vedicproof
vedic proof · computation

Panchang API

What is a Panchang API?

A Panchang API returns the Hindu almanac for one date and place: the five limbs - tithi, vara, nakshatra, yoga and karana - together with sunrise and sunset. Because every limb is measured from sunrise, the sunrise definition an engine uses decides whether its panchang agrees with yours.

Request

Tools are called over MCP, so an assistant connected to https://vedicproof.com/mcp invokes get_panchang itself. The arguments it sends are:

tool · get_panchang
{
  "date": "2026-08-24",
  "city": "Varanasi",
  "country": "India"
}

Response

Every response carries a plain-language summary string plus structured data, and states the engine and ayanamsa it used. Abridged here for length.

result · json
{
  "summary": "Varanasi, India on 2026-08-24: Dashami (Shukla), Monday, nakshatra Anuradha. Sunrise 05:41, sunset 18:34.",
  "date": "2026-08-24",
  "place": { "label": "Varanasi, India", "latitude": 25.3176, "longitude": 82.9739, "timezone": "Asia/Kolkata" },
  "panchang": { "tithi": "Dashami", "paksha": "Shukla", "vara": "Monday", "nakshatra": "Anuradha", "yoga": "Siddhi", "karana": "Taitila" },
  "sun": { "sunrise": "05:41", "sunset": "18:34" }
}

Which five limbs are returned?

LimbMeaning
TithiLunar day, from the Moon–Sun elongation in 12° steps
VaraWeekday, reckoned from local sunrise
NakshatraLunar mansion occupied by the Moon
YogaOne of 27, from the sum of Sun and Moon longitudes
KaranaHalf-tithi, one of eleven

How is this calculated and verified?

These are the pinned parameters that affect this computation. The full disclosure, and the golden-chart corpus, live on /proof.

Sunrise definitionDisc centre, standard refraction, spherical horizon at sea level
Sunrise and sunset use an altitude of -0.833° (centre of the disc plus mean refraction), no elevation correction and no upper-limb variant. Engines using the upper limb or a terrain horizon will differ by minutes, which moves every panchang window.
Time handlingIANA tzdata via the host Intl database, DST-aware
Offsets are resolved for the birth instant, not for today, so historical DST rules apply wherever the host tzdata carries them. There is no Local Mean Time fallback for births before standard time: a pre-standard-time birth is treated as standard offset. An unknown birth time defaults to 12:00 local and the response flags time_assumed: true and states that the lagna is unreliable.
AyanamsaLahiri (Chitrapaksha), mean
Single supported system today, computed as a polynomial in Julian centuries from J2000 rather than read from a table. True-Chitra, KP-Newcomb and Raman are not offered; that is a limitation, not a default we are hiding.

Common questions

How is sunrise defined?
Centre of the solar disc at an altitude of -0.833°, which includes mean refraction, on a sea-level spherical horizon. Engines using the upper limb or terrain elevation will differ by minutes.
Does it handle high latitudes?
Sunrise and sunset are computed where the Sun crosses the horizon. Above the Arctic and Antarctic circles in midsummer or midwinter there is no crossing, and the response says so rather than inventing a time.
Is the panchang for the whole day or an instant?
The limbs are reported for the day, evaluated near sunrise. Instant-accurate limbs at a birth moment come from get_vedic_kundli, which returns panchang_at_birth.

Connect this to Claude or ChatGPT with one URL: https://vedicproof.com/mcp. First 14 days unlimited and free, then $1.99/month.

claude setup →chatgpt setup →pricing →

Related computations

all computations in docs →