Pañchāṅga · the five limbs

Pañchāṅga means five limbs. It is the frame of the Vedic almanac, the five measures that together fix the quality of a single day: the tithi, the lunar day; the vāra, the weekday; the nakṣatra the Moon stands in; the yoga formed from the Sun and Moon reckoned together; and the karaṇa, the half of a tithi.

Read side by side, the five give the character of a day rather than only its date. Muhūrta, the choosing of times, is built on them. A marriage, a journey, the first furrow of a field are timed to a day whose five limbs agree with the work. A daily panchang lists all five so the reckoning can be done by eye.

A date tells you when. The five limbs tell you what kind of day it is.

Four of the five turn on the Moon, and the almanac follows the Moon more closely than the Sun. The tradition treats the pañchāṅga as descriptive, a reading of the day’s temper, and leaves the choosing to the one who reads it.