Modern Panditji

Choghadiya

Aaj ka choghadiya — today’s good and bad hours

Eight windows between sunrise and sunset, eight more through the night. Pick the good one and the errand you were putting off has a time on it.

· Shanivara

Every timing on this page is computed for Delhi. The eight parts are cut out of the real interval between sunrise and sunset, so they move with the city and with the season; pick your own city and the whole table is recomputed for it.

Sunrise06:04 amSunset06:30 pm

In Delhi on Saturday 12 September the day choghadiya runs from 06:04 am to 06:30 pm, in eight windows, 4 of them shubh.

Right now

Which choghadiya is running

At sunrise

KaalSaturn's slot, and the one most people simply wait out. New work is held back; work already running continues without trouble.

Avoid

to

Not a favoured window. Hold a new task for the next good one below.

This page is refreshed once a day, near sunrise (06:04 am). The window marked here is the one running then; it does not follow your phone’s clock, so read the times below against the hour you are actually in.

Sunrise to sunset

Din ka choghadiya

Daylight, cut into eight equal parts. Each carries a name and a verdict; the one marked below is the window running as this page was last refreshed.

Daytime

Sunrise to sunset, in eight equal parts.

  • toKaalSaturn's slot, and the one most people simply wait out. New work is held back; work already running continues without trouble.Avoid· at sunrise
  • toShubhJupiter's slot, and a good one. Ceremony and commitment go here: a puja, an engagement, signing something you mean to keep.Good
  • toRogMars's slot, and one of the three to avoid. Custom sets it aside for health matters and disputes rather than for starting anything.Avoid
  • toUdvegThe Sun's slot, and a restless one. Routine work carries on fine, but a new beginning usually waits for the next window.Avoid
  • toCharVenus's slot, and a moving one. Good for travel and errands, weaker for anything that is supposed to stay put.Good
  • toLabhMercury's slot, and the one named for gain. Business, deals, exams and anything meant to earn are timed to it.Good
  • toAmritThe best of the eight slots, and the Moon's. Anything meant to last is put here: a purchase, a new job, a first meeting.Good
  • toKaalSaturn's slot, and the one most people simply wait out. New work is held back; work already running continues without trouble.Avoid

Sunset to sunrise

Raat ka choghadiya

The night is divided the same way, from sunset to tomorrow’s sunrise. The names run in a different order: the night opens on the choghadiyaThe day and the night cut into eight parts each, every part with its own name and temper. It is the quickest way to find a workable hour today. that opens the fifth weekday from that day, which is why a night window is never the daytime one repeated.

Night

Sunset to tomorrow’s sunrise, in eight equal parts.

  • toLabhMercury's slot, and the one named for gain. Business, deals, exams and anything meant to earn are timed to it.Good
  • toUdvegThe Sun's slot, and a restless one. Routine work carries on fine, but a new beginning usually waits for the next window.Avoid
  • toShubhJupiter's slot, and a good one. Ceremony and commitment go here: a puja, an engagement, signing something you mean to keep.Good
  • toAmritThe best of the eight slots, and the Moon's. Anything meant to last is put here: a purchase, a new job, a first meeting.Good
  • toCharVenus's slot, and a moving one. Good for travel and errands, weaker for anything that is supposed to stay put.Good
  • toRogMars's slot, and one of the three to avoid. Custom sets it aside for health matters and disputes rather than for starting anything.Avoid
  • toKaalSaturn's slot, and the one most people simply wait out. New work is held back; work already running continues without trouble.Avoid
  • toLabhMercury's slot, and the one named for gain. Business, deals, exams and anything meant to earn are timed to it.Good

What it is

What a choghadiya is

Choghadiyameans “four ghadi”, an old unit of about ninety-six minutes. Take the time between sunrise and sunset, divide it into eight equal parts, and each part is one choghadiya. Do the same between sunset and the next sunrise and you have the eight night windows. That is the whole of it: there is no hidden table, only a division of the actual daylight where you are standing.

Because the parts are fractions rather than fixed clock hours, they breathe with the year. A choghadiya in a Delhi June runs close to an hour and forty minutes; the same window in December is nearer eighty-five. A page that tells you a choghadiya is “always ninety-six minutes” is quoting the average and has not looked at your sunrise.

How the eight are named

Where the order comes from

Seven names cycle through the eight slots, so the eighth always repeats the first. Which name lands first is decided by the weekday: the day opens on the choghadiya ruled by that weekday’s own planet.

DayOpens on
SundayUdvegThe Sun's slot, and a restless one. Routine work carries on fine, but a new beginning usually waits for the next window. (the Sun)
MondayAmritThe best of the eight slots, and the Moon's. Anything meant to last is put here: a purchase, a new job, a first meeting. (the Moon)
TuesdayRogMars's slot, and one of the three to avoid. Custom sets it aside for health matters and disputes rather than for starting anything. (Mars)
WednesdayLabhMercury's slot, and the one named for gain. Business, deals, exams and anything meant to earn are timed to it. (Mercury)
ThursdayShubhJupiter's slot, and a good one. Ceremony and commitment go here: a puja, an engagement, signing something you mean to keep. (Jupiter)
FridayCharVenus's slot, and a moving one. Good for travel and errands, weaker for anything that is supposed to stay put. (Venus)
SaturdayKaalSaturn's slot, and the one most people simply wait out. New work is held back; work already running continues without trouble. (Saturn)

After that the sequence steps forward through the planetary hour order, which runs Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars. That is the same Chaldean run that gave nearly every language its weekday names. It is why the choghadiya table and the hora table agree with each other, and why the whole thing can be derived rather than looked up.

Good for what

The seven names, and their use

Four of the seven are counted favourable and three are not. What follows is what the tradition uses each one for. It is not a promise about your day, and not a warning about it either.

  • Amrit

    Good

    The best of the eight. Anything you want to last — a purchase, a new job, a first meeting.

  • Shubh

    Good

    Ceremony and commitment: a puja, an engagement, signing something you mean to keep.

  • Labh

    Good

    Money and study — starting a business, a deal, an exam, anything meant to earn.

  • Char

    Good

    Movement. Good for travel and errands, less so for anything meant to stay put.

  • Udveg

    Avoid

    Restless. Routine work carries on fine; a new beginning usually waits for the next window.

  • Rog

    Avoid

    Traditionally set aside for health matters and disputes rather than for starting things.

  • Kaal

    Avoid

    The one most people wait out. Custom keeps new work back; work already running continues.

One honest caveat about Char: it is counted good here and on most printed panchangs, but its meaning is “moveable”. It suits a journey better than it suits a signature.

Also today

The rest of the day

Your city

Choghadiya for your city

Sunrise moves by about four seconds for every kilometre east, and every window above is a fraction of the day it opens, so Mumbai’s AmritThe best of the eight slots, and the Moon's. Anything meant to last is put here: a purchase, a new job, a first meeting. is not Kolkata’s. Each of these pages carries the same two tables, computed from that city’s own coordinates.

Your chart

Want your own kundli?

A choghadiya is the same hour for everyone in a city. Your own chart needs your birth date, time and place.

Make my janam kundli

Free · no sign-up · nothing sold

How this page is worked out

  • Sunrise and sunset come from our own calculation engine, for Delhi’s own coordinates (28.6139°N, 77.2090°E), using the disc-centre-with-refraction convention that Indian panchangs use.
  • The sixteen windows are exact eighths of the two real intervals those two instants define, not of a nominal twelve-hour day. That is why they differ from an almanac printed for somewhere else.
  • All times are Indian Standard Time.
Ask Panditji