How to read this app

SLVAC computes the Sri Lankan / Vedic almanac (panchānga) from real astronomy. Planetary positions come from the Swiss Ephemeris and are read sidereally using the Lahiri ayanāṁśa— the same zodiac the Sri Lankan and Indian traditions use. This is a Drik (true, calculated) panchānga, not a table-interpolated one.

Almost everything is anchored to sunrise. The “nakshatra of the day”, the tithi, and the inauspicious hours are all reckoned from the moment the Sun rises where you are — which is why choosing your location matters (see below). All times are shown in Sri Lanka time (Asia/Colombo).

This is a personal calculation aid for mindful timing and cultural practice — not medical, legal, or financial advice.

1. Set your location. Every time-based screen has a location selector (⌖). Pick the town nearest where the event will happen. It is remembered across pages and visits. An eastern town (e.g. Trincomalee) sees sunrise several minutes before a western one (Colombo), and that shift moves every sunrise-anchored result.
2. Know your janma nakshatra (birth star). On the Nakṣatra or Muhūrta page you can derive it from a birth date & time, or pick it from the list. It drives Tāra Bala.
3. Start at Today for the day at a glance, or go straight to Muhūrta to find an auspicious time for a specific task.

Today · අද දින

The whole day on one screen: the five limbs, the inauspicious hours, sunrise/sunset, and the day’s kaláwa. Start here; each block links to its full module.

Nakṣatra · නක්ෂත්‍ර

Where the Moon is. The top card shows the Moon’s nakshatra and pada right now (or at noon for a past/future date) with a progress bar for how far it has travelled. “Through the day” lists each nakshatra change with its exact ingress time. Below, browse all 27 star profiles. A Gandamūla tag marks a junction star (handle with care for beginnings).

Tāra Bala · තාරා බල

The Moon’s 9-fold favourability counted from your janma star. Green = supportive day-stars, red = avoid, amber = mixed. Used as one quarter of the muhurta score.

Hōra & Sūkshma · හෝරා

The 24 planetary hours, stretched between real sunrise and sunset, each split into 5 panchamas and 25 ~2.4-minute sukshmas. Tap a hora to open its subdivisions — the fine windows used to pinpoint a muhurta. The live row is highlighted when viewing today.

Panchānga · පංචාංග

The five limbs (tithi, vāra, nakshatra, yoga, karaṇa) at sunrise, plus the three inauspicious daytime periods drawn on a day-bar: Rahu Kālam, Yamagandam, and Gulika Kālam. Avoid starting new work inside these.

Muhūrta · මුහූර්ත

The finder. Choose a task, your janma star, and a date range; each day gets a 0–100 score and a list of usable time windows. See the next section for how to read it.

Visa & Amrita Kaláwa · විස · අමෘත කලාව

The Sinhala lunar body-map: the daily seat of vulnerability (Visa, avoid harm there) and of vitality (Amrita, protect it). Toggle sex — the currents mirror left/right by sex. Source defaults to De Silva (canonical). Used to vet ear-piercing and surgery sites.

Each day’s score (0–100) is the sum of four positive limbs, with a kaláwa safety adjustment that can subtract:

• Nakshatra fitness — 0 to 25. How suited the day’s nakshatra is to your task (the star’s 1–5 rating × 5).
• Tāra Bala — −10 to 25. The Moon’s favourability from your janma star. The best stars add up to 25; a Vadha (harm) star can subtract.
• Weekday — 0 to 15. Whether the day-lord (and the classically favoured weekday for the task) suits it.
• Best window — 0 to 35. The quality of the best fine sukshma window found in daylight, clear of Rahu/Yama/Gulika (supreme = 35).
• Panchānga penalties — ≤ 0. The remaining three limbs subtract when inauspicious, sampled at the best window: Rikta tithi (−6) or Amāvasyā (−10); an inauspicious yoga (−8); and Vishti/Bhadra karaṇa (−12). A clear day loses nothing here.
• Pushkara bonus — +12 (when present). If the Moon sits in a Pushkara point at the best window, a redeeming uplift is added — reduced to +4 if that window’s tāra is itself afflicted. See the next section.
• Kaláwa adjustment — up to −40. For ear-piercing (the ear) and surgery (the site you choose), if that body part is the day’s Visa (vulnerability) seat the day is penalised −40; the Amrita (vitality) seat is −18.

