A panchang has five limbs. Most people read two of them — tithi and nakshatra — and skip the rest. Yoga and karana are the third and fourth, they are computed from the same two positions everything else uses, and between them they carry several of the rules that traditional timing actually turns on.
Neither has anything to do with the yogas that are planetary combinations in a birth chart. Same word, unrelated technique.
Yoga: the twenty-seven
Add the sidereal longitude of the Sun to that of the Moon. Divide the total by 13 degrees 20 minutes. The result, rounded up, is the yoga number, from 1 to 27.
That division is the same 13°20′ that defines a nakshatra, which is why there are 27 of each. But the two measure different things: a nakshatra is where the Moon is, while a yoga is where the Sun and Moon are jointly, so a yoga completes in about a day rather than tracking the Moon alone.
| No. | Name | No. | Name | No. | Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vishkambha | 10 | Ganda | 19 | Parigha |
| 2 | Priti | 11 | Vriddhi | 20 | Shiva |
| 3 | Ayushman | 12 | Dhruva | 21 | Siddha |
| 4 | Saubhagya | 13 | Vyaghata | 22 | Sadhya |
| 5 | Shobhana | 14 | Harshana | 23 | Shubha |
| 6 | Atiganda | 15 | Vajra | 24 | Shukla |
| 7 | Sukarma | 16 | Siddhi | 25 | Brahma |
| 8 | Dhriti | 17 | Vyatipata | 26 | Indra |
| 9 | Shula | 18 | Variyana | 27 | Vaidhriti |
Nine of the twenty-seven are treated as inauspicious and avoided for important work: Vishkambha, Atiganda, Shula, Ganda, Vyaghata, Vajra, Vyatipata, Parigha and Vaidhriti. Vyatipata and Vaidhriti are the two singled out as most difficult, and the classical texts treat both as unfit for anything begun deliberately.
The names carry their meanings fairly transparently — Priti is affection, Ayushman long life, Saubhagya good fortune, Siddhi accomplishment, while Shula is a spear, Vajra a thunderbolt and Ganda a knot.
Karana: half a tithi
A karana is half a tithi — six degrees of separation between the Moon and the Sun rather than twelve. Sixty karanas therefore fill a lunar month.
Eleven names cover those sixty, in an unusual arrangement. Seven of them are movable and repeat eight times each, which accounts for fifty-six. The remaining four are fixed, occur exactly once per lunar month, and cluster around the new moon.
| Type | Karanas |
|---|---|
| Movable (chara), 8 repetitions each | Bava, Balava, Kaulava, Taitila, Gara, Vanija, Vishti |
| Fixed (sthira), once per month | Shakuni, Chatushpada, Naga, Kimstughna |
The one to know is Vishti, better known as Bhadra. It is the only karana treated as thoroughly inauspicious, and because it is one of the seven movable karanas it comes round eight times a month, lasting roughly half a tithi each time — nine to thirteen hours.
Bhadra is avoided for marriage, for travel, for beginning construction and for opening anything. The tradition adds a refinement that is genuinely used: Bhadra is held to be harmful only in the world where it is deemed to be residing at that time, which alternates between heaven, earth and the underworld according to the sign the Moon occupies. Bhadra while the Moon is in Aries, Taurus, Gemini or Virgo is read as residing on earth and therefore as the version that matters.
Where the five limbs fit together
| Limb | Computed from | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Tithi | Moon minus Sun, per 12° | 30 |
| Nakshatra | Moon alone, per 13°20′ | 27 |
| Yoga | Moon plus Sun, per 13°20′ | 27 |
| Karana | Moon minus Sun, per 6° | 11 names, 60 instances |
| Vara | Weekday from sunrise | 7 |
Four of the five are functions of two numbers: where the Sun is and where the Moon is. The fifth is the weekday. That is the entire panchang, and it is why the panchang page here can compute it rather than look it up.
It also explains a limitation worth being honest about. The panchang describes the Sun and Moon; it says nothing about the other seven grahas. For anything that needs the full chart — muhurta for a major undertaking, for instance — the five limbs are the first filter, not the whole assessment.
Using them in practice
The working sequence for timing something is short.
- Rule out the Rikta tithis — the 4th, 9th and 14th of either fortnight.
- Rule out the nine inauspicious yogas, and Vyatipata and Vaidhriti above all.
- Rule out Vishti karana, checking whether it is the version residing on earth.
- Check the nakshatra against the specific activity, since each activity has its own list.
- Avoid Rahu Kaal within the chosen day.
Applied strictly this eliminates a great deal of the calendar, which is the intended effect — the tradition is more concerned with avoiding the wrong moment than with finding a perfect one.
Common questions
Is the panchang yoga the same as a Raja Yoga?
No. Panchang yoga is one of twenty-seven daily divisions computed from the Sun and Moon. A Raja Yoga is a combination of planets in a birth chart. The word yoga means combination or union and is used for both, which is unhelpful but longstanding.
Why does the karana list have eleven names for sixty slots?
Because seven of them cycle repeatedly through the month while four occur only once, at fixed points around the new moon. Kimstughna occupies the second half of the last tithi of the dark fortnight, and Shakuni, Chatushpada and Naga fill the slots around it.
Does the birth yoga mean anything in a chart?
Some practitioners read it, and the yoga at birth carries a traditional description in the same way the birth tithi does. It is a minor input beside the Moon nakshatra, which is what drives the dasha sequence.
Do yoga and karana change during the day?
Both do. A yoga lasts roughly a day but rarely aligns with sunrise, and a karana lasts about half a tithi, so two or three karanas can fall within one calendar day. A panchang names the one in force at sunrise and usually also gives the times at which each ends.
The calculations described here are arithmetic on the Sun and Moon longitudes and can be checked. The qualities assigned to each yoga and karana are the traditional attributions of the muhurta literature, not predictions about events.
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