[Advaita-l] Sringeri Panchanga

[Anand Hudli]

>There are two types of Rasis in vogue. Sayana and Nirayana

As Shri Venkataraman pointed out the ayanamsha is the crucial input that
varies from one source to another. See for example the paper below which
lists some 25 kinds of AyanAmshas:

http://home.windstream.net/overbeck/AyanStat.pdf

Even after removing "outliers", you are left with a range of 11 degrees to
about 28 degrees for the year 2006. This is a huge variance.

Even if you use the most modern astronomical methods to compute planetary
positions, you must always subtract the ayanAmsha to obtain the nirayana
longitudes of the planets. This is a critical step to determine panchanga
elements such as the nakShatra, (although the tithi is independent of
ayanAmsha since it cancels out while taking the difference between the
sun's position and the moon's position). And this is where astrologers tend
to ignore the "elephant in the room". Which ayanAmsha do you use? Depending
on which ayanAmsha you use, you will see a significant variation in the
nirayana planetary positions.

Faced with this difficulty some modern panchanga makers and astrologers
have resorted to a purely sAyana panchanga, completely avoiding the
ayanAmsha problem.  See for example:
http://www.reformedsanathancalendar.in/

Anand