The Panchang (Sanskrit panch-anga, "five limbs") is the classical Hindu almanac that describes the quality of a given moment through five astronomical quantities: tithi, vara, nakshatra, yoga, and karana. Each limb is a deterministic function of the Sun's and Moon's positions, which means a Panchang is not a lookup table you store and serve, but something you compute from an ephemeris at a specific time and place. This article explains what each limb is, how it is derived, and how to obtain all five from the Vedika API.
Why the Panchang is a computation, not a lookup
Almanac apps often ship a precomputed table for one timezone, which silently breaks for any other location. Every limb of the Panchang depends on real planetary geometry at the observer's coordinates, so the correct approach is to compute it from live solar and lunar longitudes. Vedika exposes this across its computation surface, part of a catalogue of 700+ API operations spanning 25 domains, with the five limbs derived from the same positions used for full chart casting.
The underlying positions come from the XALEN Ephemeris, Vedika's own open-source astronomical engine (Apache-2.0; crates.io/xalen, PyPI xalen, npm @xalen/wasm). It is validated against JPL DE440 and swetest reference data, with no chart deviating beyond 0.1 degrees across a reproducible JPL DE440 benchmark. That figure describes astronomical precision of the coordinates; how the limbs are interpreted for timing follows classical Jyotish texts.
The five limbs, one at a time
1. Tithi (lunar day)
A tithi is defined by the angular distance between the Moon and the Sun. Each 12-degree increment of that separation is one tithi, so a full synodic cycle of 360 degrees yields 30 tithis, split into the waxing (Shukla) and waning (Krishna) fortnights. Because the Moon's apparent speed varies, the wall-clock length of a tithi is not fixed; it can be shorter or longer than a solar day. This is why tithi must be derived from instantaneous longitudes rather than counted off a calendar. The framework of tithi and the lunar month is laid out in the Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra (BPHS).
2. Vara (weekday)
Vara is the weekday, but with a subtlety that trips up naive implementations: in the traditional reckoning the day runs from local sunrise to the next sunrise, not from midnight. So a moment just after midnight may still belong to the previous vara until the Sun rises. Each vara is governed by a planetary lord (Sunday by the Sun, Monday by the Moon, and so on), a correspondence as old as Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos in the Western tradition and shared by Jyotish practice.
3. Nakshatra (lunar mansion)
The ecliptic is divided into 27 nakshatras of 13 degrees 20 minutes each. The nakshatra of a moment is the one occupied by the Moon. Each is further split into four padas (quarters) and carries a ruling planet and presiding deity. Nakshatra is central to muhurta (electional timing) and to Vimshottari dasha, and its classical treatment appears across BPHS and texts such as Phaladeepika.
4. Yoga
Yoga here is the Panchang limb, distinct from the chart yogas that describe planetary combinations. It is computed by adding the longitudes of the Sun and Moon and dividing the 360-degree sum into 27 segments. The result names one of 27 yogas (Vishkambha, Priti, and so on), each carrying a favourable or inauspicious character used in timing decisions.
5. Karana (half-tithi)
A karana is half of a tithi, so each tithi contains two karanas and a lunar month contains 60. There are 11 karana names in total: four are fixed (occurring once per month) and seven are movable (repeating through the cycle). Karana refines the granularity of timing below the tithi level.
| Limb | Derived from | Count in a cycle |
|---|---|---|
| Tithi | Moon minus Sun longitude, per 12 degrees | 30 per lunar month |
| Vara | Weekday from local sunrise | 7 |
| Nakshatra | Moon's longitude, per 13 degrees 20 minutes | 27 |
| Yoga | Sun plus Moon longitude, per 13 degrees 20 minutes | 27 |
| Karana | Half of each tithi | 60 per lunar month |
Computing the Panchang with the API
The V2 computation surface accepts a flat payload describing the moment: datetime, latitude, longitude, and timezone. Pass these for the instant you care about and you get the limbs computed against that observer's location. Authentication is a single header, x-api-key: vk_live_*, and the base URL is https://api.vedika.io. You can try the shapes with no key at all on the free sandbox before wiring in billing.
