Hindu Panchang Calendar May 2016 — Chennai
Tithi, nakshatra, paksha and the month's festivals and vrats
May 2016
- Vikram Samvat
- 2073
- Shaka Samvat
- 1938
- Masa
- Vaishakha
- City
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Common questions
What festivals and vrats fall in this month?
They are listed beside the calendar, each on the day it is kept. Ekadashi comes twice a lunar month, Pradosh twice, and Sankashti and Vinayaka Chaturthi once each — so a month carries about ten entries even when no major festival lands in it.
Why does the tithi here differ from the one on the day page?
A calendar cell names the tithi that day's sunrise saw, because that is what dates the day. The day page names the tithi running at the moment you open it. Both are right, and on any day whose tithi turns between sunrise and now they will differ.
When is Amavasya and when is Purnima?
Amavasya is the new moon, the last tithi of the waning half. Purnima is the full moon, the last of the waxing half. Both are marked on the grid and both appear in the list beside it.
Which Hindu month does this cover?
A Gregorian month usually straddles two lunar months, so the masa named in the header is the one in force in the middle of it. The paksha printed on each cell tells you which half of its lunar month that day sits in.
Is the calendar different in another city?
Yes. A tithi begins and ends at a fixed moment everywhere, but whether that moment falls before or after sunrise depends on where you are — so a tithi can date one day in Delhi and the next in Chennai. The calendar is computed from your chosen city's latitude and longitude.
See this month for another city
Keeping this panchang abroad
About the Panchang calendar
What a panchang is
Panchang means five limbs — pancha and anga. It is the Hindu luni-solar almanac, built from the positions of the Sun and the Moon. Its five limbs are tithi, vara, nakshatra, yoga and karana, and between them they date every festival, fast and auspicious window.
The five limbs
Tithi is the lunar day, one for each 12° the Moon pulls ahead of the Sun; thirty make a lunar month. Vara is the weekday. Nakshatra is which of the 27 lunar mansions the Moon stands in. Yoga comes from the Sun and Moon added together, karana is half a tithi. This calendar prints the tithi and nakshatra of each sunrise.
Months and fortnights
Twelve lunar months run Chaitra, Vaishakha, Jyeshtha, Ashadha, Shravana, Bhadrapada, Ashwina, Kartika, Margashirsha, Pausha, Magha, Phalguna. Each splits into two pakshas: Shukla, the waxing half ending at the full moon, and Krishna, the waning half ending at the new moon. Every two or three years an extra month, Adhika Masa, is inserted to keep the lunar year with the solar one.
Vikram Samvat and Shaka Samvat
Two eras are in use. Vikram Samvat runs about 57 years ahead of the Gregorian year; Shaka Samvat runs about 78 behind it, and is India's national calendar. Both are shown in the header, and both turn at Chaitra Shukla Pratipada rather than on 1 January.
Amanta and purnimanta
There are two ways to end a lunar month. The south uses amanta, ending at the new moon; the north uses purnimanta, ending at the full moon. The days are identical either way — only the month a dark-half festival is named for differs, which is why the same festival can carry two month names.