Panchang and calendar
Pradosh in Vedic astrology
Updated
Pradosh: how the API computes it
Pradosh is the early part of the night. The API takes it as the first three of the 15 night muhurats, counted from sunset. Each night muhurat is one fifteenth of the night. So the length of pradosh changes through the year with the length of the night. It is returned as a start and end time in bands for each date and place.
Pradosh vrat is a fast for Shiva. It is kept on the 13th tithi (lunar day), trayodashi, of each half of the lunar month, during that evening window. So the date of the fast is the day on which the 13th tithi is running during pradosh at your place. That is not always the day it is running at sunrise.
The vrat takes a name from the weekday, such as Soma Pradosh on a Monday or Shani Pradosh on a Saturday. Festivals use the same window. Diwali's Lakshmi puja needs the new moon during pradosh.
GET /v1/panchang/daily returns the pradosh window with the other bands. GET /v1/vrats and GET /v1/festivals use it, so they agree with the daily panchang.
Get it from the API
GET /v1/vrats
# New York
curl "https://apiforastrology.com/api/astrology/v1/vrats?year=2026&latitude=40.7128&longitude=-74.006&timezone=America/New_York" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $ASTROLOGY_API_KEY"{
"year": 2026,
"place": {
"latitude": 40.7128,
"longitude": -74.006,
"timezone": -5,
"timezone_info": {
"source": "zone",
"offset_hours": -5,
"zone": "America/New_York",
"abbreviation": "EST",
"dst": false,
"dst_hours": 0,
"ambiguous_resolved_by_fold": null,
"note": "read from the IANA tz database at this instant, so daylight saving and historical offset changes are included"
},
"note": "this zone changes offset during the year; each time uses the offset in force on its own date (UTC-5 in January, UTC-4 in July) and ends with that offset"
},
"convention": "purnimanta",
"vrats": [
{
"date": "2026-01-02",
"kaal": "sunrise",
"decided_by": "the tithi holds sunrise on no day; kept on the civil day it mostly falls in",
"coverage": 0,
"kaal_at": "2026-01-02T07:20:10-05:00",
"slug": "purnima",
"name": "Pausha Purnima",
"masa": {
"name": "Pausha",
"purnimanta": "Pausha",
"amanta": "Pausha",
"adhika": false,
"paksha": "shukla",
"tithi": 15
},
"tithi": {
"starts": "2026-01-02T08:23:58-05:00",
"ends": "2026-01-03T05:02:54-05:00"
}
},
{
"date": "2026-01-02",
"kaal": "madhyahna",
"decided_by": "the only day the tithi holds madhyahna",
"coverage": 1,
"kaal_window": {
"starts": "2026-01-02T11:04:13-05:00",
"ends": "2026-01-02T12:56:14-05:00"
},
"slug": "purnima-vrat",
"name": "Pausha Purnima vrat",
"masa": {
"name": "Pausha",
"purnimanta": "Pausha",
"amanta": "Pausha",
"adhika": false,
"paksha": "shukla",
"tithi": 15
},
"tithi": {
"starts": "2026-01-02T08:23:58-05:00",
"ends": "2026-01-03T05:02:54-05:00"
}
},
{
"date": "2026-01-06",
"kaal": "moonrise",
"decided_by": "the tithi holds moonrise on no day; kept on the civil day it mostly falls in",
"coverage": 0,
"kaal_at": "2026-01-06T20:43:56-05:00",
"slug": "sankashti-chaturthi",
"name": "Lambodara Sankashti",
"masa": {
"name": "Magha",
"purnimanta": "Magha",
"amanta": "Pausha",
"adhika": false,
"paksha": "krishna",
"tithi": 4
},
"tithi": {
"starts": "2026-01-05T21:32:09-05:00",
"ends": "2026-01-06T20:23:03-05:00"
}
}
],
"counts": {
"ekadashi": 24,
"pradosh": 24,
"sankashti-chaturthi": 13,
"masik-shivaratri": 12,
"purnima": 13,
"purnima-vrat": 13,
"amavasya": 12,
"darsha-amavasya": 12
}
}Where the API returns it
| GET | /v1/vrats | Monthly fasting days (vrats) for a year and place |
| GET | /v1/panchang/daily | Daily panchang for a date and place, no birth data |
| GET | /v1/festivals | Hindu festival dates for a year and place |
| GET | /v1/festivals/{slug} | One festival's date for a year and place |
What the API reference says
Each line is quoted from the reference page of the endpoint named above it.
- GET /v1/vrats · Monthly fasting days (vrats) for a year and placeReturns every Ekadashi, Pradosh, Sankashti Chaturthi, Masik Shivaratri, Purnima and Amavasya in a calendar year.
Feature page: Hindu calendar and festivals. Who uses it: Publishers and media. The classical rules the API follows are in the rulebook.
How we check the numbers
Every value here starts from planet positions worked out from NASA JPL planet data (DE440). We test them against NASA JPL Horizons, NASA's planet position service. On 25,571 positions from 1850 to 2149, the Sun and planets agree within 0.001 arc seconds. The Moon agrees within 0.011. On 2,000 random birth charts, the rising sign agrees with Swiss Ephemeris within 0.004 arc seconds. An arc second is 1/3,600 of a degree. A practicing astrologer reviews the rules behind these answers. See how we test.
Related terms
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Today's panchang
Tithi (lunar day), nakshatra, sunrise, rahu kaal and the choghadiya (good and bad parts of the day) for your own city.
See today's panchang
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John Doe, New York
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