Choose a town or city and a month above, and this free tool lists every panchak that touches that month, with the date and time it begins and ends in your local time, how long it lasts, and the Hindu weekday it begins on. If a panchak is running at this moment, it says so.
How it works
Panchak is the stretch of four to five days while the Moon passes through the last five nakshatras: the second half of Dhanishta, then Shatabhisha, Purva Bhadrapada, Uttara Bhadrapada and Revati. That is the same as the Moon being in Kumbha (Aquarius) and Meena (Pisces), and this is how Drik Panchang defines it. The tool takes the Moon’s position from NASA JPL DE440 with the sidereal zodiac of the Lahiri ayanamsa and finds the moment it enters Kumbha and the moment it leaves Meena, to the second. Over the years 1900 to 2074 a panchak lasts between 3.9 and 5.1 days, because the Moon’s speed changes through its orbit.
The moment the Moon changes sign is the same all over the world, so the tool only turns it into the local date and time of your town or city, with daylight saving. A panchak that began in the month before or ends in the month after is shown in full.
Reading the result
Each row gives the start, the end and the length of one panchak. The last column gives the Hindu weekday on which it begins. A Hindu day runs from sunrise to sunrise, so a panchak that begins after midnight but before sunrise is counted on the day before, and the tool says so; the first column keeps the date on the clock. Far north or south, on a day when the Sun does not rise or set, there is no sunrise to count from, so the row gives the weekday of the clock date and says so.
Some calendars give a panchak a name by the weekday it begins on, such as Roga or Raja panchak. We have not found a classical text or a named almanac that sets out these names, or that says whether the weekday is counted from sunrise or from midnight, so the tool does not give them. The names are not part of the definition of panchak, and the dates and times are the same whatever the name.
How we checked it
We compared the tool with the panchak list that Drik Panchang publishes for New Delhi for 2026. All 13 periods matched: of the 26 start and end times, 23 fell in the same minute and 3 differed by one minute. We also recomputed 29 panchak periods at 17 places and dates with the Swiss Ephemeris (pyswisseph, sidereal Lahiri), including the first and last years the tool accepts; every start and end agreed within four seconds.
Where traditions differ
The start and end of panchak are the same in every almanac that uses the Lahiri ayanamsa, up to a minute or so. Families differ on what they keep out of panchak and on whether they name it by the weekday at all, so please follow your own family’s custom or ask your family priest. A panchak that begins between midnight and sunrise falls on one weekday by the clock and on the day before by the Hindu day; the tool shows both.
What it does not do
It does not say which acts to avoid in panchak; customs differ, and we have not yet checked a list against a text we can name. It does not give the Panchaka rahita muhurta, which is a different rule with a similar name. For the nakshatra at any moment, use the nakshatra at a date and time tool, and for the day’s full panchang, the panchang for any place.
Frequently asked questions
↳ What is panchak?
It is the time, four to five days in each round of the Moon, while the Moon passes through Dhanishta (its second half), Shatabhisha, Purva Bhadrapada, Uttara Bhadrapada and Revati, which is the same as the Moon being in Kumbha and Meena.
↳ How long does panchak last?
Between 3.9 and 5.1 days over the years 1900 to 2074. The tool gives the exact length of each one.
↳ How often does panchak come?
Once each time the Moon goes round the zodiac: from 1900 to 2073 one panchak began every 27.2 to 27.5 days, 27.3 on average. So most months touch one panchak and some touch two; of the 2,088 months in those years, on the clock of New Delhi, 1,509 touch one and 579 touch two.
↳ Why does the tool not say whether it is Roga, Raja, Agni, Chora or Mrityu panchak?
These are names that some calendars give a panchak by the weekday it begins on. We have not found a classical text or a named almanac that sets them out, or that says whether the weekday is counted from sunrise or from midnight, so we do not give them. The tool shows the weekday each panchak begins on, by the clock and by the Hindu day, so you can follow your own family's custom.
↳ Is panchak at the same time in every city?
It begins at the same moment everywhere, so the clock time and sometimes the date differ from city to city. Choose your own town or city for the right local times.
↳ Does the tool tell me what not to do in panchak?
No. Families keep different customs, and we only state rules we have checked against a source we can name. Please follow your family's custom or ask your family priest.