Rahu Kaal Today: What It Is and How It Is Calculated for Your City

What is Rahu kaal?

Rahu kaal (Rahu kalam in South India) is a daily period that many Indian families avoid for starting something new: a journey, a purchase, a business deal, a puja or an important signature. Ongoing work is not stopped. Two related periods, Yamaganda and Gulika kaal, are worked out the same way and are also printed in every panchang.

Rahu kaal is not a fixed clock time. A common printed table (7:30 to 9:00 on Monday and so on) assumes sunrise at 6:00 and sunset at 18:00, which is rarely true. The real period moves with your sunrise and sunset every day.

How is Rahu kaal calculated?

1. Find local sunrise and sunset for your place and date.
2. Work out the length of the day: sunset minus sunrise.
3. Divide that by 8. Each part is usually 80 to 95 minutes in India, depending on the season.
4. Pick the part for the weekday from the table below. Rahu kaal starts at sunrise plus (part number minus 1) times one part.

TipA popular memory line for the Rahu order from Monday is “Mother Saw Father Wearing The Turban Suddenly”: Monday 2, Saturday 3, Friday 4, Wednesday 5, Thursday 6, Tuesday 7, Sunday 8.

Worked example: Rahu kaal in Delhi on 30 October 2026

30 October 2026 is a Friday. Our engine gives sunrise in New Delhi at 6:31 am and sunset at 5:37 pm, a day of 11 hours 6 minutes. One eighth is about 83 minutes. Friday takes the 4th part, so Rahu kaal starts 3 parts after sunrise, at about 10:41 am, and ends at about 12:04 pm.

On the same day, Kolkata’s Rahu kaal starts about an hour earlier than Mumbai’s, simply because the Sun rises nearly an hour earlier in the east. That is why a Rahu kaal for “India” in one line can be wrong by 30 to 60 minutes for your city.

Aaj ka Rahu kaal kitne baje hai?

For the exact time today, open the panchang and choose your city, or go straight to a city page such as Delhi. The page calculates sunrise and sunset with an astronomical model for your coordinates, so the times stay correct through the year, including in summer when the day is long and each part grows to over 100 minutes in the north.

Sunrise in Indian panchangs is usually taken when the upper edge of the Sun appears on the horizon, allowing for atmospheric refraction. Small differences of a minute or two between panchangs come from this definition and from rounding.

Seasons change the picture too. Near the winter solstice in late December, Delhi’s day is only a little over 10 hours, so each eighth shrinks to about 77 minutes. Near the summer solstice in June it is close to 14 hours, and each eighth stretches to about 105 minutes. Places further south, such as Chennai or Thiruvananthapuram, see much smaller swings through the year.

Is Rahu kaal bad? What tradition says

In tradition, Rahu is a shadow planet linked with confusion and obstacles, so its portion of the day is avoided for fresh starts. It is not considered a dangerous time to live through. People travel, work, study and eat during Rahu kaal every day. Some temples hold special prayers during it.

If you must begin something during Rahu kaal, many families simply start it a little before or after, or follow the advice of their own priest. A good alternative is to look at the day’s choghadiya, which our panchang shows alongside, or a proper muhurat for big events.

Rahu kaal vs choghadiya vs muhurat: which one to use?

These three are often confused. They answer different questions:

For everyday plans, families usually skip Rahu kaal and pick a good choghadiya. For life events they look for a full muhurat, such as the dates in our vivah muhurat 2026-27 guide. Rahu kaal on its own never makes a day bad; it only marks one slice of it.