Nirnay Engine · Panchang Determination

Ruling Questionnaire for the Nirnay Authority

પંચાંગ / વ્રત-ઉત્સવ નિર્ણય — નિર્ણય માટેના પ્રશ્નો

These are the open questions that shape how the calendar engine determines dates and prints the almanac. Each carries a suggested answer drawn from the current settings and source documents — please confirm it, or write the correct ruling in the space provided.

Prepared for: Shree Swaminarayan Mandir, Bhuj — Nirnay authority Date: 23 July 2026 Sections: 4 + engineering appendix
0 of 16 answered
How to use this document. Read each question and its suggested answer. If the suggestion is correct, press ✓ Confirm suggested. If not, press ✗ Different ruling and type the correct ruling — it saves on its own. Your answers are stored and reload next time you open this page. Questions in the amber band are genuinely unresolved — the engine cannot currently reproduce them without your guidance.
Suggested answer to confirm Unresolved — needs your method / ruling

1. Calculation foundations

These choices affect every nakshatra, tithi and festival date. Settling them first fixes everything downstream.

1Ayanamsa system (અયનાંશ પદ્ધતિ)

Why it matters: The ayanamsa fixes where every nakshatra and rashi boundary sits, so it moves tithi, nakshatra and festival dates. The engine's stored setting is currently Lahiri (selected by Brahmmuni Swami) but marked "not in the PDF — needs Swami verification." The value that exactly reproduces Shri Hari's janmapatrika is Surya-Siddhanta (Revati-paksha).

Suggested answerUse Lahiri for the everyday panchang and vrat-utsav nirnay (the current setting); use Surya-Siddhanta Revati-paksha only for reproducing the historical Shri Hari birth chart. — Or specify one single system to be used for everything.
Your ruling
2Order of authority when sources disagree

Why it matters: The વ્રત-ઉત્સવ નિર્ણય document colour-codes each ruling by its source — Satsangijeevan (સ.જી.), Nirnaysindhu / Dharmasindhu (નિ.સિં./ધ.સિં.), Vratparva Vivek (વ્ર.પ.વિ.), and the Bhuj Mandir's own ruling. When two sources give different days, the engine needs one fixed order of precedence.

Suggested answerPrecedence, highest first: Bhuj Mandir ruling → Satsangijeevan → Nirnaysindhu / Dharmasindhu → Vratparva Vivek. Confirm this order (or re-order).
Your ruling
3Vaishnava vs Smarta determination

Why it matters: For a few observances (e.g. Rama Navami and certain Ekadashis) the Vaishnava and Smarta traditions can fall on different civil days. The engine holds both options.

Suggested answerAlways follow the Vaishnava (Swaminarayan) determination as the default for every date. Confirm.
Your ruling
4Ekadashi & Parana authority (એકાદશી / પારણાં)

Why it matters: The Ekadashi logic (waiting past Harivasara, the Dashami-vedh rule of ~5 ghadi before sunrise, and a set of numbered scenarios) currently cites the Utsav Nirnay booklet (Brahmmuni Swami) as its source.

Suggested answerConfirm the Utsav Nirnay booklet is the governing authority for all Ekadashi and Parana timing. If the numbered "scenarios 1–10" exist in writing, please provide that reference so we can verify the engine against it.
Your ruling

2. Calendar & era display

How years and eras are numbered and labelled on the printed output.

5Vikram Samvat reckoning

Why it matters: The Vikram Samvat year can roll over at Kartik Sud 1 (Kartikadi — the Gujarati custom, just after Diwali) or at Chaitra Sud 1 (Chaitradi). The engine currently treats "Vikram Samvat" as Kartikadi.

Suggested answerPrint Vikram Samvat as Kartikadi (year turns at Kartik Sud 1, post-Diwali). Confirm.
Your ruling
6Shri Swaminarayan Shaka epoch

Why it matters: The booklet prints a "Shri Swaminarayan Shaka" era count alongside Vikram Samvat and Shaka.

Suggested answerThe Swaminarayan Shaka era begins in 1781 CE (Shri Hari's pragatya), so 2026–27 ≈ Shaka 245–246. Confirm the epoch year.
Your ruling
760-year Samvatsara cycle (સંવત્સર)

Why it matters: North and South India number the 60-year Jovian cycle one year apart. The engine holds both; we must pick one to print.

Suggested answerUse the North-Indian reckoning (to match Gujarat / Kartikadi practice). Confirm which cycle name should print for the current year.
Your ruling
8Festival label: Janmashtami or Gokul Ashtami?

Why it matters: Purely a naming choice for Shravan Vad 8 on the printed output.

