Saṅkalpa · संकल्प
Hindu Sankalpa Generator
Get the saṅkalpa for your pūjā, vrata or dāna — the resolve spoken before any Hindu rite — worked out for your date, time and city, with your gotra and name, in Sanskrit, in English letters, and with its meaning. Every rule it follows is quoted from Dharmasindhu.
What is a saṅkalpa?
A saṅkalpa (संकल्प, "resolve") is the formal statement a Hindu makes before a pūjā, vrata, dāna, homa or śrāddha. Holding water, rice or kuśa in the right hand, the performer names the moment in the Hindu reckoning of time — the age, year, ayana, season, month, fortnight, tithi, weekday and nakṣatra — then the place, then themselves with their gotra, and finally what the rite is for. Naming all of this is what makes the rite this person's rite, at this time, for this purpose.
Because those elements change every day, and at different times in different cities, the saṅkalpa has to be worked out afresh each time. That is the part a family purohit does from a printed pañcāṅga. This page does it from the pañcāṅga computed for your own city.
How this generator works
Taken from the text
How the year, ayana, season, month and fortnight are named follows the rules in the first pariccheda of Dharmasindhu (1.4.4–4.8). Every purpose clause is quoted word for word from Dharmasindhu, and the verse is shown beside it.
Customary wording
The opening words, the place, and the way the tithi, weekday, nakṣatra, yoga and karaṇa are phrased follow common practice. No text in our library prescribes them yet, so they are marked as customary rather than presented as scripture.
Computed
Every date element comes from a drik-gaṇita pañcāṅga with the Lahiri ayanāṃśa, for your city and the minute you give — the same one behind our daily pañcāṅga.
How to use it
- Choose your city (the link above the city box), then the date and the time you will begin the rite.
- Enter your name and gotra, in English letters or Devanagari, and say whether a man or a woman will recite.
- Pick the purpose, and the month reckoning your family follows.
- Compose, check the Devanagari of your name and gotra, and read the saṅkalpa aloud at the start of the rite, water in the right hand.
Questions
What is a saṅkalpa?
A saṅkalpa is the formal resolve spoken at the start of a pūjā, vrata, dāna or śrāddha. It states the exact time — year, season, month, fortnight, tithi, weekday and nakṣatra — the place, the person with their gotra, and what the rite is for. Only then does the rite itself begin.
Why does the saṅkalpa change with the city and the time?
The tithi, nakṣatra, yoga and karaṇa change during the day, and they change at different clock times in different cities. This generator names the ones running at the moment you give, in your city, from a computed pañcāṅga — not the ones printed for a different place.
What if I do not know my gotra?
Many families use Kāśyapa when the gotra is not known, because all beings are said to descend from the sage Kaśyapa. Ask an elder or your family purohit first; use Kāśyapa only if no one knows.
Amānta or pūrṇimānta — which month should I choose?
Amānta months end on the new moon; this is what Dharmasindhu uses, and what is followed in Maharashtra, Gujarat and South India. Pūrṇimānta months end on the full moon, as in most of North India. The two differ only in the dark fortnight, where the pūrṇimānta month is one month ahead. Follow your family custom.
Can I rely on this in place of a purohit?
It gives you a correct text to read, and shows the source for each rule. Where a family or regional custom differs — the name of the year, extra place names, how your name is said — follow your own purohit.