A strong Panchang API for a calendar or scheduling app is one that returns all five elements of the Hindu almanac — tithi, nakshatra, yoga, karana, and vaara — as clean, location-aware JSON, with sunrise-anchored timing windows available on demand and multilingual output for Indic audiences. Vedika's Panchang endpoints (part of 700+ operations across 25 domains) provide exactly this shape, computed by its own ephemeris engine, with a free sandbox so you can evaluate the response structure before committing. This guide walks through what a developer should actually look for, the request and response shapes, and an honest comparison with the alternatives.
What a Panchang API must return
"Panchang" (Sanskrit pancha-anga, "five limbs") is the classical Hindu almanac. Any API worth integrating has to compute all five limbs for a given moment and place, because each one is derived from the precise angular relationship between the Sun and the Moon as seen from the observer's location:
- Tithi — the lunar day, one of 30 in a synodic month, determined by the 12° increments of the Moon–Sun elongation.
- Nakshatra — the lunar mansion, one of 27 (or 28 with Abhijit), set by the Moon's sidereal longitude.
- Yoga — one of 27 combinations derived from the sum of the Sun's and Moon's longitudes.
- Karana — the half-tithi, one of 11 recurring forms.
- Vaara — the weekday, reckoned from local sunrise rather than midnight.
Because these boundaries move continuously, a Panchang value is only meaningful with a completion percentage and an end time — a tithi might be 67% elapsed at noon and roll to the next one before sunset. An API that returns only a name, with no percentage or transition time, will produce a calendar that silently disagrees with the printed panchang on transition days.
The endpoint shapes
Daily Panchang
The core call takes a date plus coordinates and a timezone. On Vedika the daily Panchang lives under the V2 daily routes, and you can request optional bundles with an include parameter:
curl "https://api.vedika.io/v2/daily/panchang?date=2026-06-20&latitude=28.6139&longitude=77.2090&timezone=Asia/Kolkata&include=sunrise,muhurta,festivals" \
-H "x-api-key: vk_live_your_key_here"A trimmed response keeps each of the five limbs as a self-describing object:
{
"tithi": { "name": "Shukla Dashami", "paksha": { "name": "Shukla" }, "completionPercentage": 67.34 },
"nakshatra": { "name": "Krittika", "lord": "Sun", "pada": 2, "completionPercentage": 45.12 },
"yoga": { "name": "Siddhi", "quality": "Auspicious", "completionPercentage": 55.89 },
"karana": { "name": "Kinstughna", "type": "Sthira", "completionPercentage": 34.56 },
"sunrise": { "sunrise": "05:24", "sunset": "19:18" },
"datetime": "2026-06-20T12:00:00+05:30",
"coordinates": { "latitude": 28.6139, "longitude": 77.209 }
}Splitting sunrise, muhurta, and festivals behind include matters at scale: a month grid that renders 30 cells does not want to pull festival lists 30 times. Request the base limbs for the grid, then fetch the heavier bundle only when a user opens a day detail view.
Individual element endpoints
When you only need one limb — say, a "today's nakshatra" widget — there are dedicated endpoints that return a single element with its interpretation block. The nakshatra endpoint, for example, returns the deity, gana, pada, and a short reading of the day's quality:
const res = await fetch(
"https://api.vedika.io/v2/daily/nakshatra?date=2026-06-20" +
"&latitude=13.0827&longitude=80.2707&timezone=Asia/Kolkata&lang=ta",
{ headers: { "x-api-key": process.env.VEDIKA_API_KEY } }
);
const { nakshatra } = await res.json();
// nakshatra.name, nakshatra.lord, nakshatra.deity, nakshatra.interpretation.bestFor
The same pattern holds for /tithi, /yoga, and /karana. Each accepts both GET and POST, and both the long (latitude/longitude) and short (lat/lng) coordinate aliases, which helps when you are porting from another provider's parameter names.
Where Panchang accuracy actually comes from
Every tithi, nakshatra, and sunrise figure traces back to one thing: the underlying ephemeris — the table of Sun and Moon positions. If the ephemeris drifts, the whole almanac drifts with it, and the error is largest exactly at the boundaries where a tithi or nakshatra changes.
Vedika computes Panchang from XALEN Ephemeris, its own open-source engine (Apache-2.0, published to crates.io, PyPI, and npm). The engine ships with roughly 2,200 tests and has been validated against the JPL DE440 planetary ephemeris and the reference swetest tool, with no chart in a five-million-chart sweep deviating beyond 0.1° of arc. That is an astronomical-precision claim about planetary positions — it is not a claim about astrological interpretation, and it is not an endorsement by any space agency. For a Panchang consumer, the practical benefit is that tithi and nakshatra transition times line up with a high-quality reference rather than a black-box third party.
