Birth Details & Panchang

Why the time and place are not details

A date fixes the grahas to within a sign. Everything else — the ascendant, the houses, which house each graha falls in, the dasha you were born into — comes from the minute and the coordinates. The ascendant changes every two hours and the Moon moves a full nakshatra in about a day, so an hour's error moves houses and a day's error moves the dasha. A chart cast from a remembered time is an estimate, and honest software should say so rather than print it to the second.

The five limbs of the panchang

Panchang means five limbs. Every one of them is a property of the day and the place, not of the person.

Tithi

The lunar day — 30 in a month, counted by the Moon's distance from the Sun in 12° steps.

Vaar

The weekday, and the graha that rules it — the only limb that runs sunrise to sunrise rather than by degrees.

Nakshatra

Where the Moon is, in the 27 divisions of 13°20' — this is what decides the dasha.

Yoga

27 of them, from the Sun's and Moon's longitudes added together.

Karana

Half a tithi — 11 named karanas, two to each tithi.

If you want to act on this

A remedy in jyotish is an act, not a purchase — a fast, a mantra, a donation on the right weekday. Where a formal ritual is called for, these are the three that apply: a puja performed on your behalf, a chadhawa offered at the temple, or an abhimantrit article energised with the mantra of the planet involved.