PanchangaExplainer
How to read a panchang
The five limbs of the Indian almanac, what each one measures, and how to make sense of a printed page.
7 min read · 15 October 2026
Shunya
Panchanga
Plain-language pieces on the Vedic sciences, written and reviewed by the School’s faculty. Every Sanskrit word is glossed the first time it appears.
13 articles
- PanchangaExplainer
Tithi: why the Hindu day is a lunar day
Twelve degrees between Sun and Moon: how the tithi is defined, why it varies in length, and why festivals follow it.
6 min read · 14 October 2026
- Panchanga
The 27 nakshatras: a sky map older than the zodiac
Before the twelve signs reached India, the Vedic sky was read by the Moon's nightly stations. What they are and how they are still used.
7 min read · 13 October 2026
- Panchanga
Muhurta: choosing a time, the Kalpa way
From the ritual sutras to the Muhurta Chintamani: how the tradition thinks about doing an act at a fitting moment.
7 min read · 5 October 2026
- PanchangaExplainer
Why Diwali's date moves every year
Diwali is fixed by the Moon, not the Sun: by the new Moon that closes Ashwina, by the evening it covers, and by the Lakshmi Puja window inside that evening.
7 min read · 3 October 2026
- PanchangaExplainer
Ekadashi: the eleventh lunar day
Why a lunar year has 24 Ekadashis and sometimes 26, and why smarta and vaishnava almanacs can print different dates for the same one.
7 min read · 2 October 2026
- PanchangaExplainer
Navratri, twice a year: Chaitra and Sharad
The two nine-night festivals of the goddess, at the spring and autumn turns of the year, and the rules almanacs use to fix their first and last days.
7 min read · 1 October 2026
- PanchangaExplainer
Rahu Kaal, Gulika and Yamaganda: where the day-divisions come from
Three daily periods printed in almanacs, each an eighth of the daylight chosen by weekday: how they are computed, and why we treat them as later conventions.
6 min read · 28 September 2026
- PanchangaExplainer
Choghadiya: the day in eight parts
How the choghadiya divides daylight and night into eight periods each, why the sequence starts where it does, and where the system is used for muhurta.
7 min read · 27 September 2026
- PanchangaExplainer
Sankranti: the Sun's twelve sign entries
Why Makar Sankranti stays near 14 January while Diwali wanders, how the twelve sankrantis are classed, and the slow drift that will move the date.
6 min read · 26 September 2026
- PanchangaExplainer
Adhika masa: the leap month
Twelve lunar months fall about eleven days short of the solar year. How the calendar inserts a thirteenth month, when it does so, and what the rare lost month is.
6 min read · 25 September 2026
- PanchangaExplainer
Amanta and purnimanta: the Hindu calendar's two month systems
Two ways of deciding where a lunar month ends, why they give one festival two month-names, and which regions use which.
7 min read · 24 September 2026
- Panchanga
Namakshar: the syllables of the nakshatra padas
How a table of 108 syllables came to be used in naming children, what the grihya sutras say about names, and what they do not.
6 min read · 23 September 2026