Sources & Methodology

We calculate every panchang value ourselves from the positions of the Sun and Moon; nothing is copied from other sites.

• Tithi is each 12° the Moon gains on the Sun; the tithi current at local sunrise names the day.
• Nakshatra, yoga and karana follow the standard definitions from the Moon’s and Sun’s sidereal longitudes.
• Sunrise and sunset are computed for the city’s coordinates, with atmospheric refraction. The default location is New Delhi (28.6139° N, 77.2090° E) in Indian Standard Time.
• Rahu Kaal, Yamaganda and Gulika are fixed eighths of the daytime, which eighth depending on the weekday.
• Abhijit Muhurta is the 8th of the 15 muhurtas of the day; Brahma Muhurta is the second-last muhurta of the night.
• Choghadiya divides the day and the night into eight parts each.
• Months use Purnimanta names (a month ends on Purnima), as in North India. When a lunar month contains no sankranti it is an Adhik Maas and is labelled so.

Times are rounded to the minute. Different ephemerides and sunrise conventions differ by a minute or two. Sankranti moments depend on the exact ayanamsa value, and published panchangs can list them up to about ten minutes apart; this changes a date only when the Sun’s entry falls right at sunset.

A festival is tied to a tithi and to the part of the day its puja belongs to. The civil date is the day on which that tithi covers that part of the day. When it covers it on two days, or on neither, we apply the tie-breaking rules a printed panchang uses.

• Ekadashi is kept on the day before Dwadashi is current at sunrise, so the fast can be broken within Dwadashi (the Smarta rule followed by most households).
• Bhadra, the first half of Purnima, is avoided for Raksha Bandhan and Holika Dahan, which can move them to the next morning or evening.
• Makar Sankranti moves to the next day when the Sun enters Makara after sunset.

Festival dates for 2026 come from the curated festival list in the Sanatan Marg app. Dates for later years are generated with the rules above. Before publishing, we confirm that the rules reproduce every date in the 2026 list, and we cross-check them against published panchangs for New Delhi. All 190 dates we compared for 2026–2028 match.

Regional traditions differ. Gujarat, Maharashtra and South India name months the Amanta way, Vaishnava communities sometimes keep Ekadashi or Janmashtami a day later, and dates outside India can shift by a day. Follow your family or temple tradition where it differs.