KARANA
A karana is half of a tithi. To be precise,
a karaṇa is the time required
for the angular distance between the sun and the moon to increase in steps of
6° starting from 0°. (Compare with the definition of a tithi.)
Since the tithis are 30 in number, and since 1
tithi = 2 karanas, therefore one would logically expect there to be 60 karanas.
But there are only 11 such karanas which fill up those slots to accommodate for
those 30 tithis. There are actually 4 "fixed" (sthira) karanas and 7
"repeating" (cara) karanas.
The 4
"fixed" Karanas are:
1. Śakuni (शकुनि)
2. Catuṣpāda (चतुष्पाद)
3. Nāga (नाग)
4. Kiṃstughna(किंस्तुघ्न)
The 7
"repeating" karanas are:
1. Vava or Bava (बव)
2. Valava or Bālava (बालव)
3. Kaulava (कौलव)
4. Taitila or Taitula (तैतिल)
5. Gara or Garaja (गरज)
6. Vaṇija (वणिज)
7. Viṣṭi (Bhadra) (भद्रा)
·
Now the first half of
the 1st tithi (of Śukla Pakṣa) is always Kiṃtughna karana. Hence this karana' is
"fixed".
·
Next, the 7-repeating
karaṇas repeat eight times
to cover the next 56 half-tithis. Thus these are the
"repeating" (cara) karanas.
·
The 3 remaining half-tithis take
the remaining "fixed" karanas in order. Thus these are also
"fixed" (sthira).
·
Thus one gets 60 karaṇas from those 11 preset karanas.
The Vedic day begins
at sunrise.
The karana at sunrise
of a particular day shall be the prevailing karana for the whole day.
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