Gara is fifth in the rotation of movable karanas and holds positions 6, 13, 20, 27, 34, 41, 48 and 55 of the sixty.
Position p occupies the tithi numbered ceiling of p over two, in its first half when p is odd and its second when p is even. So Gara takes the second half of tithi 3, the first of 7, the second of 10, the first of 14, the second of 17, the first of 21, the second of 24 and the first of 28. That is four tithis in the bright fortnight and four in the dark.
One of those positions has a particular character. Position 27 is the first half of tithi 14, Shukla Chaturdashi, the last full tithi before the full moon, and position 55 is the first half of tithi 28, its counterpart in the waning half. Gara therefore stands immediately before the two most watched points in the month without ever occupying either of them.
On duration, the figure to hold is 11 hours and 49 minutes as an average, being one sixtieth of a synodic month of 29.530589 days. The real span depends on how fast the Moon is pulling away from the Sun, which varies with both bodies' distance from the Earth, and runs from about ten hours to about thirteen and a half. Two consecutive karanas in the same month can differ by more than two hours in length.