Pancanga
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pancanga (pronounced Panchanga) is the Hindu almanac, which follows traditional Vedic cosmology, and presents important astronomical data in tabulated form.
Pancangas are published in India by many learned authors, societies, academies, and even Universities. Different publications differ only minutely, at least for a casual or un-trained reader.
Pancanga, a word of Sanskrit, literally means as "having five limbs". These are:
- Tithi - the lunar day
- Vara - the day of week
- Nakshatra - asterism of the day, that is, the stellar mansion in which Moon in located for an observer on Earth
- Yoga - the angular relationship between Sun and Moon
- Karana - roughly, the angular relationship progression between Sun and Moon
The actual casting of Pancanga involves elaborate mathematical work involving high level of spherical geometry and sound understanding of astronomical phenomena, such as sidereal movements of heavenly bodies. However, in practice the tabulation is done on the basis of short-cut formulations as propounded by ancient Vedic sages and scholars.
A typical Pancanga may state tabulations of positions of Sun, Moon, and other planets for every day of the year on a fixed place (longitude, latitude) and time of day (in 24-hour format IST). The users calculate the remaining data using the their relative difference from this fixed place and time.
There are several pancangas that contain information for more than one year. There is one Vishvavijaya Pancanga that is for 100 years.
