Karana

Where the tithi divides the lunar month into thirty days, the karana cuts each of those days in half — one karana for every 6 degrees the Moon gains on the Sun. It is the fifth and finest limb of the panchang, the level at which muhurat work makes its final checks.

The arithmetic is elegant. Thirty tithis produce sixty half-steps, so a lunar month holds sixty karanas. Of these, fifty-seven are filled by the seven movable karanas cycling eight times minus three, and the last three half-tithis of the month are assigned to three fixed karanas — Shakuni, Chatushpada and Naga — while Kimstughna takes the very first half of the month's first tithi. The four fixed ones are therefore rare, pinned to specific slots near Amavasya and Pratipada.

Each movable karana carries a symbol and a task in the old manuals: Bava is associated with beginnings and young energy, Balava with water rituals, Kaulava with friendship, Taitila with construction, Garaja with learning, Vanija with trade, and Vishti — the notorious one — with destruction.

Worked example: a tithi spans 12 degrees; the karana changes at the midpoint. If the Moon is 20 degrees ahead of the Sun, the first tithi (0–12°) is over and the second tithi is halfway through its first karana. Checking the panchang, that slot runs Balava — workable — and Vishti (Bhadra) is nowhere near. A trader planning to sign at that hour gets a clean bill.

Vishti, also called Bhadra, is the karana muhurat practice actually screens for. Tradition says work begun in Bhadra comes to nothing, so panchang listings flag its hours plainly. Everything else is generally neutral to good. In practice, most people check karana only at the final step — after tithi, weekday, nakshatra and yoga have already narrowed the day — but it remains the reason one "good" afternoon can still be rejected.