What is Choghadiya?
Choghadiya divides the day into sixteen parts: eight while the Sun is up and eight while it is down. Each part is ruled by one of seven planets, and the planet decides the quality of the period — Amrit (nectar), Shubh (good), Labh (gain) and Char (moveable) are favourable; Rog (disease), Kaal (death) and Udveg (anxiety) are avoided for starting new work.
How the sequences are built
The day starts at sunrise and the night at sunset; each of the eight slots is one eighth of its span. The lords follow the Chaldean planetary order (Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars). The first day-slot lord is the weekday’s own lord; the first night-slot lord is five places ahead of it in the Chaldean order — a rule we verified against a full week of published tables covering all seven weekdays.
Using Choghadiya
Travellers and traders traditionally pick an Amrit, Shubh or Labh slot for the first move of the day. Because the windows depend on local sunrise and sunset, the same clock time shifts from city to city and across seasons — always check the table for your own city.
Related pages
Frequently asked questions
- How long is one Choghadiya?
- Day Choghadiyas each last one eighth of the local day span (about 75 to 100 minutes); night Choghadiyas are one eighth of the night span.
- Do Choghadiyas change by city?
- Yes — they are anchored to local sunrise and sunset, so both the start times and the boundaries shift with location and season.