Panchang for Monday, 4 January 2027
| Tithi | Dwadashi |
|---|---|
| Paksha | Krishna |
| Nakshatra | Anuradha, pada 2 |
| Yoga | Shula |
| Karana | Taitila |
| Vara | Somavara |
| Sunrise (Ujjain, IST) | 07:08 |
| Sunset (Ujjain, IST) | 17:54 |
Today's tithi is Dwadashi, in the Krishna paksha, the waning half of the lunar month. The Moon moves through Anuradha nakshatra, pada 2. The vara is Somavara, and the panchang's remaining limbs are Shula yoga and Taitila karana.
What is Taitila karana?
Taitila is the fourth of the seven movable karanas, half a tithi and six degrees of Moon to Sun separation, named for a sesame cake and traditionally connected with exchange and with things made to be shared.
The image behind the name is a sweet made of sesame and pressed into a shape, which is a small clue to how the classical lists read it: things combined, things given, things prepared for other people. Construction and the founding of durable things also appear in the traditional associations, the common thread being work that leaves a physical result.
Taitila sits in the middle of the movable seven, and like the rest it recurs eight times a lunar month. Since a karana is exactly half a tithi, seeing Taitila at sunrise tells you which half of the current tithi you woke up in, which is finer detail than the tithi alone provides.
The most usable version of its tradition is the shared result. Work that only exists inside your own head does not fit this karana; work that will be handed to somebody does. That is a way of choosing which task to pick up first, not a claim about how the task will go.