The half-tithi

A karana is half a tithi, the unit covering half of the twelve-degree separation between Sun and Moon, so that there are two karanas to each tithi and sixty in a lunar month. There are eleven karanas in all: four fixed ones (the sthira karanas) that occur only once each per lunar month, around the new moon, and seven movable ones (the chara karanas) that repeat in rotation through the month.

The karana is one of the five limbs of the panchanga, the Hindu almanac, and is consulted in electional astrology for the suitability of a moment for particular undertakings.