The building blocks of the Telugu calendar
What is a tithi?
Tithi, paksha, masa, nakshatra: these four words decide every Telugu birthday and festival date. Here’s what each one means, in plain English.
Tithi: the lunar day
A tithi is one lunar day: the time it takes for the angle between the Moon and the Sun to grow by 12°. There are 30 tithis in a lunar month, and because the Moon’s speed varies, a tithi can be a little shorter or longer than a solar day. Your Telugu birthday is the tithi you were born under, which is why it doesn’t sit on a fixed Gregorian date.
Paksha: the fortnight
The lunar month splits into two pakshas (fortnights of 15 tithis each): Shukla paksha, the bright, waxing half from new moon to full moon, and Krishna paksha, the dark, waning half from full moon back to new moon. A birthday is always given as a tithi within a paksha, for example Shukla Navami or Krishna Ashtami.
Masa: the Telugu month
A masa is a lunar month, named for the nakshatra near which the full moon falls. The twelve masas, in order:
- Chaitra
- Vaisakha
- Jyeshtha
- Ashadha
- Shravana
- Bhadrapada
- Ashvayuja
- Karthika
- Margashira
- Pushya
- Magha
- Phalguna
To keep the lunar year aligned with the solar year, an extra month, the adhika masa, is inserted roughly every three years. That leap month is the main reason your Telugu birthday sometimes jumps forward on the Gregorian calendar.
Nakshatra: the lunar mansion
The Moon’s path is divided into 27 nakshatras (lunar mansions). The nakshatra the Moon occupies at your birth is your janma nakshatra. Some families celebrate the nakshatra birthday rather than the tithi birthday. Sampangi is tithi-based, the most common Telugu reckoning, and shows the nakshatra for each day as well.
Why it’s decided at sunrise
The Telugu calendar assigns each Gregorian day the tithi that is present at local sunrise. Because sunrise comes at a different clock time in every city, the same tithi can fall on a different Gregorian date in the US than in India. That is exactly why your Telugu birthday can land a day off from home.
Next: find your Telugu birthday or browse Telugu festivals in 2026.
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