Panchangam is just a click away

IT MAY be a marriage ceremony in the family or you may be planning to buy a new car... looking up the panchangam (Hindu Vedic Calendar) for an auspicious thithi (day) and muhurtham (time), before taking any major step in life, is mandatory in every traditional Hindu home. And, thanks to our fast eroding grasp of Sanskrit, we most often have to resort to a priest or an elderly member in the family when it comes to referring to a panchangam.

Well, the new net savvy generation has made even the panchangam accessible online. You could now log on to the first-of-its-kind Hindu Vedic online calendar, www.panchangam.com, key in the date and year, and the screen will flash the day's details like thithi, star details, rahu kalam, yama gandam and so on.

Conceived and conceptualised by a marketing professional, K. Ganesan, www.panchangam.com gives a complete insight into the various aspects of Indian culture and heritage. You not only get a list of the dates of important muhurthams, but also a step by step guide on the rituals that have to be observed, the delicacies to be made and other intricate details by clicking on the icons. With Deepavali round the corner, you could check out the special Deepavali recipes on the site and even the various patterns of kolam or rangoli designs that are specific to the occasion. One of the special attractions that www.panchangam.com offered, this year, during Navaratri was suggestions on the creative ways of kollu arrangement. In fact, you could also create your own cyber kollu, by merely clicking on the mouse.

Ganesan calls the website 'the computer mother-in-law'. As he says, "with the joint family system virtually having declined, I felt the need for a convenient medium to obtain information on dates of festivals, rites and rituals. It is usually the mother- in-law or an elderly person in the family who gives guidance on these matters in most joint families."

This website, remarks Ganesan, has received an overwhelming response, especially from non-residential Indians.

Another interesting aspect of this website is the Shloka section, where a person who visits the site can listen to a shloka being chanted, along with its meaning being flashed below. The site also provides information on the various rituals to be performed during a marriage and a Upanayana ceremony. Though this site presently concentrates mostly on South Indian customs and rituals, Ganesan says he and his team are working to make it an all-India website.

www.panchangam.com is not Ganesan's maiden project. This was preceded by another website called www.prarthana.com, which offers online Hindu temple services like pooja, archana and homams in temples like Tirupati, Guruvayur, Palani and Tirunallar. You could log on to this website and request for an archana to be performed at Tirupati. Not only will the archana be performed, but the prasadam will also be mailed to you.

AJITA SHASHIDHAR

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Features
Previous : Discover Science in Tamil
Next     : Some sweet news