Panchanga: The Five Limbs of the Indian Calendar പഞ്ചാംഗം: ഇന്ത്യൻ കലണ്ടറിന്റെ അഞ്ച് അംഗങ്ങൾ

Panchanga means "five limbs" - pancha (five) + anga (limb). It is the traditional Indian calendar, and every one of its five elements is computed directly from the real-time positions of the Sun and Moon. This is not mysticism. It is applied positional astronomy. The Panchanga is an astronomical instrument.

1. Tithi (Lunar Day): Every 12° of angular separation between the Moon and Sun marks one Tithi. There are 30 per lunar month - 15 in Shukla Paksha (waxing) and 15 in Krishna Paksha (waning). You can verify it by watching the Moon's phase change each night. Full Moon (Purnima) means 180° separation. New Moon (Amavasya) means 0°.

2. Nakshatra (Lunar Mansion): Which of the 27 star-segments the Moon is in right now. You learned this on Day 9 - you can verify it by finding the Moon and checking which reference star is nearby.

3. Yoga (Luni-Solar Checksum): Add the Sun's exact longitude to the Moon's exact longitude, divide the sum into 27 equal segments. There are 27 Yogas. Ancient astronomers used Yoga as a mathematical checksum - if their computed Yoga didn't match their observation, they knew their Sun or Moon calculation had an error. It was a quality control tool before predicting eclipses.

4. Karana (Half Lunar Day): Half of a Tithi - a new Karana ticks over every time the Moon moves 6° from the Sun. There are 11 Karanas: 4 fixed (occurring once per lunar month) and 7 repeating. Used for finer timekeeping.

5. Vara (Weekday): The standard seven-day week. Each day is named after its ruling graha: Ravi (Sun) → Ravivara (Sunday), Soma (Moon) → Somavara (Monday), and so on.