Tamil Panchangam Tomorrow — Singapore

What a panchangam is, and how to read this page

A panchangam (Sanskrit pañcāṅga, “five limbs”) is the traditional Indian almanac. For any date and place it records five quantities that together describe the day: the tithi (lunar day), the nakshatra (the Moon’s star), the yoga (a Sun–Moon combination), the karana (half a tithi) and the vara (weekday). Tamil families consult it for the timing of everything from a house-warming to a journey, and it is the backbone of the daily rasi palan and of every muhurta.

All five limbs change at precise moments, and those moments depend on where you are. The tithi and nakshatra shown here are the ones in force at sunrise in Singapore, which is the classical convention: the limb ruling at sunrise is the limb of the day. Sunrise and sunset themselves are computed for Singapore’s latitude and longitude, so a panchangam printed for Chennai is not the right one for London or Toronto — the daylight windows can differ by hours.

How to use each element: the tithi tells you the lunar phase (Purnima, Amavasya, Ekadashi and the fourth and eighth tithis carry observances of their own). The nakshatra is what pandits match against your birth star for muhurta and what the day’s rasi palan is written from. The yoga and karana refine the quality of the day — Vishti (Bhadra) karana and the yogas Vyatipata and Vaidhriti are conventionally avoided for beginnings. The vara fixes the ruling planet and, through it, the three windows below.

Rahu Kalam, Yamagandam and Kuligai are each one-eighth of the sunrise-to-sunset span, always in the same slot for a given weekday. They are windows to avoid for starting something new; routine work, meals and travel already under way are unaffected. Gowri nalla neram divides the same day into eight named periods, of which Amirtham, Laabam, Dhanam, Sugam and Udhayam are the good ones. Finally the horai table lists the twelve planetary hours of day and night — Jupiter, Venus, Mercury and Moon hours are the ones to prefer.

Zodian computes these figures fresh for each city and date from the actual positions of the Sun and Moon, rather than copying a printed table, which is why the times here agree with a good Tamil daily calendar to the minute and stay correct for cities outside India.