How we calculate pañcāṅga & muhūrta

The five limbs of the panchang — tithi (lunar day), nakshatra (asterism), yoga (luni-solar combination), karana (half-tithi), and vara (weekday) — are interpreted using documented panchang conventions and Lahiri (Chitrapaksha) ayanamsa unless a page states otherwise.

Ayanamsa is the angular offset between the tropical (sayana) and sidereal (nirayana) zodiac due to the precession of the equinoxes. Lahiri ayanamsa is a widely used Indian calendar convention, but regional almanacs and sampradaya practices may differ.

PujaKit values should be treated as devotional planning references. For major rituals, travel, and temple-specific observances, verify with a local panchang, family priest, temple, or regional almanac authority.

For Indian cities, sunrise and sunset times are based on standard astronomical sunrise/sunset methods and are cross-checked against public Indian references where available.

For international locations, astronomical reference methods may be used to account for coordinates, date, timezone, and horizon assumptions. Atmospheric conditions and local geography can still create small differences.

Sandhya timings (Pratah, Madhyahna, Sayam) are derived from sunrise and sunset using the traditional rule: Pratah sandhya ends 96 minutes after sunrise, Sayam sandhya begins 96 minutes before sunset.

Choghadiya muhurat is calculated from the Drik Panchang convention: the day (sunrise to sunset) and night (sunset to sunrise) are each divided into 8 equal parts of approximately 90 minutes. Each part is assigned one of seven muhurat names in a fixed rotating sequence that begins on Sunday morning with Udveg.

Abhijit muhurat — the most auspicious daily window — falls at local apparent solar noon ±24 minutes. It is considered universal and does not depend on day-of-week conventions. Abhijit is not available on Wednesday (Budi-vaar) per traditional scripture.

For specific event muhurats (marriage, griha pravesh, mundan, etc.), we use a composite scoring of tithi, nakshatra, vara, lagna, and active special yoga combinations, following the convention in the Muhurta Chintamani (16th c.) as adapted in modern almanac practice.

Hindu festival and vrat dates are region-sensitive: the same festival may fall on different days in different parts of India depending on which school of panchang computation the region follows. PujaKit uses the most widely observed convention for each festival.

For Ekadashi and other lunar-tithi-based vrats, we follow the widely accepted Shuddha (pure tithi) convention: if ekadashi tithi is active at sunrise, that day is ekadashi vrat. For Vaishnava communities following the Smarta-Vaishnava convention, we note where the two diverge.

Regional almanac sources used for cross-validation: Panchang Visheshank (Gita Press, Gorakhpur) for the northern calendar, Karnataka Rajyotsava Panchang for Kannada-region dates, and Maharashtra Shri Panchang for Marathi-region dates. Where these diverge, we show the primary and note the alternative.