Choghadiya · Wednesday, June 24, 2026

Choghadiya is the popular muhurat system of the western-Indian almanac tradition — the name joins chau (four) with ghadi, an old unit of about 24 minutes, so each Choghadiya runs four ghadis, close to an hour and a half. It divides the daylight from sunrise to sunset into eight equal parts, and the night from sunset to the next sunrise into eight more — sixteen windows in all. Each window is ruled by a planet and carries a fixed quality, so a glance tells you whether the moment ahead favours your work. The good windows — Amrit, Shubh and Labh — are chosen for new beginnings, travel, purchases and ceremonies; the harsh ones are left for routine tasks or simply waited out.

The same seven names recur through the day and night in a weekday-dependent order. Their quality never changes — only when each falls does.

Each Choghadiya borrows the temperament of its ruling planet. Amrit belongs to the Moon and is the most benefic — nectar-like, fit for almost anything. Shubh is Jupiter's, auspicious for ceremonies and especially marriage. Labh is Mercury's, the window of gain, suited to business, study and buying. Chal is Venus's, and its name means “moving” — which is why it is the classic choice for travel.

The three harsh windows take their nature from the malefics. Udveg, ruled by the Sun, brings restlessness; Rog, ruled by Mars, signifies illness; Kaal, ruled by Saturn, is the heaviest of the seven. They are set aside for auspicious work — though tradition keeps narrow exceptions, such as Kaal for matters of accumulating wealth.

Choghadiya is built entirely from sunrise, sunset and the weekday — it needs no birth chart. The stretch from sunrise to sunset is split into eight equal parts for the day, and sunset to the next sunrise into eight for the night. Because day and night length change through the year, each part is rarely exactly ninety minutes; near the solstices a daytime window can run noticeably longer than a night one.

Which window falls first is set by the weekday's ruling planet: Sunday's day opens with Udveg (Sun), Monday with Amrit (Moon), and so on. From there the seven names always cycle in the same fixed order — Udveg, Chal, Labh, Amrit, Kaal, Shubh, Rog — repeating to fill the eight slots. That is why a window's quality never changes, but the clock time it lands on shifts with your city's sunrise and the day of the week.

The first day and first night Choghadiya for each weekday. Every later window follows the fixed cycle from there.

The day Choghadiya runs from sunrise to sunset and the night Choghadiya from sunset to the next sunrise, so the exact start, end and order of the windows shift with your location's sunrise and the weekday. That is why this page recomputes every window — and the sun and moon times — the moment you switch your city or step to another date.

Match the window to the task. To start something new, hold a ceremony or do anything you want to last, wait for Amrit or Shubh. For business, trading, study or a purchase, Labh lives up to its name. To set out on a journey, Chal — the moving window — is the traditional pick, and Amrit or Labh serve well too.

Keep Udveg, Rog and Kaal for routine chores that can't wait, or simply let them pass. One more check seasoned users make: even a good Choghadiya is dropped if it overlaps Rahu Kaal or another inauspicious stretch of the day — the best muhurat is a benefic window with no shadow over it.

Choghadiya is a quick ready-reckoner, not a full muhurat: it reads only sunrise, sunset and the weekday, never your birth details. Rahu Kaal, Yamaganda and Gulika Kaal are different — each is a single inauspicious stretch of about ninety minutes in the day, again fixed by the weekday, and a good Choghadiya that overlaps one of them is best skipped.

The Hora system is another layer: it splits the day into roughly hour-long parts, each ruled by a planet in turn. Many people glance at all of these together before fixing an important time — a benefic Choghadiya, clear of Rahu Kaal, on a supportive Hora. For weddings, housewarmings and other big events, a full muhurat from an astrologer still goes deeper, weighing tithi, nakshatra and the chart.