Suggested answerPrint as Gokul Ashtami (ગોકુલ અષ્ટમી). Confirm the preferred label (and the same question applies to any festival with two common names).
Your ruling

3. Printed & digital products

What the engine actually produces, and how much editorial detail each output carries.

9Which output products exist

Why it matters: The materials mention several surfaces — the annual Nirnay booklet (also called tipni / ટીપણી?), a page-a-day rojmel diary, a month calendar, a wall calendar, and a public my-location digital calendar. We need the definitive list.

Suggested answerThe products are: (a) the annual Nirnay booklet, (b) the rojmel page-a-day diary, (c) the wall calendar, and (d) the digital my-location calendar / API. Please confirm — and clarify: is tipni the same as the booklet, and is the wall calendar a separate product or just a print layout of the month calendar?
Your ruling
10Ritual-instruction notes

Why it matters: The source document carries curated ritual prose per festival — deity dress (કેશરી વાઘા), aarti timing (આરતી મધ્યાહ્ને), cradle/hindola in-and-out, thal offerings, and so on. Deciding where these appear sets how large the curated (hand-maintained) content set must be.

Suggested answerThe printed booklet carries these ritual-instruction notes; the digital / calendar surfaces carry dates only. Confirm — or tell us which surfaces should also carry the ritual prose.
Your ruling
11Ruling authority & the gadi

Why it matters: Organisation-wide default events currently inherit from Bhuj Mandir; individual temples can override a local date.

Suggested answerBhuj Mandir (NarNarayan Dev Gadi) is the single ruling authority; all temples inherit Bhuj's dates unless a local override is set. Confirm — or tell us if authority differs by gadi / region.
Your ruling
12Reconciling two published almanacs

Why it matters: A verification report compares the engine's dates against two published sources. When they disagree, one must be the authority.

Suggested answerThe Bhuj-published Nirnay booklet is authoritative; the second source is a cross-check only. Please name the two sources and confirm which one wins on conflict.
Your ruling

4. Unresolved determinations needs your method

The engine cannot currently reproduce these from any standard method — they need the authority's exact rule or source.

13Mahapat windows — Vyatipata & Vaidhriti (મહાપાત)

Why it matters: The printed Vyatipata / Vaidhriti "mahapat" start-and-end times do not match any of the three standard algorithms we tried (drik-siddha and Surya-Siddhanta pata variants). We cannot print these correctly without the exact method.

Needs your rulingPlease state the exact method the booklet uses: which pata algorithm (drik vs Surya-Siddhanta), and how the window's start and end are defined. A worked example for one known date would let us match it exactly.
Your ruling / source
14Sankranti vahan (સંક્રાંતિ વાહન)

Why it matters: Each Sankranti traditionally carries a symbolic vehicle/mount (vahan), what it gazes upon, its dress, etc. This is editorial lore, not an astronomical calculation.

Needs your rulingConfirm this vahan data is supplied by the temple (a lookup table you provide), not computed. If you have the table or its source, please share it.
Your ruling / source
15"Not yet cleared" rulings

Why it matters: Some entries are marked red / "not yet cleared" in the source document, meaning the day is not final. The engine tracks these as uncleared.

Needs your rulingPlease list the observances still pending a Swami ruling, and confirm the process by which an entry moves from "not yet cleared" to a confirmed shastra / Bhuj ruling.
Your ruling
16Showing one day vs two (વૃદ્ધિ / ક્ષય)

Why it matters: When a tithi repeats (vriddhi) or is skipped (kshaya), the older method sometimes emitted two competing civil dates for one observance.

Suggested answerPrint a single determined day per observance, with an explanatory note when a vriddhi/kshaya split occurs — not two competing dates. Confirm.
Your ruling

Appendix — Engineering follow-ups

  • vyatipata is declared but hardcoded false in the Ganga Dussehra tie-break — compute it, or keep stubbed?
  • anumati / raka moonrise-Pratipada guard is a deliberate no-op ("never fires in practice") — leave it or implement?
  • kshaya_preference: "first" never differs from the default — remove or reserve?
  • document_status is a free-form string with several distinct values — fix a proper enum, and confirm whether any value gates behaviour or is pure metadata.
  • moon_sign_strength / unresolved_conditions (Hindola Moon-in-Taurus) captured but never enforced — become a hard filter, or stay metadata?
  • both_partial_mode: "greater_extent" generic path is unused (Shivratri / Mahalaya route through evaluators instead) — keep or drop?
  • Eclipse Saros number / member fields are hardcoded 0 — populate the Saros data, or drop the fields?
  • Bhadra mukha / madhya / puchha sub-windows are carried in the data but only whole-bhadra rejection is coded — is ignition-muhurta selection inside the tail (puchha) required?