New Numerology API

Panchang and calendar

Vara (weekday) in Vedic astrology

Vara is the weekday, one of the five parts of the panchang. Each weekday is ruled by a planet: Sunday by the Sun, Monday by the Moon, Tuesday by Mars, Wednesday by Mercury, Thursday by Jupiter, Friday by Venus and Saturday by Saturn. In the Hindu calendar a day runs from sunrise to sunrise, not midnight to midnight.

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More terms in Panchang and calendar

© API for Astrology (apiforastrology.com). "Glossary day arc". All rights reserved. Not to be copied or reused.12345678SunriseNoonSunsetOne day, from sunrise to sunset

Vara: how the API computes it

Vara is the weekday, and the API returns two of them, which can differ. The field vara is the ordinary calendar weekday. The field vedic_vara is the sunrise-to-sunrise weekday. That is because in the Hindu calendar a day starts at sunrise, not at midnight (PA-04). So a birth at 3 a.m. on Tuesday in New York has a Tuesday vara and a Monday vedic_vara.

The sun had not yet risen on Tuesday. Each weekday has a ruling planet, and that planet matters in several places. It starts the first choghadiya (one of eight parts of the day) and the first hora (planet hour) of the day. It also picks which eighth of the daytime is rahu kaal, a daily window to avoid.

The order of the weekdays itself follows from the order of the horas (MU-02). POST /v1/panchang returns both fields for a birth moment. GET /v1/panchang/daily returns the vara for the date and place you send.

Use vedic_vara when you work with muhurat (picking a good time) and the day's planets. Use vara when you only need the date a person would write on a form.

Get it from the API

Panchang at the birth moment. Here is the call to API for Astrology (apiforastrology.com) for our sample, John Doe, born Aug 15, 1990, 10:30 AM, New York.

POST /v1/panchang

# John Doe, born Aug 15, 1990, 10:30 AM, New York
curl -X POST "https://apiforastrology.com/api/astrology/v1/panchang" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $ASTROLOGY_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"year":1990,"month":8,"day":15,"hour":10,"minute":30,"second":0,"latitude":40.7128,"longitude":-74.006,"timezone":"America/New_York"}'
Answer (long lists shortened)200 OK
{
  "tithi": {
    "index": 25,
    "name": "Dashami",
    "paksha": "krishna",
    "completion_percent": 64.9975
  },
  "yoga": {
    "index": 14,
    "name": "Harshana",
    "completion_percent": 0.1278
  },
  "karana": {
    "index": 50,
    "name": "Vishti",
    "completion_percent": 29.9949
  },
  "vara": {
    "index": 4,
    "name": "Wednesday",
    "lord": "Mercury"
  },
  "vedic_vara": {
    "index": 4,
    "name": "Wednesday",
    "lord": "Mercury",
    "before_sunrise": false
  },
  "note": "`vara` is the civil weekday; `vedic_vara` runs sunrise to sunrise and is what the vara lord is read from",
  "nakshatra": {
    "name": "Mrigashira",
    "lord": "Mars",
    "pada": 1
  },
  "meta": {
    "ayanamsa": "lahiri",
    "ayanamsa_value": 23.7260727,
    "julian_day": 2448119.10483,
    "ephemeris": "JPL DE440s",
    "node": "true",
    "timezone": {
      "source": "zone",
      "offset_hours": -4,
      "zone": "America/New_York",
      "abbreviation": "EDT",
      "dst": true,
      "dst_hours": 1,
      "ambiguous_resolved_by_fold": null,
      "note": "read from the IANA tz database at this instant, so daylight saving and historical offset changes are included"
    }
  }
}

Where the API returns it

POST/v1/panchangPanchang at the birth moment
POST/v1/upagrahasUpagrahas: Gulika, Mandi, the kaala velas and the Dhoomadi points
GET/v1/panchang/dailyDaily panchang for a date and place, no birth data
POST/v1/reading/dailyDaily reading for a chart
POST/v1/shadbalaPlanet and house strength (shadbala and bhava bala)
POST/v1/reading/weeklyWeekly reading for a chart

What the API reference says

Each line is quoted from the reference page of the endpoint named above it.

  • POST /v1/upagrahas · Upagrahas: Gulika, Mandi, the kaala velas and the Dhoomadi pointsThe first part belongs to the lord of the weekday by day, and to the lord of the fifth weekday from it by night.

Feature page: Panchang and muhurat. 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

Free tools

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All free tools

  • 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

From the blog

Astrology API

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Your first answer

John Doe, New York

POST /v1/planets200 OK
  • RisingVirgoHast
  • SunCancerAshlesha
  • MoonTaurusMrigashira
  • MarsAriesKrittika

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