Karana — Half a Tithi

We come to the last of the five limbs — the karana (करण). The Sanskrit word means “doing, making, instrument.” A karana is the smallest of the time-divisions in the daily panchang, and the simplest to define: it is half a tithi.

Since each tithi is 12° of Sun-Moon angular separation, each karana is 6°. There are 30 tithis in a lunar month, so there are 60 karanas in a lunar month — two karanas per tithi. The simple definition. The twist comes from how the 60 karanas are named.

Eleven karana names, sixty slots

You might expect 60 different karana names. Instead, there are only eleven. Seven of them are chara (चर)— “moving” — and recur cyclically through the month. Four of them are sthira (स्थिर)— “fixed” — and appear only once each in specific positions. The arrangement is precise.

The four fixed karanas

The four fixed karanas occupy the four slots immediately bracketing the new moon (Amavasya):

• Shakuni (शकुनि)— “bird, omen.” Second half of Krishna Chaturdashi (the 14th tithi of the dark fortnight).
• Chatushpada (चतुष्पाद)— “four-footed.” First half of Amavasya (the new moon tithi).
• Naga (नाग)— “serpent.” Second half of Amavasya.
• Kimstughna (किंस्तुघ्न)— “destroyer-of-what?” First half of Shukla Pratipada (the 1st tithi of the next bright fortnight).

These four span the “dark” transition from the end of one lunar month to the beginning of the next — across the new moon. They are unique to that monthly transition. Outside of these four positions, you will never see Shakuni, Chatushpada, Naga, or Kimstughna.

The seven movable karanas

The remaining 56 karana slots (60 − 4) are filled by seven names, repeating cyclically eight times each (8 × 7 = 56). In traditional listing order:

1. Bava (बव) — the first movable karana.
2. Balava (बालव).
3. Kaulava (कौलव).
4. Taitila (तैतिल).
5. Gara (गर).
6. Vanija (वणिज).
7. Vishti (विष्टि) — also called Bhadra (भद्रा).

The cycle starts in the second half of Shukla Pratipada and runs for the next 56 half-tithi positions, completing eight full Bava-to-Vishti cycles before reaching Krishna Chaturdashi where the fixed-karana sequence begins. The structure is rigorous and entirely predictable from the position within the lunar month.

The position of every karana, schematically

The full assignment is:

Vishti / Bhadra — the karana to know

The seventh movable karana, Vishti (विष्टि) — better known as Bhadra (भद्रा) — is the most important karana for daily panchang reading, because it is the only one with strong inauspicious associations and therefore the only one routinely flagged.

Bhadra is personified in classical mythology as the daughter of Surya (the Sun) and Chhaya (the Sun’s second wife, the goddess of shadow). She is fierce-tempered. To prevent her from disrupting auspicious activities, the gods assigned her the responsibility of presiding over a specific time window — and during that window, all important undertakings are paused. The mythological device captures the practical recommendation: avoid new beginnings during Vishti karana.

Bhadra occurs eight times a lunar month — once in each of the eight cycles of the seven movable karanas — and lasts roughly half a tithi each time, or about 6–13 hours. In a 30-day lunar month, the cumulative Bhadra time is therefore around 90 hours, distributed in eight chunks. The panchang flags each Bhadra interval explicitly with start and end times.

Bhadra-mukha and Bhadra-puchha

Within each Bhadra period, classical texts further distinguish the face (mukha) and the tail (puchha) of Bhadra. The mukha is the more harmful first portion, the puchha is the gentler ending portion. Some traditions prescribe avoiding only the mukha, allowing routine activity during the puchha. The distribution of mukha and puchha within Bhadra depends on whether Bhadra falls in the daytime or the nighttime, and on which paksha — making this one of the more elaborate corners of panchang reading. For most practical purposes, the daily panchang simply marks the Bhadra interval as a whole and allows the reader to consult their own tradition for finer distinctions.

