Today’s panchang
Free, no sign-up · Facts checked 18 Oct 2026
Tithi, nakshatra, Tamil date, Rahu kaal and the next Pournami for your city.
Work it out
Tithi at sunrise, Chennai
Shukla Saptami
Shukla paksha · till 8:29 am · Aippasi 1
On Sun, 18 Oct 2026 in Chennai, the tithi at sunrise (6:00 am) is Shukla Saptami, till 8:29 am, and the nakshatra is Purva Ashadha, till 12:49 pm (IST).
- Nakshatra
- Purva Ashadha till 12:49 pm
- Tamil date
- Aippasi 1, Parabhava
- Lunar month
- Ashvina
- Rahu kaal
- 4:20 pm – 5:48 pm
Chandrashtamam today: Rishabam (Vrishabha) rasi till 7:33 pm, then Mithunam (Mithuna). The moon is in their 8th sign.
What it is made of
Point at a part to see it on its own.
From your numbers
Worked out from what you entered. Try one.
- Pournami tithi runs from Sun 25 Oct, 11:56 am to Mon 26 Oct, 9:42 am. Girivalam at Tiruvannamalai is usually walked while it runs.
- Abhijit muhurta, the midday good time, is 11:30 am – 12:18 pm. Brahma muhurta before sunrise is 4:22 am – 5:11 am.
- Next Ekadasi tithi: Wed 21 Oct, 2:12 pm to Thu 22 Oct, 2:48 pm. Fasts usually follow the Ekadashi at sunrise.
Coming up
The next Pournami, Amavasai, Ekadasi, Pradosham (Trayodashi), Sashti and Sankatahara Chathurthi from this date, placed by the day their tithi starts. Tap a flag for its start and end time.
- EkadasiShukla Ekadashi tithi from Wed 21 Oct, 2:12 pm to Thu 22 Oct, 2:48 pm (IST).
- PradoshamShukla Trayodashi tithi from Fri 23 Oct, 2:36 pm to Sat 24 Oct, 1:37 pm (IST).
- PournamiFull moon (Purnima) tithi from Sun 25 Oct, 11:56 am to Mon 26 Oct, 9:42 am (IST).
- ChathurthiSankatahara Chaturthi (Krishna Chaturthi) tithi from Thu 29 Oct, 1:07 am to Thu 29 Oct, 10:11 pm (IST).
- AmavasaiNew moon (Amavasya) tithi from Sun 8 Nov, 11:28 am to Mon 9 Nov, 12:32 pm (IST).
- SashtiShukla Shashthi tithi from Sat 14 Nov, 11:24 pm to Mon 16 Nov, 2:02 am (IST).
Panchang for 18 Oct 2026, Chennai (IST)
Always open, in full.
| Part | Details |
|---|---|
| Tithi | Shukla Saptami, till 8:29 am, then Shukla Ashtami |
| Paksha | Shukla (waxing moon) |
| Nakshatra | Purva Ashadha, pada 3, till 12:49 pm |
| Yoga | Sukarma, till 11:56 pm |
| Karana | Vanija, till 8:29 am |
| Vara (weekday) | Sunday: Ravivara, Tamil Nyayiru |
| Tamil date | Aippasi 1, Parabhava year |
| Lunar month | Amanta Ashvina · Purnimanta Ashvina |
| Sun sign (sidereal) | Thulam (Tula) |
| Moon sign (sidereal) | Dhanusu (Dhanu), till 7:33 pm |
| Chandrashtamam | For Rishabam (Vrishabha) rasi till 7:33 pm, then Mithunam (Mithuna) |
| Sunrise / sunset | 6:00 am / 5:48 pm |
| Moonrise / moonset | rise 12:22 pm · set 11:48 pm (sunrise to sunrise) |
| Day / night length | 11 h 49 min / 12 h 11 min |
| Brahma muhurta | 4:22 am – 5:11 am |
| Abhijit muhurta | 11:30 am – 12:18 pm |
| Rahu kaal (Rahu kalam) | 4:20 pm – 5:48 pm |
| Yamaganda (Emagandam) | 11:54 am – 1:23 pm |
| Gulika (Kuligai) | 2:51 pm – 4:20 pm |
| Durmuhurtam | 4:14 pm – 5:01 pm |
| Ayana | Dakshinayanam (sun moving south) |
| Moon lit | 44% at sunrise |
Full breakdown
- Nakshatra
- Purva Ashadha till 12:49 pm
- Tamil date
- Aippasi 1, Parabhava
- Lunar month
- Ashvina
- Rahu kaal
- 4:20 pm – 5:48 pm
- Yoga
- Sukarma till 11:56 pm
- Karana
- Vanija till 8:29 am
- Sunrise / sunset
- 6:00 am / 5:48 pm
- Moon sign
- Magaram from 7:33 pm
Guide
A panchang (Tamil: panchangam, “five limbs”) describes each day by five things: the tithi (lunar day), the vara (weekday), the nakshatra (the moon’s star group), the yoga and the karana. Families use it to fix a puja, a griha pravesam, a first day at school or a trip, and to know when Pournami, Amavasai, Ekadasi or Pradosham falls. This free tool works out the panchang for your city on any date from 1900 to 2100, in IST.
