Panchang for Friday, 23 October 2026
| Tithi | Dwadashi |
|---|---|
| Paksha | Shukla |
| Nakshatra | Purva Bhadrapada, pada 2 |
| Yoga | Dhruva |
| Karana | Balava |
| Vara | Shukravara |
| Sunrise (Ujjain, IST) | 06:27 |
| Sunset (Ujjain, IST) | 17:54 |
Today's tithi is Dwadashi, in the Shukla paksha, the waxing half of the lunar month. The Moon moves through Purva Bhadrapada nakshatra, pada 2. The vara is Shukravara, and the panchang's remaining limbs are Dhruva yoga and Balava karana.
What is Balava karana?
Balava is the second of the seven movable karanas, a half tithi of six degrees between the Moon and the Sun, and the tradition connects it with learning, teaching and work that requires steady strength.
The name is built on bala, strength, and the classical associations follow it: study, instruction, the passing of a skill from one person to another, and duties that are kept up rather than performed once. It sits immediately after Bava in the repeating cycle of seven, so it often carries the second half of a tithi whose first half began something.
Like all seven movable karanas, Balava comes round eight times in a lunar month, roughly once every three and a half days. That frequency is exactly why karanas are read as texture rather than as events. Nothing that happens eight times a month is going to be remarkable on its own.
A reasonable way to use it is as a nudge toward the version of a task that builds capability. If two ways of getting something done are open to you and one of them teaches you the thing while the other only finishes it, this is the traditional slot for the first.