Rahu Kaal

What Rahu Kaal Is

Rahu Kaal is a period of roughly ninety minutes each day traditionally avoided for starting anything significant — a journey, a purchase, a new venture, a ceremony.

It is calculated by dividing the time from sunrise to sunset into eight equal parts. Which part is Rahu Kaal is fixed by the weekday, and never changes.

Why a Fixed Clock Time Is Wrong

Most printed charts give Rahu Kaal as a fixed window — Monday 7:30 to 9:00, Friday 10:30 to 12:00, and so on. Those figures assume sunrise at exactly six in the morning and sunset at exactly six in the evening.

That holds true on two days a year. In Delhi in June the day runs nearly fourteen hours, making each part about 105 minutes. In December it runs a little over ten hours, making each part about 77 minutes. The window shifts by half an hour or more between seasons, and it differs between cities on the same day.

This page computes sunrise and sunset for the city and date you choose, which is why the timings here will not match a fixed chart — and why they are the correct ones.

Yamaganda and Gulika Kaal

Two further periods calculated the same way, from the same eight parts, with their own weekday assignments.

Yamaganda is traditionally avoided for beginnings in much the same way as Rahu Kaal, though it is generally treated as the milder of the two.

Gulika Kaal is regarded differently. It is avoided for inauspicious matters, but a number of traditions treat it as favourable for things intended to endure — which is why some practitioners specifically choose it rather than avoid it.

What Rahu Kaal Does Not Apply To

This is worth being clear about, because the rule is often applied far more widely than tradition ever intended.

It concerns beginnings. Work already underway continues through it. Daily routine, travel already in progress, meals, prayer and ongoing responsibilities are unaffected.

It is also not observed for everything even among those who follow it carefully. Many traditions hold that it does not apply to a marriage conducted at a properly calculated muhurat, since the muhurat has already accounted for the whole picture.

Where a practical constraint fixes the timing — a flight, a hospital appointment, an exam, a meeting someone else scheduled — the sensible response is to go ahead. A ninety-minute window is a preference, not a prohibition, and rearranging a life around it is more disruption than the tradition asks for.

The Weekday Rule

Rahu Kaal falls in the second part on Monday, the seventh on Tuesday, the fifth on Wednesday, the sixth on Thursday, the fourth on Friday, the third on Saturday and the eighth on Sunday.

Once you know that, and you know your local sunrise and sunset, you can work it out yourself for any day — which is the useful thing to take from this page.