A morning in Kallakurichi
Every month, Meenakshi, a schoolteacher in Kallakurichi, plans the family’s trip to Tiruvannamalai for Girivalam. Her printed calendar marks Pournami on one day, her neighbour’s app on the next. She opens the tool on the date, picks Kallakurichi, and reads the Coming up card: Pournami tithi runs from Sunday 11:56 am to Monday 9:42 am. That settles it: they walk on Sunday night, while the tithi runs. The same card shows the next Pradosham for her mother and the next Ekadasi for her father’s fast.
The five limbs, in plain words
| Limb | What it measures | How many |
|---|---|---|
| Tithi | The moon’s angle ahead of the sun, in steps of 12° | 30 in a lunar month |
| Vara | The weekday, from sunrise to the next sunrise | 7 |
| Nakshatra | The moon’s position among 27 equal star groups of 13°20′ | 27, each with 4 padas |
| Yoga | The sun and moon’s positions added together, in steps of 13°20′ | 27 |
| Karana | Half a tithi (6°) | 60 in a month (11 names) |
The first 15 tithis are Shukla paksha (the waxing moon, ending at Purnima) and the next 15 Krishna paksha (waning, ending at Amavasya).
How this tool works it out
- Sunrise and sunset for your city: the moment the top edge of the sun meets the horizon, allowing 0.833° for air refraction and the sun’s size. A panchang day starts at sunrise, so every limb is read at local sunrise, with the time it ends.
- Sun and moon positions: the sun from the VSOP87 planetary theory (Bretagnon and Francou, 1988) and the moon from Jean Meeus’s Astronomical Algorithms (2nd edition, 1998, chapter 47), good to a few hundredths of a degree for 1900–2100.
- Sidereal (nirayana) positions for nakshatra, yoga and the rasis use the Lahiri (Chitrapaksha) ayanamsa, the one adopted by the Calendar Reform Committee (1955) and used in the Rashtriya Panchang of the Positional Astronomy Centre, Kolkata: about 24.2° in 2026.
- Tamil date: the Tamil solar month is the sidereal sign the sun is in at sunset; when the sun enters a new sign (sankranti) before sunset, the new month starts that day. Aippasi 1 fell on 18 October in 2026, and the year from Chithirai 2026 is Parabhava.
- Lunar month: named from the sun’s sign at the new moon that starts it (amanta, used in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra). North India counts from full moon to full moon (purnimanta), so in Krishna paksha its month name runs one ahead. A lunar month with no sankranti in it is adhika (extra); 2026 had Adhika Jyeshtha from mid-May to mid-June.
- Muhurtas: the daytime is split into 15 muhurtas. Abhijit is the 8th (none on Wednesday by tradition), Brahma muhurta the 14th of the night, ending one muhurta before sunrise. Rahu kaal, Yamaganda and Gulika are eighths of the daytime, fixed per weekday.
- Chandrashtamam: when the moon is in the 8th sign from someone’s birth rasi. The tool names the rasi whose people are in chandrashtamam, and when it moves on.
