Rahu Kaal today: meaning, timings and what to avoid
What Rahu Kaal is, how its daily time comes from your local sunrise and sunset, the order for each weekday, and which new work people avoid starting.
Rahu Kaal is a period of about an hour and a half every day that many families avoid for starting anything new and important. It is not a fixed clock time: it moves with your city's sunrise and sunset, so the Rahu Kaal in Delhi and in Chennai on the same day can differ by many minutes.
What is Rahu Kaal?
In Vedic astrology Rahu is one of the nine grahas. It is not a physical planet but a point in the sky where the Moon's path crosses the Sun's path, the north lunar node. Rahu is linked with confusion, sudden obstacles and things that do not go as planned.
Rahu Kaal (also written Rahu Kalam or Rahukalam) is the part of each day traditionally ruled by Rahu. Work begun in it is believed to meet delays or to end differently from what was intended. For that reason people prefer not to begin a new venture, sign an important paper or set out on a long journey during it.
How Rahu Kaal is calculated
The calculation is simple once you know your local sunrise and sunset:
- Take the length of daytime, from sunrise to sunset.
- Divide it into eight equal parts.
- One of those eight parts, fixed for each weekday, is Rahu Kaal.
Because the length of the day changes through the year, so does the length of Rahu Kaal. In Delhi in June, daytime is close to 14 hours, so each part, and Rahu Kaal, lasts about 1 hour 45 minutes. In December daytime is a little over 10 hours, so Rahu Kaal shrinks to about 77 minutes.
Rahu Kaal for each weekday
These are the parts of the day that belong to Rahu. The clock times in brackets are only for an ideal 12-hour day from 6 am to 6 pm; your real times depend on your city.
- Monday: 2nd part (about 7:30 to 9:00 am)
- Tuesday: 7th part (about 3:00 to 4:30 pm)
- Wednesday: 5th part (about 12:00 noon to 1:30 pm)
- Thursday: 6th part (about 1:30 to 3:00 pm)
- Friday: 4th part (about 10:30 am to 12:00 noon)
- Saturday: 3rd part (about 9:00 to 10:30 am)
- Sunday: 8th part (about 4:30 to 6:00 pm)
A popular way to remember the order is the sentence Mother Saw Father Wearing The Turban Suddenly: Monday, Saturday, Friday, Wednesday, Thursday, Tuesday and Sunday take the 2nd to the 8th parts in turn.
What people avoid during Rahu Kaal
Rahu Kaal is about beginnings. Families who follow it usually avoid starting:
- a new business, shop or office
- the purchase of a house, land, vehicle or gold
- an important agreement, loan or investment
- a long journey, if it can begin earlier or later
- griha pravesh, engagement or wedding rituals
Ongoing work, regular office hours, cooking, study and daily prayers continue as usual. In parts of South India, temples even hold special Durga worship during Rahu Kaal, because prayer at that time is believed to ease Rahu's effects.
Rahu Kaal, Yamaganda and Gulika Kaal
The same eight-part division of the day gives two more periods that a Panchang lists next to Rahu Kaal. Yamaganda is also treated as unsuitable for new beginnings. Gulika Kaal is believed to make whatever begins in it repeat, so people avoid it for things they do not want to repeat, such as taking a loan, and some prefer it for things they do.
What if something must start during Rahu Kaal?
Life does not always wait for the clock. A common traditional approach is to begin the preparations before Rahu Kaal starts, or to choose a short auspicious window such as Abhijit muhurat around local noon (except on Wednesdays, when Rahu Kaal falls near midday). For large events like a wedding or griha pravesh, a full muhurat that also checks tithi and nakshatra is more important than Rahu Kaal alone.
Find today's exact Rahu Kaal
Vedic Drishti calculates Rahu Kaal, Yamaganda, Gulika and Choghadiya from the real sunrise and sunset of your city every day. Open today's Panchang and choose your city, for example Delhi, Mumbai or Chennai. To find a good time for a specific task, try the Shubh Muhurat finder.