Panchang in Diffa, Niger Fri 4 Jul 2008

Rath Yatra follows the tithi at sunrise. Dwitiya runs from 00:01 on Fri 4 Jul to 21:10 on Fri 4 Jul, so it holds sunrise only on Fri 4 Jul, at 05:47. No text giving Rath Yatra’s time was found; sunrise is Tithika’s convention.

Rath Yatra: every date in Diffa

The Moon gains on the Sun about 12° a day. Each 12° of lead is one tithi: 12°–24° is the 2nd, Shukla Dwitiya. A day takes the tithi in force at its sunrise, 05:47 here. Pratipada ended at 00:01, before it. Dwitiya ends at 21:10, when the lead reaches 24°. The lead passed 0° at the new moon of 3 Jul, so the Moon is waxing: Shukla paksha.

The night of Thu 3 Jul ran from sunset 18:40 Thu to sunrise 05:47, 11 h 7 m. Cut into 15 muhurtas of 44 m, its 14th is Brahma Muhurta, the one before the last.

Daylight here, 05:47 to 18:40, splits into 8 choghadiyas of 1 h 36 m. Their names follow a fixed order that starts from the weekday, and each name is counted good, neutral or bad.

The night here, 18:40 to 05:47 Sat, splits into 8 choghadiyas of 1 h 23 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′. Pushya spans 93°20′–106°40′; the Moon entered its pada 1 at 93°20′. It leaves at 02:55 Sat, for Ashlesha.

Add the Sun's and the Moon's places among the stars: 78.6° + 93.9° = 172.5°. The sum, cut into 27 parts of 13°20′, gives the yoga: 160°00′–173°20′ is the 13th, Vyaghata. It ends at 07:02, then Harshana.

A karana is half a tithi: 6° of the Moon's lead, so the first half of Dwitiya is Balava and the second Kaulava. Balava runs until 10:32, when the lead reaches 18°; Kaulava until 21:10.

A Hindu day runs from one sunrise to the next, not midnight to midnight. This one runs 05:47 to 05:47 Sat, so the hours after midnight still belong to Shukrawara.

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: Mithuna gives Ashadha. The Sun enters Karka on 16 Jul, inside the month. The next new moon, 1 Aug, finds it in Karka and begins Shravana.

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 3 Jul, with the Sun in Mithuna, began Ashadha. This Shukla paksha reads Ashadha in both counts.

A samvat year begins with Chaitra, the month whose new moon finds the Sun in Meena: 6 Apr 2008, 04:55 Sun. Since then the Sun has moved 85.8° round the stars. Vikram Samvat numbers that year 2065; Shaka Samvat numbers it 1930.