How accurate is it?
We checked the tool against drikpanchang.com in October 2026 for Chennai (21 October), Madurai (24 November) and Delhi (21 June 2026). Sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset, Rahu kaal, Yamaganda, Gulika, Abhijit, Brahma muhurta and Durmuhurtam agreed to the minute or within one minute, and tithi, nakshatra and yoga end times within one minute (Drik shows the minute that has started; we round to the nearest minute). Tithi end times also agree within a minute with an independent check using the PyEphem astronomy library.
Common mistakes
- Reading the tithi at midnight. A panchang names the day by the tithi at sunrise. A tithi that starts at 11 am belongs to the next day’s sunrise only if it is still running then.
- Using another city’s times. Sunrise in Chennai and Coimbatore differs by about 13 minutes, and so do Rahu kaal and the muhurtas.
- Expecting the festival date to equal the tithi date. Festivals follow their own rules (the tithi at moonrise for Sankatahara Chaturthi, at sunset for Pradosham, the nakshatra for Karthigai Deepam), and temples announce their own dates.
- Mixing amanta and purnimanta months. The same day can be Ashvina in Chennai and Kartika in Varanasi; both are right in their own system.
The Next 7 days table gives a week at a glance. For the whole day’s good and bad times, see the Rahu kaal and choghadiya tools.
Sources
Facts checked 18 Oct 2026BOOKAstronomical Algorithms, 2nd edition (Jean Meeus) · Willmann-Bell (catalogue record: Open Library)1998
Sun (VSOP87 main terms) and Moon (chapter 47) positions behind tithi, nakshatra, yoga, karana, sunrise and moonrise. 1998
CSIRReport of the Calendar Reform Committee · Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), chair M. N. Saha (scan: GI1955
Recommended working out tithis and nakshatras from modern astronomy instead of the old siddhantic rules; the basis of the Lahiri ayanamsa. 1955
IMDRashtriya Panchang · Positional Astronomy Centre, India Meteorological Department2026
India’s national almanac: tithi, nakshatra and yoga from modern astronomy with nirayana (sidereal) positions, the approach the tool follows. checked 18 Oct 2026
DRIKDay Panchang · Drik Panchang (drikpanchang.com)2026
Secondary: the panchang the tool was compared with (Chennai, Madurai, Delhi, Oct–Nov 2026); also where durmuhurtam and the other day marks are placed. checked 18 Oct 2026
Questions
What is today’s tithi?
The answer at the top is the tithi running at sunrise in your city, with the time it ends in IST. Change the date to see any day from 1900 to 2100.
What is the difference between amanta and purnimanta months?
Amanta months run from new moon to new moon and are used in South and West India; purnimanta months run from full moon to full moon in North India. In Shukla paksha both give the same name; in Krishna paksha the purnimanta name is one month ahead.
What is chandrashtamam?
Chandrashtamam is the two to two and a half days when the moon passes through the 8th sign from your birth rasi. Many families avoid starting important work then. The tool names today’s rasi and when the moon moves on.
How are Amavasai and Pournami dates decided?
By the tithi. Pournami is the 15th tithi of Shukla paksha and Amavasai the 15th of Krishna paksha. Because a tithi can start in the afternoon and end the next morning, calendars that use the tithi at sunrise and those that use the tithi span can name different days. The tool shows the full start and end.
Why do panchang times change by city?
Sunrise, sunset, Rahu kaal and the muhurtas follow your local sun, so Guwahati and Mumbai differ by over an hour. Tithi and nakshatra end at the same moment everywhere, but the tithi at sunrise can differ between cities on a day it changes near dawn.
Is there a nalla neram (Gowri) list here?
Not yet. Tamil calendars take nalla neram from the Gowri panchangam table, which we are still checking against a printed panchangam. For now the tool shows Abhijit, Brahma muhurta, Rahu kalam, Emagandam, Kuligai and Durmuhurtam.
Why does my printed calendar differ by a minute?
Calendars round differently and some use a slightly different sunrise rule or ayanamsa. When a tithi ends within a few minutes of sunrise, one calendar can name the old tithi and another the new one: check the end time shown here.