Panchang (Vedic almanac)

Panchang (पञ्चाङ्ग, “five limbs”) is the Vedic almanac for a specific date and location. Its five core components (tithi, vara, nakshatra, yoga, karana) determine the auspiciousness of a moment — from a wedding to a product launch. AstroWay covers all five plus extra time slots (choghadia, hora, rahu-kaal) through a single API.

What we calculate

• Tithi (lunar day) — 30 tithis per synodic cycle, each is 12° of Moon–Sun separation. The primary marker for most muhurta calculations.
• Karana (half-tithi) — 11 karanas, each 6° of longitude. Classifies the activity profile of the day.
• Yoga (conjunction) — 27 yogas, derived from (Sun longitude + Moon longitude) / 13°20'. Energetic flavour of the day.
• Nakshatra-of-day — the principal lunar mansion for the date (with the transition timestamp if there’s more than one).
• Choghadia — 8 daytime + 8 nighttime slots of ~1.5 h each, labelled “Amrit / Shubh / Labh / Char” (auspicious) and “Kaal / Rog / Udveg” (inauspicious).
• Hora — planetary hours (Vedic variant, starting at sunrise, 24 horas of ~1 h).
• Rahu Kaal — inauspicious interval (1/8 of the daylight, slot depends on weekday).
• Full panchang — all of the above in one request (handy for a daily widget).

Endpoints

Endpoint	Credits	Returns
/v1/vedic/panchang/tithi	10	Current tithi + transition timestamp to next
/v1/vedic/panchang/karana	10	Current karana + transition
/v1/vedic/panchang/yoga	10	Current yoga + transition
/v1/vedic/panchang/nakshatra	10	Day’s nakshatra + pada + transition
/v1/vedic/panchang/choghadia	20	16 slots (8 day + 8 night) with labels
/v1/vedic/panchang/hora	20	24 planetary hours
/v1/vedic/panchang/rahu-kaal	10	Rahu/Yama/Gulika Kaal intervals
/v1/vedic/panchang/full	50	Everything above in one response

Example

cURL

curl -X POST https://api.astroway.info/v1/vedic/panchang/full \
  -H "X-Api-Key: aw_live_your_key_here" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "date": "2026-05-11",
    "timezoneOffset": 5.5,
    "latitude": 28.6139,
    "longitude": 77.2090,
    "ayanamsa": "lahiri"
  }'

Node.js

const r = await fetch('https://api.astroway.info/v1/vedic/panchang/full', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'X-Api-Key': process.env.ASTROWAY_API_KEY!,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    date: '2026-05-11',
    timezoneOffset: 5.5,
    latitude: 28.6139,
    longitude: 77.2090,
    ayanamsa: 'lahiri',
  }),
});
const { data } = await r.json();
console.log(`Tithi: ${data.tithi.name}, Nakshatra: ${data.nakshatra.name}`);
console.log(`Rahu Kaal: ${data.rahuKaal.start} — ${data.rahuKaal.end}`);

Python

import os, requests

r = requests.post(
    'https://api.astroway.info/v1/vedic/panchang/full',
    headers={'X-Api-Key': os.environ['ASTROWAY_API_KEY']},
    json={
        'date': '2026-05-11', 'timezoneOffset': 5.5,
        'latitude': 28.6139, 'longitude': 77.2090,
        'ayanamsa': 'lahiri',
    },
)
data = r.json()['data']
print(f"Tithi: {data['tithi']['name']}, Nakshatra: {data['nakshatra']['name']}")

Sample response

{
  "date": "2026-05-11",
  "sunrise": "05:32:18",
  "sunset": "19:04:42",
  "tithi": {
    "index": 9,
    "name": "Navami",
    "paksha": "Shukla",
    "endsAt": "2026-05-11T11:18:42+05:30"
  },
  "karana": { "index": 17, "name": "Vanija", "endsAt": "2026-05-11T11:18:42+05:30" },
  "yoga":   { "index": 14, "name": "Vajra",  "endsAt": "2026-05-11T16:42:08+05:30" },
  "nakshatra": { "index": 7, "name": "Punarvasu", "pada": 2, "endsAt": "2026-05-11T19:51:15+05:30" },
  "rahuKaal":   { "start": "07:11", "end": "08:51" },
  "yamaganda":  { "start": "10:31", "end": "12:11" },
  "gulika":     { "start": "13:51", "end": "15:31" }
}

Accuracy & sources

• Canonical texts: Surya Siddhanta (for tithi/karana/yoga), Brihat Samhita (for choghadia/muhurta), Phaladipika (for hora). We use the true Moon from Swiss Ephemeris (DE441/440), not the mean — this matters for tithi transitions (the difference can be up to 3 hours).
• Reference cross-check: drikpanchang.com — the largest public panchang source. Our tithi/nakshatra transitions match drikpanchang within ±30 seconds for Lahiri ayanamsa.
• Choghadia — we use the classical sequence of 7 planetary rulers. The first daytime slot’s ruler matches the weekday (Sunday — Sun, etc.).
• Rahu Kaal — fixed 1/8 intervals of sunrise→sunset, with the weekday→slot mapping from classical sources (Monday = slot 2, Tuesday = slot 7, etc.).
• Observer location matters. Nakshatra and tithi transition at the same UTC instant everywhere — but visible dates depend on the timezone. Pass the timezoneOffset of the location where the user wants to read the panchang.

Tip

Daily widget pattern. For a “panchang today” widget, call /v1/vedic/panchang/full once per day (at user’s local midnight) with the same coordinates. Cache for 24h. 50 credits × 30 days = 1,500 credits/month per user — fits in the Indie tier.

Related

• Dashas — long-range periods (years/decades); panchang covers the short range (day-of)
• Shadbala — planetary strength at the moment of the panchang
• Vargas — divisional charts for deeper muhurta analysis
• Accuracy — panchang snapshot tests vs drikpanchang
• Credits — full pricing table
• Authentication — how to obtain an aw_live_* key