Choghadiya: the North Indian good-time table, explained
Choghadiya (also written Chaughadiya) is the most widely used way of finding a good time in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and much of North India. Like the Gowri Panchangam of Tamil Nadu, it divides the daytime (sunrise to sunset) into eight equal parts and the night (sunset to the next sunrise) into another eight.
The seven names
- Amrit — nectar; the best of all
- Shubh — auspicious; good for ceremonies and new starts
- Labh — gain; good for business and study
- Char — moving; good for travel
- Udveg — anxiety; avoided for new starts (traditionally acceptable for government work)
- Kaal — loss; avoided
- Rog — illness; avoided
Each name belongs to a planet — Udveg to the Sun, Char to Venus, Labh to Mercury, Amrit to the Moon, Kaal to Saturn, Shubh to Jupiter and Rog to Mars. The daytime sequence starts with the ruler of the weekday (so Monday’s day begins with Amrit) and follows the planetary-hour order; the eighth part repeats the first. The night sequence has its own fixed order.
Measured from real sunrise
Because each part is an eighth of the actual day or night, a Choghadiya is rarely exactly ninety minutes. The city pages on this site compute them from local sunrise and sunset, and most families skip any part of a good Choghadiya that overlaps Rahu Kalam.