What is Panchangam: The great hindu sages have realized that the manifested universe (Jagat) has sprung out of the supreme spirit and that each fragment of the universe is influenced by the rest of the universe and vice versa. Through their keen observation of the sky above and by their yogic powers, the sages preceived perfect harmony and order in the movements of the heavenly bodies. In a bold effort to measure time and pinpoint any given point of time, they utilized this characteristic of the universe and devised a marvelous scale of the time measurement, starting from a kshana (moment or second) all the way up to the life span of a Brahma, the creator.

Closely watching the solar system to which the earth belongs, our sages  observed that  the  apparent  path  covered  by  the  Sun  in  relation  to  Earth  (called  the  eliptic),  recurred  periodically with rhythmic precision. Likewise, they noticed that the Moon's path in  relation  to  earth  also  recurred  at  regular  intervals.  Based on the  observed  phenomena, they established units of time such as day, month and year etc, and gained the ability to precisely forecast the timing of these recurring celestial events. Thus they gave mankind a system of time measurement, by which the correct times for observance of religious rites can be ascertained in accordance with sastric injunctions. These were the origins of a Panchangam.