Rahu kaal today

What rahu kaal is

Rahu kaal is one eighth of each day's daylight, around an hour and a half, that tradition keeps free of new beginnings: setting out on a journey, a purchase, a signing, the start of a venture. It does not make the rest of the day's ordinary work unlucky, and nothing already under way needs to stop for it.

Yamaganda (linked with Yama) and gulika or gulika kaal (linked with Saturn's son Gulika) are two other eighths of the day read the same way, with less weight. Many families watch rahu kaal and yamaganda; gulika is more often considered in the south.

How these times are computed

Daylight from this city's sunrise to its sunset (upper edge of the sun, standard refraction, from our engine) is split into eight equal parts. Which part is rahu kaal depends only on the weekday: 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, the last before sunset, on Sunday. Yamaganda and gulika follow their own weekday orders.

Because each part is a fraction of this city's own day, the familiar fixed list ("Monday 7:30 to 9:00") is exact only at the equinox for a place near 82.5° E. Here the times move with every sunrise, which is why cities in the east and west, and summer and winter, differ by many minutes.

Reading the week

The week table shows the rotation at a glance, so you can plan a journey or an appointment a few days ahead. If a start cannot wait, tradition's own advice is simply to begin a little before or after the window.