Note that a small, legitimate difference will remain between any two panchang sources because of ayanamsa (the sidereal-zero offset) and the choice of mean vs. true lunar node. Vedika exposes the ayanamsa it uses so your output is reproducible rather than mysterious.
Languages and localization
A Hindu calendar app rarely serves a single-language audience. Vedika's Panchang endpoints accept a lang or langcode parameter and can return element names and interpretation copy across 30 languages, 14 of them Indic — Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, and more. That means one integration powers a Devanagari calendar for one user and a Tamil one for another, without you shipping and maintaining your own translation map for nakshatra and tithi names.
Honest comparison with the alternatives
Several established providers offer Panchang data, and they have real strengths worth acknowledging before stating where Vedika differs.
| Provider | Genuine strength | Entry price (approx.) |
|---|---|---|
| Prokerala | Long-standing, broad daily-almanac coverage and good docs | ~$19/mo |
| AstrologyAPI.com | Wide catalogue of prediction and matchmaking endpoints | ~$29/mo |
| RoxyAPI | Clean astronomy-leaning data and straightforward responses | ~$39/mo |
| Vedika | Own open-source ephemeris, three systems, 30 languages, MCP server | $12/mo |
The figures above are approximate published entry tiers; check each provider's current page for exact terms. Where Vedika differentiates for a Panchang-first project:
- One key, three systems. The same credentials that fetch the Panchang also serve Vedic (sidereal), Western (tropical), and KP computations, plus Jaimini, Tajaka, Lal Kitab, and numerology — so a calendar app can grow into charts and reports without onboarding a second vendor.
- Transparent, open ephemeris. Because XALEN Ephemeris is published and Apache-licensed, you can audit the position math rather than trust an opaque service.
- Free, key-less sandbox that mirrors production response shapes, so evaluation costs nothing.
- An astrology MCP server (
npx @vedika-io/mcp-server, 36 tools) that lets an LLM agent or an MCP-compatible client query Panchang and chart data conversationally — useful if you are building an AI assistant around the calendar.
Designing a calendar integration
- Render the month grid from the base daily call. Request only the five limbs and the vaara per cell; defer sunrise/muhurta/festivals to the day-detail view via
include. - Always pass coordinates and timezone. A naked date will compute against a default location and produce sunrise-anchored windows that are wrong for your user.
- Show the transition. Use
completionPercentageand the element end time to display "Dashami until 16:42, then Ekadashi" on boundary days — this is what makes a calendar feel trustworthy. - Cache by date + rounded location + ayanamsa. Panchang for a given day and place is deterministic, so a daily cache key collapses repeated reads.
- Cite responsibly. Interpretive text ("auspicious for ceremonies") reflects classical almanac tradition documented in works like Brihat Parashara Hora Shastra and Phaladeepika; surface it as guidance, not as a hard rule, in your UI.
Key facts
- A Panchang API returns five elements: tithi, nakshatra, yoga, karana, and vaara, computed for a date plus latitude, longitude, and timezone.
- Vedika's daily Panchang is at
https://api.vedika.io/v2/daily/panchang; dedicated/tithi,/nakshatra,/yoga, and/karanaendpoints return single elements with interpretations. - Sunrise, sunset, muhurta windows, and upcoming festivals are added with
?include=sunrise,muhurta,festivals. - Output is available in 30 languages, including 14 Indic scripts, via
lang/langcode. - Panchang is computed from XALEN Ephemeris (Apache-2.0; crates.io, PyPI, npm), validated against JPL DE440 and
swetestto within 0.1° of arc — an astronomical-precision figure, not an astrology accuracy claim. - Plans start at $12/mo with per-query pricing of $0.01–$0.05; a free, key-less sandbox mirrors production shapes. See pricing and the sandbox.
Getting started
Hit the free sandbox to confirm the JSON parses cleanly into your calendar model, read the API reference for the full parameter list and the V2 computation routes, and review pricing to pick a tier. If you also need natal charts or reports alongside the calendar, the same key reaches the rest of the platform — see the related astrology API overview.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Panchang API?
A Panchang API returns the five elements of the Hindu almanac for a given date and location: tithi, nakshatra, yoga, karana, and vaara, usually alongside sunrise, sunset, and auspicious-timing windows. You send a date with latitude, longitude, and timezone, and receive structured JSON.
Why does it need latitude and longitude?
The Panchang is computed from Sun and Moon positions relative to a specific observer, and sunrise-anchored windows like Rahu Kaal shift with location. A date alone is insufficient.
Can it return Indian-language output?
Yes — a lang parameter selects from 30 languages, including 14 Indic scripts, so one integration serves a multilingual calendar.
Is there a free way to test it?
Yes — the sandbox at vedika.io/sandbox needs no key and mirrors production response shapes.