Panchang in Diffa, Niger Tue 23 Oct 2012

Dussehra’s rites are done in aparahna, the fourth fifth of the day. Dashami runs from 15:08 on Tue 23 Oct to 14:52 on Wed 24 Oct, touching aparahna on both days. When it does, the Nirnayasindhu takes the earlier day: Tue 23 Oct.

Dussehra: every date in Diffa

Maha Navami follows the tithi at sunrise. Navami runs from 15:56 on Mon 22 Oct to 15:08 on Tue 23 Oct, so it holds sunrise only on Tue 23 Oct, at 06:01. No text giving Maha Navami’s time was found; sunrise is Tithika’s convention.

Maha Navami: every date in Diffa

The Moon gains on the Sun about 12° a day. Each 12° of lead is one tithi: 96°–108° is the 9th, Shukla Navami. A day takes the tithi in force at its sunrise, 06:01 here. Ashtami ended at 15:56 Mon, before it. Navami ends at 15:08, when the lead reaches 108°. The lead passed 0° at the new moon of 15 Oct, so the Moon is waxing: Shukla paksha.

The night of Mon 22 Oct ran from sunset 17:46 Mon to sunrise 06:01, 12 h 15 m. Cut into 15 muhurtas of 49 m, its 14th is Brahma Muhurta, the one before the last.

Daylight here, 06:01 to 17:46, splits into 8 choghadiyas of 1 h 28 m. Their names follow a fixed order that starts from the weekday, and each name is counted good, neutral or bad.

The night here, 17:46 to 06:01 Wed, splits into 8 choghadiyas of 1 h 31 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′. Shravana spans 280°00′–293°20′; the Moon entered its pada 3 at 286°40′. It leaves at 12:57, for Dhanishtha.

Add the Sun's and the Moon's places among the stars: 186.2° + 289.5° = 475.7°, one full turn and 115.7°. Past the turn, cut into 27 parts of 13°20′, it gives the yoga: 106°40′–120°00′ is the 9th, Shula. It ends at 13:19, then Ganda.

A karana is half a tithi: 6° of the Moon's lead, so the first half of Navami is Balava and the second Kaulava. Balava ended at 03:28, when the lead reached 102°; Kaulava runs until 15:08.

A Hindu day runs from one sunrise to the next, not midnight to midnight. This one runs 06:01 to 06:01 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: Kanya gives Ashwina. The Sun enters Tula on 17 Oct, inside the month. The next new moon, 13 Nov, finds it in Tula and begins Kartika.

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 15 Oct, with the Sun in Kanya, began Ashwina. This Shukla paksha reads Ashwina in both counts.

A samvat year begins with Chaitra, the month whose new moon finds the Sun in Meena: 22 Mar 2012, 15:37 Thu. Since then the Sun has moved 207.9° round the stars. Vikram Samvat numbers that year 2069; Shaka Samvat numbers it 1934.