Expand any day to see this exact breakdown, the reasoning lines, and every usable window through the day — not just the best one. The ★ marks the best; the rest are chronological fallbacks so if you miss the first window you can take a later one. Each window shows its quality (supreme / excellent / good) and the planetary lord-chain that rules it.

Rule of thumb: 80+ is a strong day, 60–79 workable, below 60 better avoided if you have flexibility. A red warning means a hard objection (e.g. the kaláwa sits on a surgery site) — weigh it heavily.

Pushkara points are auspicious “redeemers”: when the Moon occupies one, an otherwise weak or mildly inauspicious moment becomes usable. This is the classical way to do a nekath even in a bad time — the Pushkara uplift offsets limb penalties (a Rikta tithi, a Vishti karaṇa, a weak tāra).

There are two forms, both read from the Moon’s position:

• Pushkara Navāṁśa — two auspicious 3°20′ bands in each sign, fixed by the sign’s element. Wide enough to fall in real windows, so it’s the practical redeemer.
• Pushkara Bhaga — a single highly-auspicious degree per sign (with a small orb). Rarer to catch, but the strongest single point.

In the finder, a window where the Moon is in a Pushkara point shows a ✦ Pushkara badge and a +12 “Pushkara” entry in its breakdown. Use it like this: if your only available days are weak, prefer a window carrying the Pushkara badge — tradition holds it salvages the muhūrta. It does not override a hard contraindication (e.g. a surgery-site kaláwa hit), which still warns.

One important limit. Pushkara redeems a weak timing — a Rikta tithi, a Vishti karaṇa, a mild yoga — but it is not a full cure for an afflicted tāra. When a window’s own Tāra Bala is inauspicious for that person (Pratyari/enemy, Vipath/danger or Vadha/death), Pushkara is downgraded to a partial redeemer (only +4), and such a window is shown with a red Tāra ⚠ chip and a ✦ Pushkara* badge. This guarantees a genuinely favourable window (e.g. Kshema) always ranks above an enemy-tāra one — Pushkara can never make a bad tāra look as clean as a good one. Treat a Pushkara* window as a last-resort fallback, not an equal substitute.

The Pushkara degree/navāṁśa tables are the commonly-published standard, kept as editable constants — verify against your almanac.

The Kendraya (birth chart) follows the Lahiri (Chitrapakṣa) sidereal ayanāṁśa and the Sri Lankan Parāśarī ලිත tradition. Every modelling choice is a deliberate default — most are settled, a few are genuinely tradition-dependent. The full record (with code references) lives in VERIFY-CONSTANTS.md §M; the chart page itself carries a short “Methods & assumptions” panel. This section explains what we follow and why, and — importantly — what changes if someone reads it differently, so a disagreement can be settled on the merits rather than argued from scratch.

Settled choices (ruled)

• True (spaṣṭa) node for Rāhu/Ketu — the Sri Lankan ලිත and modern Parāśarī panchāngas use the true node, not the mean. Impact: mean vs true can differ up to ~1.5°, enough to move a node into the next nakṣatra or sign near a boundary — which in turn can change the Vimśottarī daśā start.
• Whole-sign houses (bhāva) — the Lagna sign is the 1st house. Impact: under a cusp system (Sripati / bhāva-chalita) a planet near a sign edge can fall in the neighbouring house; we keep whole-sign as primary and would only ever add cusps as a secondary toggle.
• Dignity with Mūlatrikoṇa + deep-exaltation degree — exaltation, debilitation, own-sign and the finer Mūlatrikoṇa band, plus the exact paramoccha/paramnīca degree (flagged ⇈/⇊). Values are the standard BPHS set.
• Vimśottarī daśā, 365.25-day (solar) year — standard Parāśarī + Sri Lankan ලිත practice. Impact: using 360 sāvana days instead would drift long-range daśā dates by weeks; we do not do that.
• Parāśara varga schemes — D-2 Horā (Leo/Cancer only), D-9 Navāṁśa (continuous 108-count), D-10 Daśāṁśa (odd→self, even→9th).

