Panchak for 23 Aug 2026

Panchak is a period in Vedic astrology when the Moon transits the signs of Aquarius and Pisces — the last 60° of the zodiac. That stretch covers parts of five Nakshatras: the second half of Dhanishta, then Shatabhisha, Purva Bhadrapada, Uttara Bhadrapada, and Revati. The word 'Panchak' literally means 'group of five.' Panchak recurs roughly every 27 days, as the Moon completes its cycle through all 27 Nakshatras.

The restrictions are the same from the first minute of a Panchak to the last, and they are not divided between the five Nakshatras — the period is one window. Set aside: cremation, travel to the south, making a bed, cot or canopy, storing wood, grass or fuel, roofing or thatching, and raising pillars. Two muhurta texts give the list slightly differently, so this is the union of both. Note what is not on it: commentary permits laying out a plot, its foundation stone and its boundary, so 'do not build a house' overstates it — what is set aside is the covering and the framing.

Panchak is particularly significant in Hindu death rituals. If a person passes away during Panchak, special remedial measures (Panchak Shanti) are performed to prevent further deaths in the family. This belief is deeply rooted in traditional practice and is observed across North India, particularly in Hindi-speaking regions.

Panchak is determined by the Moon's position in the sidereal zodiac. It begins when the Moon reaches 300° — the Kumbha (Aquarius) ingress, which falls at Dhanishta's third pada, part-way through that Nakshatra rather than at its start. It continues through Shatabhisha, Purva Bhadrapada and Uttara Bhadrapada, and ends when the Moon leaves Revati at 360°/0°. This covers the last 60° of the zodiacal circle.

The exact start and end times depend on the Moon's transit speed, which varies from day to day, so a Panchak period runs about 4.5 days rather than exactly five. This tool computes the moments the Moon crosses each of those degrees from the NASA/JPL DE440 ephemeris, refined to the second. Because they are Moon-longitude events, the instants are the same worldwide — only the local clock time they are shown in changes.

The popular name a Panchak carries comes from a different reckoning: the weekday its opening moment falls on. Because the opening is a precise instant, a cycle that begins just after midnight in India begins on the previous day further west — so we take the weekday in the timezone you are viewing, not a fixed one.

Several reckonings share the word 'panchaka'. The one this page computes is the Moon's transit through the last 60° of the zodiac, and it carries no five-fold classification of its own — only the one continuous window and the group of works set aside throughout it.

The names belong to other reckonings, and all of them are calculated rather than read off a weekday: one from the elapsed tithi and the rising sign, one from the Sun's position within its sign, and a four-part sum of tithi, weekday, Nakshatra and rising sign. In those systems the names are Sanskrit — Roga, Agni, Raja, Chora, Mrityu. In the classical bana system each of the five carries its own activity to avoid; whether the later four-part traditions preserve the same prescriptions is a separate question we have not settled.