curl -X POST https://api.vedika.io/v2/astrology/panchang \
-H "x-api-key: vk_live_your_key" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"datetime": "2026-06-20T06:15:00",
"latitude": 19.0760,
"longitude": 72.8777,
"timezone": "Asia/Kolkata"
}'From a server runtime, the same call in JavaScript looks like this:
const moment = {
datetime: "2026-06-20T06:15:00",
latitude: 19.0760,
longitude: 72.8777,
timezone: "Asia/Kolkata",
};
const res = await fetch("https://api.vedika.io/v2/astrology/panchang", {
method: "POST",
headers: {
"x-api-key": process.env.VEDIKA_API_KEY,
"Content-Type": "application/json",
},
body: JSON.stringify(moment),
});
const panchang = await res.json();
// panchang.tithi, panchang.vara, panchang.nakshatra,
// panchang.yoga, panchang.karana
If you want a narrated reading of the moment rather than raw fields, send the same birth or event details to the main query endpoint:
import os, requests
resp = requests.post(
"https://api.vedika.io/api/v1/astrology/query",
headers={"x-api-key": os.environ["VEDIKA_API_KEY"]},
json={
"question": "What is the Panchang for this moment and is it favourable to begin travel?",
"birthDetails": {
"datetime": "2026-06-20T06:15:00",
"latitude": 19.0760,
"longitude": 72.8777,
"timezone": "Asia/Kolkata",
},
"speed": "fast",
},
)
print(resp.json())
The query path narrates over computed values rather than inventing them, so the limbs you read in the answer are the same ones the computation surface returns. For streaming responses, the SSE variant lives at /api/v1/astrology/query/stream.
Location and timezone matter
The most common integration bug is treating the Panchang as global. It is not. Vara boundaries track local sunrise, and the transition timestamps of tithi, nakshatra, yoga, and karana are reported against the caller's timezone. A moment that is still one tithi in one timezone may already be the next tithi a few zones east. Always pass an accurate latitude, longitude, and IANA timezone string, and prefer the observer's actual coordinates over a country centroid when sunrise precision matters for muhurta.
Where the Panchang fits in the wider API
The five limbs are the building blocks for electional astrology (muhurta), festival and fasting calendars, and dasha calculations that begin from the natal nakshatra. Because Vedika serves Vedic (sidereal), Western (tropical), and KP from one API, you can compute the sidereal Panchang alongside a tropical chart or a KP analysis without switching providers, and surface results in any of 30 supported languages including 14 Indic scripts.
For agent and assistant workflows, the same data is reachable through the public astrology MCP server (npx @vedika-io/mcp-server), so an MCP-compatible client can request the Panchang for a date as one of its available tools.
Honest comparison
Several established providers expose Panchang data. Prokerala (around $19) and AstrologyAPI.com (around $29) offer mature, well-documented Panchang endpoints, and RoxyAPI (around $39) covers a broad calculation set. Where Vedika differs is the combination under one key: three astrology systems in a single API, an in-house open-source ephemeris you can audit and self-host, citation-grounded interpretation, and the MCP server for assistant integration. Pricing starts at $12/month (Starter), with Professional at $60, Business at $120, and Enterprise at $240, plus per-query usage of roughly $0.01 to $0.05. See pricing for the current plan limits.
Key facts
- The five limbs of Panchang are tithi, vara, nakshatra, yoga, and karana.
- Tithi is the Moon-minus-Sun longitude per 12 degrees: 30 per lunar month.
- Nakshatra (27 mansions of 13°20′) is set by the Moon's longitude; yoga (27) by the Sun-plus-Moon sum; karana is a half-tithi (60 per month).
- Vara (weekday) runs from local sunrise, not midnight, so it is location-dependent.
- Compute all five from the V2 surface with a flat
datetime,latitude,longitude,timezonepayload; auth withx-api-key: vk_live_*. - Positions come from the XALEN Ephemeris, validated against JPL DE440 and swetest with no chart beyond 0.1 degrees in a reproducible JPL DE440 benchmark.
- Vedic, Western, and KP systems are available from the same API across 700+ operations.
Next steps
Prototype against the free sandbox with no key, read the endpoint shapes in the docs, then move to a live key when you are ready to bill. If you are computing electional timing on top of the Panchang, the limbs above are exactly the fields your muhurta logic should branch on.
FAQ
What are the five limbs of Panchang?
Tithi (lunar day), vara (weekday), nakshatra (lunar mansion), yoga (a Sun-Moon longitudinal combination), and karana (half of a tithi). Together they characterise a moment for calendar and muhurta use.
How is tithi calculated?
From the angular separation between the Moon and the Sun, with each 12-degree step counting as one tithi, giving 30 across a synodic month. Because lunar speed varies, tithi length changes, so it is computed from live longitudes.
Which endpoint returns the Panchang?
The V2 computation surface under /v2/astrology/ with a flat moment payload returns the limbs; POST /api/v1/astrology/query narrates over the same computed values for a human-readable answer.
Does the Panchang change by location?
Yes. Vara follows local sunrise and the other limbs report transitions in the caller's timezone, so accurate coordinates and timezone are required.