Bhadra in daylight vs Bhadra at night

A widely-cited rule says: Bhadra of the day spoils the night, and Bhadra of the night spoils the day (दिन की भद्रा रात्रि को दूषित करती है, और रात्रि की भद्रा दिन को दूषित करती है). The mythological framing is that night-Bhadra in heaven equals day-Bhadra on earth, and vice versa. The practical effect is that some Bhadra periods are considered “harmless on earth” because their inauspicious force is directed at the divine realm. This is one of the more subtle distinctions and does not enter into the core panchang display, but you may encounter it in detailed muhurta texts.

The other movable karanas — qualities

The other six movable karanas (Bava, Balava, Kaulava, Taitila, Gara, Vanija) are mostly auspicious or neutral. Each carries traditional associations:

• Bava — beginnings, governance, stable enterprises.
• Balava — strength, education, ritual.
• Kaulava — friendship, alliances, family matters.
• Taitila — pleasure, marital affection, ornaments.
• Gara — agriculture, building, settled domestic activity.
• Vanija— trade, commerce, financial dealings (the name literally means “trader”).

These associations are used in detailed muhurta selection. A wedding muhurta might prefer Taitila; a business launch might prefer Vanija; an agricultural undertaking might prefer Gara. At the level of daily panchang reading, the distinctions among the six benign karanas are rarely the deciding factor — the tithi, nakshatra, yoga, and avoidance of Bhadra carry most of the weight.

The four fixed karanas and their associations

The four fixed karanas surrounding Amavasya carry their own traditional associations, reflecting the transitional “dark” nature of that part of the month:

• Shakuni — divination, omens, contemplation of beginnings. Some auspicious purposes.
• Chatushpada — concerning four-footed beings (cattle, by extension domestic livelihood). Routine.
• Naga — serpents, hidden things, ancestral rites. Often inauspicious for new ventures.
• Kimstughna— “the destroyer of what?” — generally auspicious for the start of a new lunar fortnight.

Reading karana in your panchang

On the daily panchang of this site, the karana line shows the karana(s) active during the day. Because karanas change every half-tithi (about 12 hours on average), most days have two karanas listed — the one active at sunrise and the one that takes over later in the day. The end-times of each are given.

If Vishti / Bhadra is one of the day’s karanas, it is flagged distinctly with start and end times. New beginnings are typically scheduled outside this window.

Putting the five limbs together

We now have all five. Let us pause and look at how they fit together as a single description of a day.

• Vara — the day of the week. Ruled by a graha. Generates choghadiya periods.
• Tithi — the lunar day, defined by the 12° Sun-Moon separation. Determines fasts, festivals, and paksha.
• Nakshatra— the lunar mansion (Moon’s longitude ÷ 13°20′). Determines janma nakshatra in horoscopes; carries gana, yoni, varna labels.
• Yoga — the combined Sun-Moon longitude divided by 13°20′. Filters muhurta selection; flags Vyatipata and Vaidhriti.
• Karana — half a tithi. Eleven names, sixty slots. Flags Bhadra.

Tithi and karana share their underlying number (Sun-Moon difference); yoga uses the Sun-Moon sum; nakshatra uses the Moon alone; vara uses Earth’s rotation count. Five limbs, three astronomical inputs (Sun longitude, Moon longitude, weekday counter), all derivable for any moment from a modern ephemeris and a sunrise calculation.

What you should be able to do now

After this chapter, you should be able to:

• State that a karana is half a tithi (6°).
• Name the eleven karanas — four fixed and seven movable.
• Locate the four fixed karanas in their unique positions surrounding Amavasya.
• Identify Vishti as Bhadra and explain why it is flagged.
• Distinguish Bhadra-mukha from Bhadra-puchha at a high level.
• Read the karana line of a daily panchang.
• Summarise how all five limbs are derived from Sun and Moon longitudes.

With the five limbs in hand, we now turn to the framework they sit inside — the rashi (zodiac signs) and how the 27 nakshatras map onto the 12 rashis. After that, we will spend a full chapter on each of the nine grahas, and then move into the derived concepts: time units, choghadiya, muhurta, rahu kaal, and the auspicious-inauspicious combinations. By the end of Book 1 we will reassemble all of this around a worked example of reading a single day’s panchang from top to bottom.