A Panchang ("five limbs") describes the quality of a day by five measurements of the Sun and Moon. It is the first thing many Indian practitioners check before choosing a time for anything important — and in AstroWatch it takes one click: Vedic → Panchang.
The Panchang dialog — the day's limbs with every change up to the next sunrise.
Opening the Panchang
Choose Vedic → Panchang from the menu bar on the Dashboard or the Expanded Chart view. You don't need a profile open — the Panchang is about the sky, not a birth chart. It is calculated for the app's current location: your Home Location, or the open profile's own current location if you have set one.
Which day it opens on depends on where you start:
- From the Natal tab, or anywhere else: today.
- From the Transit tab: the day the time slider is showing. Scrub the timeline to a wedding date, open the Panchang, and you're looking at that day.
You can also open it from the Today's Pañcāṅga dashboard card (see below).
Moving between days
Three small buttons sit on the right of the header:
- ‹ — the previous day.
- Today — back to the day the dialog opened on (if you opened it from the Transit tab, that's the slider's day).
- › — the next day.
Click as quickly as you like; the dialog keeps a fixed height so it never jumps around while you step through a week.
Reading the dialog
The header subtitle tells you exactly what you're looking at — the date, the place and the sunrise–sunset span, for example Tue, Oct 14, 2026 · Islamabad, Pakistan · ☀ 06:12 AM – 05:41 PM.
The summary card
Three lines summarise the day as it stands at sunrise:
- Tithi with its paksha, nakshatra and yoga — e.g. Shukla Ekadashi · Rohini · Siddhi. Purnima and Amavasya appear on their own, without a paksha word.
- Hindu month, ritu and ayana — e.g. Kartika month · Sharad Ritu · Dakshinayana. A leap month shows as Adhika followed by the month name.
- Both calendar years — Vikram Samvat 2083 · Shaka Samvat 1948.
Panchanga · the five limbs
Below the summary, five rows give each limb. The first line of a row is the value in force at sunrise, in bold, followed by till 03:42 PM — the moment it ends. If it changes again before the next sunrise, a smaller then … line follows with its own end time. When an end time falls on the next calendar day, the weekday is added (till Wed 01:10 AM), so a limb that runs past midnight is never ambiguous.
| Limb | What it measures |
|---|---|
| Vara | The weekday — Ravivara, Somavara, Mangalavara, Budhavara, Guruvara, Shukravara, Shanivara. The Vedic day starts at sunrise, so this row has no end time. |
| Tithi | The lunar day: every 12° the Moon gains on the Sun. 30 tithis make a lunar month — Pratipada to Purnima in the bright half (Shukla), Pratipada to Amavasya in the dark half (Krishna). |
| Nakshatra | The Moon's lunar mansion: its sidereal longitude in 27 steps of 13°20′. |
| Yoga | The sum of the Sun's and Moon's longitudes in 27 steps of 13°20′ — Vishkambha, Priti, Ayushman … Vaidhriti. |
| Karana | Half a tithi (6° of elongation). Seven movable karanas repeat through the month (Bava, Balava, Kaulava, Taitila, Gara, Vanija, Vishti); four fixed ones (Kimstughna, Shakuni, Chatushpada, Naga) occupy the half-tithis around the new moon. |
Sun & Moon
Four tiles close the dialog: Sunrise, Sunset, Moonrise and Moonset for the day. A dash means the Moon doesn't rise or set that day at your location.
The footer states the method: Values at sunrise; each runs until the time shown. Drik method · Lahiri ayanamsa · Purnimanta months.
Month, ritu, ayana and samvat
The calendar values follow the standard Drik rules:
- Month (māsa) — named after the sidereal sign of the Sun at the new moon that opens the month (Sun in Pisces → Chaitra). In the Purnimanta reckoning the month changes at the full moon, so during the dark fortnight the Purnimanta name is one month ahead of the Amanta name. A month with no solar ingress (sankranti) between its two new moons is an Adhika (leap) month.
- Ritu — the season, one per pair of months: Vasanta, Grishma, Varsha, Sharad, Hemanta, Shishira.
- Ayana — Uttarayana while the sidereal Sun is in Capricorn through Gemini, Dakshinayana otherwise.
- Samvat — Vikram Samvat and Shaka Samvat, with the new year starting at Chaitra.
Purnimanta or Amanta?
North India ends each month on the full moon (Purnimanta); South and West India end it on the new moon (Amanta). Choose yours in Settings → Calculation → 01 Zodiac & Ephemeris → Panchang → Lunar month system. Tithis, nakshatras and every timing stay exactly the same either way — only the month name in the dark fortnight differs.
The Lunar month system setting, under Settings → Calculation.
Today's Pañcāṅga dashboard card
If you check the Panchang every day, put it on the dashboard. In Vedic mode, open Settings → Customize Dashboard, switch to Vedic Suite Display, and choose Today's Pañcāṅga for the RIGHT · TOP area (see Customize Dashboard & Cards).
Today's Pañcāṅga — the whole day at a glance, live.
The card differs from the dialog in a few useful ways:
- It shows the limbs in force right now, not at sunrise, with to 15:42 and then … on the right of each row. A blinking LIVE dot shows when the card is on the present moment.
- On the Transit tab it follows the time slider; on the Natal tab it always shows now and refreshes every minute.
- It understands the Hindu day: before dawn it still shows the day that began at yesterday's sunrise.
- During Vishti karana an amber BHADRĀ · avoid new work flag appears.
- The calendar grid shows Māsa, Pakṣa, Ṛtu, Vikrama Saṃvat, Śaka Saṃvat and Ayana. Hover MĀSA to see the month name in the other convention.
- A DAY TIMINGS bar from sunrise to sunset marks Rāhu Kāla, Yamagaṇḍa, Gulika Kāla and Abhijit, with a "now" marker, and two tiles show the current Horā and Choghadiya.
- Card times use the 24-hour clock to save space.
Click any limb row or the Panchang pill to open the full dialog; click the Day Timings link or either tile to open Day Timings, Muhurta & Horā.
Tithi & Nakṣatra progress card
A second card focuses on the Moon alone. Choose Tithi & Nakṣatra Progress for the CENTRE · STRIP 2 area of the Vedic layout and it replaces the daśā strip under the chart.
Tithi & Nakṣatra — how far the Moon is through each, and when it moves on.
- A Moon badge gives its sidereal position and the Sun–Moon elongation (☽ 12°34′ ♉ · Δ 145°20′).
- TITHI shows the tithi, its paksha and number, a progress bar (the tick at 50% marks the change of karana), the next tithi and when the current one ends.
- NAKṢATRA shows the nakshatra, its pada, a progress bar with ticks at the pada boundaries, the next nakshatra and its end time.
- Click a column and the chart and time slider jump to the moment that tithi or nakshatra ends — a quick way to see the sky at the change-over.
- On the Natal tab with a profile open, the card shows the Janma Tithi and Janma Nakṣatra — the values at birth — and tells you which Vimśottarī daśā the birth nakshatra starts.
Good to know
- The Panchang always uses the sidereal zodiac and your saved ayanamsa, even if your chart is tropical.
- The day shown runs from that date's sunrise to the next sunrise. If you open the dialog before dawn, step back one day with ‹ to see the Hindu day that is still running.
- Kshaya (dropped) months, a rare event, are not marked.