Rahu Kaal, Choghadiya and Choosing a Good Time

Muhurta is the branch of Jyotish that chooses the time to begin something. For a wedding or house-warming an astrologer checks the full Panchang and both charts. For everyday decisions — signing a document, starting a journey, launching a website — most people rely on a few simple daily periods: Rahu Kaal, the Choghadiya, and Abhijit Muhurta.

Rahu Kaal

Rahu Kaal is one-eighth of the daytime, the time from sunrise to sunset, and its place in the day depends on the weekday. Dividing the day into eight equal parts, Rahu Kaal falls in the 2nd part on Monday, the 3rd on Saturday, the 4th on Friday, the 5th on Wednesday, the 6th on Thursday, the 7th on Tuesday and the 8th on Sunday. A common memory aid is “Mother Saw Father Wearing The Turban Suddenly”.

Because it is calculated from real sunrise and sunset, Rahu Kaal moves with the seasons and the place. The often-printed table of fixed times — 7:30 to 9:00 on Monday and so on — assumes a 6 a.m. sunrise and a 12-hour day, and can be wrong by more than an hour in winter or far from the equator. Starting new ventures in Rahu Kaal is avoided; ongoing work need not stop.

Yamaganda and Gulika

Two other eighth-parts of the day are also watched. Yamaganda, linked with Yama, is avoided for travel and new beginnings. Gulika Kaal, ruled by Saturn’s son Gulika, is unusual: whatever is begun in it tends to repeat, so it is avoided for funerals and debts but sometimes chosen for things one hopes to repeat.

The Choghadiya

Choghadiya — from “chau” (four) and “ghadi”, a unit of 24 minutes — divides the day and the night each into eight parts of about an hour and a half. Each part is one of seven types, in a sequence that starts from the weekday’s ruling planet:

• Amrit (Moon) — best for all good work
• Shubh (Jupiter) — auspicious, especially for ceremonies
• Labh (Mercury) — gain, good for business and study
• Char (Venus) — movable, good for travel
• Udveg (Sun) — anxiety; avoid for new work, acceptable for government matters
• Kaal (Saturn) — loss; avoid
• Rog (Mars) — illness and quarrels; avoid

Choghadiya is especially popular in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra for business decisions, because it is quick to read and changes several times a day.

Abhijit Muhurta

The daytime is also divided into fifteen muhurtas. The eighth, centred on local solar noon, is Abhijit — “victorious”. It is considered strong enough to overcome many other faults of the day, and is used when no better time is available. Many traditions avoid it on Wednesdays.

For important events

A full muhurta goes further: a suitable tithi, nakshatra, weekday and yoga; no Vishti karana; a good rising sign at the moment of beginning; Tarabalam and Chandrabalam favourable for the people involved; and avoidance of periods such as eclipses, Kharmas and Venus or Jupiter combust. The daily periods are a first filter, not the whole answer.

Our Choghadiya, Panchang (with Rahu Kaal, Yamaganda and Gulika) and Muhurta pages calculate every period from sunrise and sunset at your exact location, for any date.