Genuinely contested choices (kept as a documented default)

On these two, a different reputable astrologer could legitimately rule otherwise. We chose the more widely-followed / more defensible option and flagged it, so if it is challenged the alternative and its effect are already on record:

• Node aspects — 5th / 7th / 9th (Jupiter-like). A minority restrict Rāhu/Ketu to the 7th aspect only. Impact: with the 5/9 glances the nodes appear to aspect two extra houses, which can add or remove a dṛṣṭi on a key bhāva.
• Node dignity — none. Some authorities give Rāhu exaltation in Taurus/Gemini and Ketu in Scorpio/Sagittarius; the classical texts are not unanimous. Impact: if assigned, the nodes would occasionally show an “exalted/debilitated” label they currently never carry.

If an astrologer disputes any of the above, it is a one-line change to a documented constant — not a redesign. Point them to §M, note the ruling, and we re-validate and apply it.

• Pick the right location first. The town sets sunrise, which sets the limbs and windows. Use where the event will actually take place.
• Get your janma star right. Derive it from an accurate birth time — a wrong star throws off the whole Tāra Bala quarter of the score. If your birth time is uncertain, note that the Moon can change nakshatra within a day.
• Widen the date range. Auspicious days are not evenly spaced; a 2–4 week window gives the finder room to surface genuinely strong days rather than the least-bad of three.
• Use the fallback windows. A high-scoring day usually offers several good windows. If the ★ window is impractical, the list gives you the next-best times the same day.
• For surgery, always set the body site. Without it, the kaláwa body-map can’t protect the operated part. With it, days where the Visa current sits on that part drop out.
• Cross-check on Today / Panchānga. Before committing, open the chosen day and confirm the window falls outside Rahu/Yama/Gulika and the yoga/karaṇa aren’t flagged.

Panchānga

“Five limbs” — tithi, vāra, nakshatra, yoga, karaṇa: the daily almanac.

Tithi

Lunar day — the Moon’s angle from the Sun in 12° steps; 15 in each fortnight (paksha).

Paksha

Fortnight: Shukla (waxing) or Krishna (waning).

Nakṣatra

One of 27 lunar mansions, each 13°20′, divided into 4 padas.

Pada

A quarter of a nakshatra (3°20′), each mapped to a navāṁśa sign.

Vāra

Weekday, ruled by its planetary lord.

Yoga

Sun+Moon longitude combination; 27 of them, some inauspicious.

Karaṇa

Half-tithi; Vishti (Bhadra) is the one to avoid.

Hōra

A planetary hour; 24 span sunrise to sunrise.

Sūkshma

The finest ~2.4-min subdivision used to pinpoint a window.

Tāra Bala

The Moon’s 9-fold strength counted from the janma star.

Janma nakshatra

Your birth star — the Moon’s nakshatra at your birth.

Gandamūla

A junction star (Ashvinī, Āśleṣā, Maghā, Jyeṣṭhā, Mūla, Revatī) — treated cautiously for beginnings.

Rahu / Yama / Gulika

Three inauspicious daytime periods, each an eighth of daylight.

Lahiri ayanāṁśa

The offset that converts tropical to sidereal positions; the Sri Lankan / Indian standard.

Kaláwa

The Sinhala lunar body-map of Visa (vulnerability) and Amrita (vitality) currents.

• The muhurta scoring weights (weekday favourability, sukshma point values) are reasoned defaults from general Vedic principles — sensible, but tune-able for a practitioner’s own school.
• Kaláwa tables follow L. Nell (1881); published Sinhala almanacs themselves disagree, so De Silva is shown as canonical and Lakrivikirana kept for comparison. Lunar days are reckoned by true tithi, so a day may differ ±1 from simple calendar counting.
• Character attributes of the nakshatras (gaṇa, nāḍī, yoni, deity…) are classical and offered for reflection, not prescription.
• Above all: this is a thinking aid for a living tradition. For anything consequential, consult a qualified person.

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