Rahu Kaal: Meaning, Timings, and What to Avoid During This Period

Rahu Kaal is a window of about 90 minutes every day that Hindu astrology treats as a poor time to start something new. It is one of 8 equal parts of the daytime, counted from sunrise to sunset, and the part that belongs to Rahu changes with the weekday. On Monday it is the 2nd part. On Sunday it is the 8th. The clock time depends on your city and the season, so check a local panchang each day. Work you have already started can carry on. The caution applies to beginnings: signing, buying, launching, opening.

What does Rahu Kaal mean?

Rahu Kaal (also written Rahu Kalam or Rahu Kala) comes from the Sanskrit rāhukāla, “period of Rahu.” Wikipedia’s entry on rāhukāla describes it as a span of roughly 90 minutes between sunrise and sunset. Rahu is one of the two lunar nodes, the points where the Moon’s path crosses the Sun’s apparent path. It has no physical body, so astrologers call it a shadow planet. In the Samudra Manthan legend, the demon Svarbhanu drank the nectar of immortality in disguise. The Sun and Moon exposed him, Vishnu cut him in two, and the head became Rahu. Rahu chases the Sun and Moon, which is how the tradition explains eclipses. In Vedic astrology Rahu stands for confusion, delay and sudden obstacles. That is why its daily window is treated as a bad slot to begin anything important.

How is Rahu Kaal calculated?

Divide the daylight hours into 8 equal parts and pick the part assigned to the weekday. The first part after sunrise never carries Rahu Kaal.

1. Find local sunrise and sunset for your city and date.
2. Subtract sunrise from sunset to get the day length in minutes.
3. Divide that number by 8. This is the length of one part.
4. Look up the weekday’s part in the table below.
5. Start time = sunrise + (part number minus 1) x length of one part. The window runs for one part.

Example for a Wednesday with sunrise at 6:30 a.m. and sunset at 5:42 p.m. (sample numbers, not a forecast for any city): the day is 11 hours 12 minutes, or 672 minutes. 672 divided by 8 is 84 minutes. Wednesday is the 5th part, so Rahu Kaal starts at 6:30 a.m. + (4 x 84 minutes), which is 12:06 p.m., and ends at 1:30 p.m.

What are the Rahu Kaal timings for each day?

The part number for each weekday never changes. The clock time does.

Day	Part of the day	Approx. time (6 a.m. sunrise, 6 p.m. sunset)
Monday	2nd	7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
Tuesday	7th	3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Wednesday	5th	12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Thursday	6th	1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Friday	4th	10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Saturday	3rd	9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
Sunday	8th	4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

These are textbook times for a perfect 12-hour day. Real days are longer in summer and shorter in winter, so the window stretches past 90 minutes in summer and shrinks below it in winter. A Rahu Kalam listing for Ujjain on Saturday, 15 August 2026 ran from 9:17 a.m. to 10:54 a.m. That is 97 minutes, and it ends 24 minutes after the table’s 10:30 a.m. For your own city, use a dated panchang such as Drik Panchang’s Rahu Kaal page, or our daily Hindu panchang guide.

What should you avoid during Rahu Kaal?

Traditional panchang guidance says to postpone fresh starts and one-time commitments. The usual list:

• Launching a business, shop or project
• Signing contracts, agreements or loan papers
• Buying property, a vehicle, gold or a big appliance
• Starting construction or holding a bhumi pujan
• Engagements, weddings, griha pravesh and naming ceremonies
• Beginning a new journey or joining a new job

Drik Panchang notes that Rahu Kaal is considered for undertaking new work, and that work already underway can continue.

What can you do during Rahu Kaal?

Eating, bathing, commuting and ordinary office work carry on as usual. BhaktiBharat’s guide lists prayer, meditation and chanting Rahu mantras as fine during this window. Many people also do Shiva worship in this slot. Some people also wear hessonite (gomed), the stone linked to Rahu. Get your kundli read before buying one. Our guide to protection stones in Vedic astrology explains which stones go with which planet, and the gemstone consultation page covers how we choose.

What if you can’t avoid Rahu Kaal?

Fixed events are the usual problem: a flight, an exam, an interview, a registry appointment. If someone else set the time, most people go ahead. The caution is usually applied to slots you choose yourself. For slots you do choose, move the start by up to 90 minutes. A contract that would be signed at 12:15 p.m. on a Wednesday can be signed at 1:35 p.m. instead. For a larger decision such as a business launch or a house purchase, a muhurat chosen from your own chart gives a better answer than a generic daily window. Our Shubh Muhurat service does that, and the urgent live consultation is there when the date is close.

What mistakes do people make with Rahu Kaal?

1. Using a generic table. The Ujjain example above shows the gap: the table says 10:30 a.m. and the real window ended at 10:54 a.m.
2. Using another city’s time. Mumbai and Delhi have different sunrise times, so their windows differ on the same date.
3. Mixing it up with Gulika Kalam and Yamagandam. All three come from the same 8-part method but fall in different parts of the day. Check each by name.
4. Treating the whole day as risky. The window is about 90 minutes, and ongoing work is fine.

Does Rahu Kaal apply at night?

Some panchangs also compute a night Rahu Kaal by dividing the time from sunset to the next sunrise into 8 parts. Most people follow the daytime window only, and the daytime calculation is the standard one in daily practice.

How does Rahu Kaal differ from a shubh muhurat?

Rahu Kaal tells you which 90 minutes to skip. A muhurat picks the best slot, using 5 factors from the panchang: day, tithi, nakshatra, yoga, and karana. A time can sit outside Rahu Kaal and still be a weak muhurat, so use Rahu Kaal as the first filter and the full panchang as the second.