Kundli and Panchang for Puja Stores and Temple Websites

Four features give people a reason to come back to a puja store or a temple website. The first is today's panchang (the Hindu calendar for one day) for the visitor's own city. The second is the year's festival and fasting days. The third is a good time for a puja someone books. The fourth is a free kundli (a Vedic birth chart). Each one is a single API call. In order, the calls are GET /v1/panchang/daily, GET /v1/festivals with GET /v1/vrats, POST /v1/muhurta/{activity} and POST /v1/planets.

The city is the part that is easy to get wrong. Take Rama Ekadashi, a fast kept on the 11th lunar day. We asked our API for the 2026 dates in Edison, New Jersey. It put Rama Ekadashi on Wednesday, Nov 4, 2026. A calendar made for India puts it on Thursday, Nov 5. A family in Edison that reads India's date fasts a day late.

That is not one odd case. Of the 123 fasting days in 2026, 48 fall a day earlier in Edison than on India's calendar. That includes 12 of the 24 Ekadashis.

Below, we take Acme Puja Store in Edison through all four features. We used real answers from our API, run on Oct 13, 2026.

Feature 1: today's panchang for the visitor's city

A daily panchang box gives a devotee a reason to open your site each morning. It shows the tithi (the lunar day), the nakshatra (the Moon's star group), sunrise and the times of the day. One call to GET /v1/panchang/daily returns all of it. You send a date, a latitude, a longitude and a time zone.

Here is what it returned for Edison on Wednesday, Nov 4, 2026:

Rahu kaal is a daily window that tradition keeps free of new starts. Abhijit muhurat is a short window around local noon that the panchang lists as a good time. The note on it matters. The API added: "many traditions do not observe Abhijit on Wednesday". Print that note under the time. Leave it out, and some visitors see a time their own family would not use.

New York is close by, but its times still differ. Sunrise there was 6:29 AM and rahu kaal began at 11:39 AM. So send each visitor's city, not the temple's. Our post on rahu kaal by city shows every field of this call.

Feature 2: festival and fasting days for the year

Fasting days bring people back often, because they repeat every lunar month. A vrat (a fast or observance day) such as Ekadashi, Pradosh, Purnima or Amavasya comes back each lunar month. GET /v1/vrats returns every one of them for a year and a place. For Edison in 2026, that was 123 days. They include 24 Ekadashis, 24 Pradosh days, 13 Sankashti Chaturthis and 12 Masik Shivaratris, plus the full and new moon days. Every festival and fasting-day id is on the Sections and IDs page.

GET /v1/festivals adds the big days. It gave 23 festivals for Edison in 2026, such as Diwali on Nov 8. GET /v1/panchang/month puts both on a month grid. In November 2026, 11 of Edison's 30 days had a festival or a fast.

This code lists the Ekadashis left in 2026 for the temple's city. Run it on your server, so your API key stays private.

// The Ekadashi dates for one city and year (Node 18 or later).
const BASE_URL = "https://apiforastrology.com/api/astrology/v1";

// The temple's city: Edison, New Jersey.
const place = {
  year: "2026",
  kind: "ekadashi",
  latitude: "40.5187",
  longitude: "-74.4121",
  timezone: "America/New_York",
};

const response = await fetch(`${BASE_URL}/vrats?${new URLSearchParams(place)}`, {
  headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.ASTROLOGY_API_KEY}` },
});
const calendar = await response.json();

for (const vrat of calendar.vrats) {
  if (vrat.date >= "2026-11-01") {
    console.log(`${vrat.date}  ${vrat.name}`);
    if (vrat.sources_agree === false) {
      console.log(`            Some families keep it on ${vrat.other_tradition_date}`);
    }
  }
}

It printed:

2026-11-04  Rama Ekadashi
2026-11-20  Devutthana Ekadashi
2026-12-04  Utpanna Ekadashi
2026-12-19  Mokshada Ekadashi
            Some families keep it on 2026-12-20

That last line is not an error. For Mokshada Ekadashi, traditions really do differ, and the API gives both days. Our post on why festival dates change by city explains the city part in full.

Feature 3: a good time for a booked puja

If your site takes puja bookings, the booking page can show the times the calendar favors that day, for the family's city.

Say a family books a Shani Pradosh puja for Saturday, Nov 21, 2026. Pradosh vrat is a fast for Shiva, kept on the 13th lunar day in the early evening. The vrat calendar puts Edison's Shani Pradosh on Nov 21, because that is "the only day the tithi holds pradosh". The daily panchang for that date gives the rest:

So the evening slot to offer runs from 6:27 PM to 7:27 PM. That hour has both the pradosh window and the right lunar day.

The API has no "puja" activity in its muhurat search. POST /v1/muhurta/{activity} covers five: buying a vehicle, buying property, griha pravesh (moving into a new home), marriage and starting a business. A housewarming puja fits the third. For Edison from Nov 4 to Dec 31, 2026, it returned 14 griha pravesh windows. The first runs from 3:30 AM on Nov 10 to 6:38 AM. The API ranks none of them above another.

It also does not hide what it leaves out. In 5 of the 14 windows, rahu kaal falls inside, and the API lists it beside the window instead of cutting it out. Add the customer's birth details to the call, and each window says whether it suits that person.

Feature 4: a free kundli that starts a conversation

A free kundli gives a first-time visitor something of their own. It also gives your store a reason to ask for an email. One call to POST /v1/planets returns the rising sign, all nine planets and the nakshatra of each.

For John Doe, born Aug 15, 1990, at 10:30 AM in New York, it returned Virgo rising. His Moon is in Taurus, in the Mrigashira nakshatra. That nakshatra is his birth star. Many Hindu families choose a baby's name that starts with the sound of the birth star. Our free kundli tool runs on this same call, so you can try it with any birth.

Birth details are personal. Ask before you use them, and say in your privacy notice what you use them for.

Build the calendar first. The Hindu calendar API page lists every festival and fasting day the API covers, with the rule behind each date.

Show it with respect

People come to a puja store or a temple site for their faith. Five habits keep the page respectful.

Show the rule, not only the date. Every festival and vrat comes with decided_by, the rule that chose the day. For Rama Ekadashi in Edison, it reads: "Ekadashi holds this sunrise and Dwadashi holds the next, so the fast can be broken within Dwadashi". A priest or a careful family can check that line against their own calendar.

Show both dates when traditions differ. Look for sources_agree: false, as with Mokshada Ekadashi above. Krishna Janmashtami 2026 is the same case in Edison: Sep 3, or Sep 4 in the other tradition. Present both, and let the family follow its own.

Use plain, calm words for the times. Call rahu kaal "a time kept free of new starts". Skip words that alarm people. The API marks each choghadiya (one of eight slices of the day) as auspicious, neutral or inauspicious. Your page can use softer labels, as long as the meaning stays the same.

Offer Hindi. Add lang=hi, and the names come back in Hindi. For Nov 4 in Edison, the tithi reads एकादशी and the day reads बुधवार. The English names stay in the _en fields.

Make no promises. A puja, a fast or a good time is a tradition your visitors choose to keep. Describe it, and do not claim results. If you also suggest remedies, our puja stores page covers that side.

See today's panchang for your city. The free panchang tool shows the tithi, rahu kaal and choghadiya for any place and date. It runs on the same call as Feature 1.

Which call powers which feature

Every one of these is one call. The API reference lists each field for the calendar and muhurat calls.

Start with the fasting calendar. With 24 Ekadashis a year, it gives a visitor a reason to return about twice a month. In Edison, 48 of its dates also differ from a calendar made for India. Then add the daily box, the booking times and the free kundli, each one sent for the visitor's own city.