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This document discusses various astronomical cycles and concepts in Hindu astrology including tithi, nakshatra, and raashi. It explains that the earth revolves around the sun in 365.256 days while the moon revolves around the earth in 27.322 days. The moon's path against the stars is divided into 27 nakshatras that are used to determine a person's birth star. It also describes how to calculate one's birth nakshatra using the number of days between their birth date and the present.

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63 views

Tit Hi

This document discusses various astronomical cycles and concepts in Hindu astrology including tithi, nakshatra, and raashi. It explains that the earth revolves around the sun in 365.256 days while the moon revolves around the earth in 27.322 days. The moon's path against the stars is divided into 27 nakshatras that are used to determine a person's birth star. It also describes how to calculate one's birth nakshatra using the number of days between their birth date and the present.

Uploaded by

HNTHAKUR
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Tithi, Nakshatra, Raashi ...

Page 1 of 3

Tithi, Nakshatra, Raashi …


M. R. Dwarakanath

THE UNIVERSE: Our Universe consists of billions of galaxies;


each galaxy comprising billions of stars. Our galaxy is called the
Milky Way and all the stars we see in the night sky are in our
galaxy. Stars in other galaxies are too far to be discerned as
individual stars by the naked eye. Our Sun is a star in the Milky
Way galaxy and has 9 known planets. Most of the planets have
satellites or moons. Our Earth is the 3rd inner planet to the sun and
the moon orbits the earth. All the objects in this universe are
moving relative to each other at great speeds. Although all the
astronomical objects are really moving at great speeds, the more
distant objects appear to move more slowly and the stars are
sufficiently far away that in terms of our time frames, the star field
looks fixed in the firmament.

THE SUN and the EARTH: The Earth revolves once around the
Sun in 365.256 days. Because the sun is also moving around the
center of the galaxy, the earth does not return to the exact same spot
in space after 365.256 days. The "fixed" background of stars is used
as a reference when we say the earth completes one orbit around
the sun in 365.256 days. At the end of one year the relative
positions of the sun, the earth and the background stars will be the
same as at the beginning of the year.

We can look at the sun during a total solar eclipse and find a star
that is closest to the sun (better yet, one eclipsed by it) and declare
the sun to be located in the direction of that star at that time. We
can do this directly only during a total solar eclipse (assuming the
sky is clear etc.) but at other times we can infer the location of the
sun relative to the background stars. As the sun and earth move, the
sun appears to move relative to the fixed stars. The sun traces an
apparent path against this backdrop. This path is divided into 12
equal segments called the Zodiac or the Rashis. The brighter stars
in the segment form a constellation. The constellations are given
names based on their appearance and the imagination of people
who named them. On any given day, the sun is in a specific Rashi.
Actually, the sun spends one month in a Rashi as there are 12
Rashis and 12 months in a year.

THE MOON: The moon is revolving around the earth, the earth
revolving around the sun and the sun revolving around the center of
the galaxy. We could ignore the motion of the sun in looking at the
motion of the earth. However, when we want to look at the motion
of the moon, we cannot ignore the motion of the earth because
these objects are much closer together. As before, we can look at
the moon and pick the star closest to it. About a month a later, the
moon will once again be very to close to the same star. The period

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Tithi, Nakshatra, Raashi ... Page 2 of 3

of time for one such revolution is called a sidereal month and is


27.322 days long. At the end of a month, the moon will not return
to the exact spot against the stars because of details having to do
with the orbital planes of the earth and the moon.

The moon now makes a complete loop against the stellar backdrop
in one sidereal month. This path is divided into 27 equal segments
and each segment is associated with a Nakshatra. Each Nakshatra is
further subdivided into 4 Padas. The location of the moon at the
time of a person’s birth determines that person’s Janma Nakshatra
and the pada. A Nakshatra is 4 padas and 27x4 padas are equally
distributed among the 12 Rashis. Thus each Rashi includes 9 Padas.

A sidereal month is the time taken by the moon to make one


revolution against the stellar backdrop. A second kind of month is
the time taken by the moon to make a complete loop with reference
to the sun. The sun, earth and moon fall in a line once every
fortnight or a Paksha. However, they fall in a line and in the same
order once every synodic or lunar month. These bodies will not be
in exact alignment every month. When the alignment is close
enough, we have eclipses of either the sun or the moon and we
know it does not happen every fortnight! The synodic month
(Masa) is 29.531 days and has 2 Pakshas – Sukla and Krishna. Each
Paksha has 15 days called Tithis. The Tithi is not related to the
background stars but instead to the phases of the moon. The Tithis
are numbered one through fourteen and the fifteenth day of the
fortnight is called Poornima (full moon) or Amavasya (new moon).

During mid Amavasya, the sun and the moon are both generally in
the same direction as viewed from the earth and therefore they will
be in the same Rashi.

TIME: The day we have been referring to is the mean solar day.
This is the interval of time taken by the earth to make one rotation
on its axis relative to the sun. This time is slightly variable and the
average time is the mean solar day. Time can be universal but we
are used to local time. Local time attempts to place the sun
overhead at noon. The sun rises at different universal times at
different points on the earth and at different times of the year. Some
events such as Rahukala are related to sunrise and therefore to local
time. However, at any given instant (not local time) the Nakshatra
is the same independent of where you are! This is because the
location of the earth and the moon relative to the stars is nearly the
same irrespective of where you are on the earth.

How to figure your birth star? Let us say you do not know your
birth star and you want to find out. You may consult the almanac of
the year of your birth. This may be hard to find. However, if you
have any almanac (most likely the current one) you can easily
figure it out. Here is how:

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Let us say, your date of birth is June 1, 1950 and time of birth –
noon. We can calculate the number of days between June 1, 1950
and June 1, 1999. There are 49 years intervening of which 12 are
leap years (actually, you have to count the number of February 29s
between the two dates). The total number of days = 365x49 + 12 =
17897 days.

Divide this number (17897) by the number of days in a sidereal


month (27.322).

17897/27.322 = 655.0399.

The significance of this division is that from June 1, 1950 to June 1,


1999 the moon has completed 655 revolutions. The moon has also
made an extra 0.0399 revolutions. The time for this extra fraction of
a revolution is 0.0399x27.322 = 1.09 days or 1 day and 2 hours. We
have to go back 1 day and 2 hours from June 1, 1999 – noon, to
find the exact same alignment of the earth, moon and your
Nakshatra. It would be May 31 - 10 a.m. You may now look up the
almanac for the Nakshatra at 10 a.m. on May 31, 1999!

Determination of Tithi is analogous. Simply use 29.531 in place of


27.322 in the above calculations. The answer is the Tithi at 7 a.m.
on May 31, 1999. During this time the moon would have completed
606 lunar months. The fact, these two dates are relatively close is
no accident. It can be explained with a simple sketch. This explains
why Krishna Janmastami and Rohini Nakshatra either fall on the
same day or just a few days apart. However, not all Krishna Paksha
Astamis are close to Rohini Nakshatra. They are close in August!

Dr. Dwarakanath is a physicist working at Bell Labs. in New


Jersey. He teaches sanskrit during his free time and interested in
vedic learning and vedanta.

file://C:\journal\vol1no3\tithi.html 9/7/2007

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