What do these mean?

Rahu kalam

Rahu kalam is a period of about one and a half hours every day. The daytime, from sunrise to sunset, is split into eight equal parts, and Rahu kalam is one of them, fixed by the weekday: the eighth part on Sunday, the second on Monday, the seventh on Tuesday, the fifth on Wednesday, the sixth on Thursday, the fourth on Friday and the third on Saturday. By tradition people avoid starting something new in it, such as a journey, a purchase or a ceremony. Routine work carries on as normal.

Yamagandam

Yamagandam is another of the eight equal parts of the daytime, also fixed by the weekday. Tradition treats it much like Rahu kalam: a time when people prefer not to begin something new.

Gulika kalam

Gulika kalam (also called Gulikai) is a third part of the daytime fixed by the weekday. Many people avoid starting important things in it as well. Customs about it differ from family to family and region to region.

Abhijit muhurtham

Abhijit muhurtham is the middle of the day. The daytime is divided into fifteen equal parts called muhurtams, about 48 minutes each, and Abhijit is the eighth, centred on local noon. It is traditionally seen as a good time to begin things. Many almanacs do not use it on Wednesdays.

Sunrise and sunset

The almanac day begins at sunrise, not at midnight. Sunrise and sunset change with your town and with the season, and every timing on this page is measured from them. That is why the timings are worked out for the place you choose.

Tithi

A tithi is a lunar day. Each time the Moon moves another 12 degrees ahead of the Sun in the sky, a new tithi begins, so a lunar month has 30 tithis. A tithi does not follow the clock: it can begin in the afternoon and end the next morning. The tithi in force at sunrise is the one usually named for the day.

Paksha

Paksha means half of the lunar month. Shukla paksha is the bright half, from new moon to full moon, when the Moon grows each night. Krishna paksha is the dark half, from full moon to new moon, when it shrinks. Each half has 15 tithis, ending with Purnima (full moon) or Amavasya (new moon).

Nakshatra

The nakshatras are 27 star groups along the Moon's path through the sky, each covering an equal share of it. The Moon passes through one nakshatra in about a day. The nakshatra of the day is the one the Moon is in at sunrise. A person's birth star is the nakshatra the Moon was in when they were born.

Yoga

In the almanac, yoga is a number worked out from the positions of the Sun and the Moon added together, divided into 27 named parts. It is one of the five parts of the panchangam. It is not the same as the yoga of exercise and breathing.

Karana

A karana is half of a tithi, so there are usually two in a day. There are eleven names in all. One of them, Vishti (also called Bhadra), is traditionally avoided for new beginnings.

Panchangam

Panchangam means "five parts". It is the traditional Indian almanac, and its five parts are the tithi (lunar day), the weekday, the nakshatra (star), the yoga and the karana. All five come from the positions of the Sun and the Moon, so they can be calculated for any place and any day.