Taitila is fourth in the rotation, the middle karana of the seven, and it takes positions 5, 12, 19, 26, 33, 40, 47 and 54 of the sixty in a lunation.
By the rule that position p falls in tithi ceiling of p over two, first half for odd p and second for even, Taitila occupies the first half of tithi 3, the second of 6, the first of 10, the second of 13, the first of 17, the second of 20, the first of 24 and the second of 27. Four fall in the bright fortnight and four in the dark.
Being the middle of seven gives it a property none of the others share exactly: its positions are the ones furthest from both ends of the rotation, so Taitila never occurs adjacent to a fixed karana. Kimstughna is followed by Bava at position 2, and Vishti at position 57 is followed by Shakuni at 58, so the two karanas that touch the fixed block are the first and the last of the rotation. Taitila is always surrounded by other movable karanas.
The duration is the same for every karana and is not fixed: an average of 11 hours and 49 minutes, one sixtieth of the mean synodic month, varying between roughly ten and thirteen and a half hours as the Moon's elongation from the Sun opens at different rates. A single karana can therefore begin and end inside one civil day, or straddle two sunrises, which is why the panchanga gives clock times rather than day assignments.