Choghadiya Today: How It Works and Times for 49 Cities

Choghadiya (also spelt Chaughadiya or Chogadiya) is a way of dividing the day and the night into short slots, each with a name that tradition links to a quality. It is very popular in Gujarat, Rajasthan and western India, where many people look at it to pick a time to leave on a journey, start a task or begin a ceremony. The word comes from the Gujarati and Hindi for four ghadis, a ghadi being a traditional unit of about 24 minutes, so a choghadiya is roughly an hour and a half.

How choghadiya is calculated

The rule needs the sunrise, the sunset and the next sunrise of your city, and the weekday:

1. The daytime, from sunrise to sunset, is divided into eight equal slots.
2. The night, from sunset to the next sunrise, is also divided into eight equal slots.
3. Seven names are used. By day they follow each other in this order, repeating round: Udveg, Char, Labh, Amrit, Kaal, Shubh, Rog. Eight slots with seven names means the first name comes round again as the eighth slot.
4. The name of the first daytime slot depends on the weekday. At night the first name is a different one, and the names follow in another order: Udveg, Shubh, Amrit, Char, Rog, Kaal, Labh, repeating round.

For example, on a Thursday with sunrise at 6 am and sunset at 6 pm the daytime slots are 90 minutes each: Shubh from 6:00 am, then Rog, Udveg, Char, Labh, Amrit, Kaal, and Shubh again from 4:30 pm. The night slots begin at sunset with Amrit, then Char, Rog, Kaal, Labh, Udveg and Shubh, and Amrit again for the eighth. The clock times are different in every city and change as the day lengthens and shortens through the year, so the lists on this site are always worked out from the local sunrise.

What the names mean in tradition

Four of the names are regarded as favourable. Amrit (nectar) is the best, Shubh (auspicious) is good for ceremonies, Labh (gain) is linked with business and learning, and Char (moving) with travel. Three are regarded as best avoided for new beginnings: Udveg (unease), Kaal (time, or death) and Rog (illness). Many people carry on with everyday work in these slots and simply avoid starting something important.

These are traditional associations and not predictions. Almanacs agree on the arithmetic above, but families differ in how much weight they give to it, and choghadiya is only one of several timing tools. If you also look at Rahu kaal and hora, the day’s tithi and nakshatra on your city page, you will find that they do not always agree, which is normal. Follow your family’s custom, or the printed almanac of your temple.

Today in all cities

The table below gives, for each city, the day and night slots of each name for the city’s current date. Amrit, Shubh, Labh and Char come first. A name can appear more than once, because the first slot name returns as the eighth, and it appears in both the day and the night.

Frequently asked questions