Five connected calendar words
What is a pañcāṅga?
A pañcāṅga is a calendar or almanac organized around five standard parts. Each part answers a different question about a place and time.
The five aṅgas · five limbs
Meet the five parts of a pañcāṅga.
Tithilunar day
One of thirty steps in the changing angle between the Moon and Sun.
What is a tithi? →Vāraweekday
The familiar seven-day cycle, named in Sanskrit.
Meet the seven vāras →Nakṣatrathe Moon’s star section
One of 27 equal sections used to describe the Moon’s sidereal position.
What is a nakṣatra? →Yogaa calculated classification
One of 27 calculated results from the sum of the Sun’s and Moon’s sidereal longitudes.
What is yoga? →Karaṇaa calculated half-tithi
A finer subdivision of the same Moon–Sun calculation used for tithi.
What is karaṇa? →How the Sanskrit word is built
Pañca means five; aṅga means limb or component.
pañca + aṅga → pañcāṅga
When the final a of pañca meets the first a of aṅga, they join as the long vowel ā. The name therefore means “five limbs” or “five components.”