The publishers behind the name
Accounts of the almanac say that the Thakur Prasad calendars come from more than one publishing house in Varanasi, among them Sri Thakur Prasad Pustak Bhandar and Thakur Prasad and Sons, and that they trace back to a single family, with the editors of the panchang drawn from a family of pandits of Sitapur. The almanacs have been printed for some decades. A reader who wants a particular edition should look at the name on the cover, since the Rupesh Thakur Prasad and the Savitri Thakur Prasad panchangs are separate books.
Reading a day in the almanac
A day of the panchang gives five limbs: the tithi, the nakshatra, the yoga, the karana and the weekday, each with the time at which it ends. After the sunrise and sunset come the inauspicious periods of the day, Rahu Kala, Gulika and Yamaganda, and the good ones, the Abhijit Muhurta and the Choghadiya. A festival or a fast is named against the day on which it is to be kept, and a note explains the rule when the tithi spans two days.
Along with the daily pages the book gives the Sankranti and eclipse tables, the lists of muhurtas for marriage, the sacred thread, griha pravesha and the start of a business, and the forecast for the year and for each rashi. The Varanasi panchangs are used all through the Hindi belt, and many pandits keep one beside them when they fix the day of a ceremony.
Why a printed almanac and this site can differ
The Varanasi almanacs are made for the sunrise of the holy city, while the dates on this site are calculated for the city you choose. A tithi that begins or ends within an hour of sunrise can therefore fall on different days for two places. For the dates of a ceremony, the almanac of your own tradition and your family priest decide; the tithi times here show why a day is chosen.