Balava is the second of the seven movable karanas, so within the rotation that occupies positions 2 to 57 of the lunation it takes 3, 10, 17, 24, 31, 38, 45 and 52.
A karana at position p sits in the tithi numbered ceiling of p over two, in its first half if p is odd and its second if p is even. Balava therefore holds the first half of tithi 2, the second of 5, the first of 9, the second of 12, the first of 16, the second of 19, the first of 23 and the second of 26.
That distribution is four in the bright fortnight, tithis 1 to 15, and four in the dark, tithis 16 to 30. It is the ordinary pattern for a movable karana; only Bava, which begins the rotation, breaks it with five and three.
One position is worth singling out. Position 31 is the first half of tithi 16, which is Krishna Pratipada, the first day of the waning fortnight. Balava is therefore the karana that opens the dark half of every lunar month, taking over immediately after the full moon tithi has run out.
In clock terms a karana averages 11 hours and 49 minutes, one sixtieth of a synodic month of 29.530589 days. The actual span varies with the Moon's speed and with the Sun's, from roughly ten hours when the elongation is opening fastest to roughly thirteen and a half when it is opening slowest, so the almanac publishes an ending time for each karana rather than a length.