Panchang in Diffa, Niger Tue 18 Mar 2008

Shiva’s Pradosh puja is done in pradosha, the 3 muhurtas after sunset. Trayodashi runs from 18:39 on Tue 18 Mar to 18:35 on Wed 19 Mar, touching pradosha on both evenings. The Nirnayasindhu takes the evening it holds more of: Tue 18 Mar. No text giving Pradosh Vrat’s time was found; pradosha is Tithika’s convention.

Pradosh Vrat: every date in Diffa

The Moon gains on the Sun about 12° a day. Each 12° of lead is one tithi: 132°–144° is the 12th, Shukla Dwadashi. A day takes the tithi in force at its sunrise, 06:14 here. Ekadashi ended at 19:06 Mon, before it. Dwadashi ends at 18:39, when the lead reaches 144°. The lead passed 0° at the new moon of 7 Mar, so the Moon is waxing: Shukla paksha.

The night of Mon 17 Mar ran from sunset 18:20 Mon to sunrise 06:14, 11 h 54 m. Cut into 15 muhurtas of 47 m, its 14th is Brahma Muhurta, the one before the last.

Daylight here, 06:14 to 18:20, splits into 8 choghadiyas of 1 h 30 m. Their names follow a fixed order that starts from the weekday, and each name is counted good, neutral or bad.

The night here, 18:20 to 06:14 Wed, splits into 8 choghadiyas of 1 h 29 m. Their names follow a fixed order that starts from the weekday, and each name is counted good, neutral or bad.

The fixed stars divide the Moon's path into 27 nakshatras of 13°20′, each in 4 padas of 3°20′. Ashlesha spans 106°40′–120°00′; the Moon entered its pada 2 at 110°. It leaves at 21:20, for Magha.

Add the Sun's and the Moon's places among the stars: 334° + 111.7° = 445.7°, one full turn and 85.7°. Past the turn, cut into 27 parts of 13°20′, it gives the yoga: 80°00′–93°20′ is the 7th, Sukarma. It ends at 19:07, then Dhriti.

A karana is half a tithi: 6° of the Moon's lead, so the first half of Dwadashi is Bava and the second Balava. Bava runs until 06:50, when the lead reaches 138°; Balava until 18:39.

A Hindu day runs from one sunrise to the next, not midnight to midnight. This one runs 06:14 to 06:14 Wed, so the hours after midnight still belong to Mangalawara.

An amanta month runs from new moon to new moon and takes its name from the rashi the Sun is in at the new moon that begins it: Kumbha gives Phalguna. The Sun enters Meena on 14 Mar, inside the month. The next new moon, 6 Apr, finds it in Meena and begins Chaitra.

A purnimanta month runs from full moon to full moon, so its waning half comes first. It shares its name with the amanta month that its second half falls in: the new moon of 7 Mar, with the Sun in Kumbha, began Phalguna. This Shukla paksha reads Phalguna in both counts.

A samvat year begins with Chaitra, the month whose new moon finds the Sun in Meena: 19 Mar 2007, 03:42 Mon. Since then the Sun has moved 359.8° round the stars. Vikram Samvat numbers that year 2064; Shaka Samvat numbers it 1929.