Panchang for Sunday, 28 February 2027
| Tithi | Ashtami |
|---|---|
| Paksha | Krishna |
| Nakshatra | Anuradha, pada 3 |
| Yoga | Harshana |
| Karana | Balava |
| Vara | Ravivara |
| Sunrise (Ujjain, IST) | 06:49 |
| Sunset (Ujjain, IST) | 18:29 |
Today's tithi is Ashtami, in the Krishna paksha, the waning half of the lunar month. The Moon moves through Anuradha nakshatra, pada 3. The vara is Ravivara, and the panchang's remaining limbs are Harshana yoga and Balava karana.
Ravivara, the day of the Sun
Ravivara is the vara ruled by Surya, the first of the seven weekdays in the panchang, and it runs from one sunrise to the next rather than from midnight.
Ravi is one of the old names for the Sun, and the day carries the Sun's themes in the tradition: authority, visibility, vitality, and anything that has to be done in your own name rather than on someone else's behalf. Some households keep a Surya observance on it, often connected with the first light of the day.
The order of the weekday lords is not arbitrary, and Ravivara is the easiest place to see why. The tradition divides the day into 24 horas, each ruled by a graha in the order Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, running from slowest apparent motion to fastest. Start the count at sunrise on the Sun's day and the twenty fifth hora, which is the first of the next day, lands on the Moon. The next lands on Mars, then Mercury, then Jupiter, then Venus, then Saturn. That is the week we use, produced by counting in sevens through a cycle of twenty four.
As a reading, the vara is the slowest and steadiest of the five limbs, because it never drifts. Its value is contrast: the same Ravivara can arrive under a filling Moon or an emptying one, in a soft nakshatra or a sharp one, and the difference between those is where the day's actual character lives.