rama worship

Ekaadasi Ideal for Narayana worship

Dvaadasi Ideal for Narayana worship

Thrayodasi Ideal for Siva worship

Chathurdasi Ideal for Siva and Ganapathi worship

Pournami Best tithi for all worship activities, particularly

Arunachala and Sathguru.

 

Paksham

 

As we saw above, a lunation is divided into 30 tithis. A lunation is

also divided into two phases. The phase between Amavasya and Pournami

is called Sukla Paksham. The phase between Pournami and Amavasya is

called Krishna Paksham.

 

Each paksham has its own spiritual speciality. The Vedhas say that

activities that you want to grow should be started in the Sukla

Paksham, e.g., starting a business. Likewise activities which you do

not want to grow should be conducted in the Krishna Paksham e.g.,

surgery.

 

Karana

 

A karna is half the tithi ,or 360 minutes (6 degrees) of arc. In

thirty tithis comprising a lunar month,there are sixty half-tithis or

karnas.There are four karnas that occur only once in a lunar month.

They are the fixed karnas and called as :

 

1. Shakuni : assigned to the latter half of the 14th day of the

krishna paksha.

 

2. Chatuspada : assigned to the first half of the amavasya (15th day

of the krisna paksha).

 

3. Naga : assigned to the latter half of the amavasya.

 

4. Kimstughna : assigned to the first half of the first day of the

shukla paksha.

 

The remaining 7 karna recur eight times during rest of the lunar

month.Their names are :

 

1. Bava, 2. Balava, 3. Kanlava, 4. Taitila, 5. Gara, 6. Vanija, 7.

Vishti.

 

These karnas recur in regular order starting from the second half of

the first day of the shukla paksha until the first half of the 14th

day of the krishna paksha. Karnas too find their use in rituals and

electional astrology.The Kinstughna, Vishti, Shakuna, Chatushpada,

and Naga Karanas to be avoided.

 

 

Yogas

 

There are twenty seven yogas. Each yoga measures 13.20 degrees of arc

(360/27=13.20).A yoga indicates a sum of the longitudes of the moon

and the sun in multiples of 13.20 deg. Although this measure of a

yoga is the same as that of a nakshatra , there is no link between

the two. Add the niryana longitudes of the sun and the moon and

divide by the first one (vishkumbha) onwards. The 27 yogas are listed

below :

 

1.Vishkumbha,2. Preeti,3. Ayushman,4. Saubhagya,5. Shobhana,6.

Atiganda,7. Sukarma,8. Dhriti,9. Shool,10. Ganda,11. Vriddhi,12.

Dhruva,13. Vyaghata,14. Harshana,15. Vajra,16. Siddhi,17.

Vyatipata,18. Variyana,19. Parigha,20. Shiva,21.Siddha,22. Sadhya,23.

Shubha,24. Shukla,25. Brahma,26. Indra,27. Vaidhriti. Of the 27 Yogas

Vyatipata, Vaidhruti and Parigha Yogas to be avoided for new ventures

or muhurthas.

 

Nakshatram

 

There are 27 nakshatras in the zodiac, each of length 360/27 degrees.

What is commonly referred to as nakshatra, is usually the nakshatra

in which the moon is found.

 

The nakshatra can be determined by the following formula.

nakshatra (lmoon / (360.0/27.0)) + 1 [rounded DOWN to the nearest

integer].

 

The moon revolves around the earth in roughly 27 days. During this

period, the moon traces a path around the sky. The ancients split

this path of the moon into 27 units and gave each unit the name of a

star, star group or constellation. These 27 units are known as

nakshatrams. They are also referred to as brides of Chandra.

 

The 27 nakshatrams are as follows:

 

1 Asvini, 2 Barani or Apa Barani , 3 Krithigai or Krittika , 4

Rohini , 5 Mrigaseersham or Mrigasira , 6 Thiruvaadhirai or Aarudra ,

7 Punarpoosam or Punarvasu , 8 Poosam or Pushya , 9 Aayilyam or

Aslesha , 10 Magam or Magha , 11 Pooram or Poorva Palguni , 12

Uttaram or Uttara Palguni , 13 Hastham or Hastha , 14 Chithirai or

Chitra , 15 Svaathi , 16 Visaakam or Visaka , 17 Anusham or

Anuradha , 18 Kettai or Jyesta , 19 Moolam or Moola , 20 Pooraadam or

Poorvashada , 21 Uttaraadam or Uttarashada , 22 Thiruvonam or

Sravana , 23 Avittam or Sravishta or Dhanista , 24 Sadhayam or

Sathabishak , 25 Poorataadhi or Poorva Broshtapadha , 25 Uttarataadhi

or Uttara Broshtapadha , 27 Revathi. Of the 27 constellations

generally Bharani, Aslesha, Jyestha, to be avoided for new ventures

or muhurthas.

 

Maasam, Ruthu, Ayanam, Varusham

 

A varusham is a solar year. A varusham starts roughly in the middle

of April each year. The varushams repeat in a 60 year cycle. A

varusham is made up of two ayanams. That half when the sun is on a

northward path (generally from the middle of January to the middle of

July) is called Uttara Ayanam or Uttaraayanam (uttara = north). The

other half when the sun is on a southward path (generally from the

middle of July to the middle of January) is called Dakshina Ayanam or

Dakshinaayanam (dakshina = south). A maasam is a solar month. There

are 12 maasams in a varusham. A ruthu is two solar months. There are

six ruthus in a varusham.

 

1. The Kali era: According to one theory, time is divided into yugas,

and each Yuga is further divided into four parts. The present time is

believed to be Kali Yuga, the fourth part. It is believed to have

begun with the death of Krishna, which corresponds to midnight

between February 17 and 18, 3012 BC. Accordingly, this is the sixth

millennium of the Kali era, in which the year 1900 corresponds with

5002. This reference of time is still used in religion and literature.

 

2. The Vikram era: This is believed to have begun on the day of the

coronation of King Vikramaditya. The year 1900 AD corresponds to 1958

of the Vikram era, which is popular in northern India and Gujarat.

 

3. The Saka era: This era is believed to have begun with King

Salivahana's accession to the throne. According to the Saka era, the

year 1900 AD would be 1823. Popular in southern India, this reference

in almost all-astronomical works in Sanskrit written after 500 AD.

The Government calendar also follows the Saka era.