Rahu Kaal: What It Is, the Timings for Each Day, and What to Avoid

Rahu Kaal (also Rahu Kalam or Rahukalam) is a period of roughly one and a half hours each day, one eighth of the time between sunrise and sunset, that Vedic tradition considers unfavourable for beginning anything new: a journey, a purchase, a signature, a ceremony, a first meeting. Its position in the day is fixed by the weekday. On a Monday it is the second eighth of the day, on a Saturday the third, on a Sunday the last, which is where the familiar figures such as 7:30 to 9:00 on Monday come from. Those figures assume sunrise at 6:00 am and sunset at 6:00 pm, so they need adjusting to your city and the season.

Rahu is the shadow planet of confusion, obsession and the unexpected, and the window that carries its name is treated as a time for finishing, not starting. That is the whole rule. It is not a curse on the clock, and it says nothing about work already under way.

How is Rahu Kaal calculated?

Divide the time from sunrise to sunset into eight equal parts. The first part, straight after sunrise, is never Rahu Kaal. Each weekday then takes one of the remaining seven parts, always in the same order. The traditional mnemonic is Mother Saw Father Wearing The Turban Suddenly: Monday, Saturday, Friday, Wednesday, Thursday, Tuesday and Sunday take the second to the eighth part in turn. Two companion windows, Yamaganda and Gulika Kaal, use the same eighths in different orders, and a full panchang lists all three.

Rahu Kaal in Mauritius: why the printed times are wrong

Most apps and printed calendars carry the Indian textbook figures. In Port Louis the day is a different length. Around the shortest days in late June the Sun rises at about 6:45 am and sets at about 5:40 pm, just under eleven hours of daylight, so each eighth lasts about 82 minutes. Around the longest days in late December it rises at about 5:30 am and sets close to 6:50 pm, more than thirteen hours, and each eighth stretches to about 100 minutes. Monday’s Rahu Kaal therefore runs from roughly 8:07 to 9:29 in June and from roughly 7:09 to 8:49 in December, and neither is the 7:30 to 9:00 on the calendar.

The fix is simple: take the day’s sunrise and sunset for your town, from a panchang set to Mauritius or from any weather service, subtract, divide by eight, and count the parts for the weekday from the table. The same arithmetic gives Yamaganda and Gulika Kaal.

What to avoid during Rahu Kaal, and what is fine

The rule concerns beginnings. Traditionally avoided inside the window:

• Setting out on a journey, particularly a long or important one.
• Starting a new job, opening a business or launching anything you want to last.
• Signing agreements, paying a deposit, buying property, a vehicle, gold or jewellery.
• Beginning a puja, a ceremony or a muhurat-based event such as an engagement or a Griha Pravesh.
• A first meeting that matters: a proposal, an interview, a negotiation.

Perfectly fine: everything already begun. Work that started in the morning continues. Food, sleep, routine chores, daily prayer at the home altar, an exam or a flight scheduled by someone else, and every emergency go ahead without a second thought. Medical treatment never waits for a muhurat. The one exception tradition makes is the worship of Durga, Kali and Hanuman, which several lineages deliberately place inside Rahu Kaal, on Tuesdays and Fridays especially, as a remedy for Rahu itself.

Rahu Kaal is a rule about starting, not about living. If it is already begun, carry on.

Yamaganda and Gulika Kaal: the two companions

Yamaganda, named for Yama, is avoided for the same beginnings as Rahu Kaal and is taken most seriously for journeys. Gulika Kaal, the period of Saturn’s son Gulika, is read differently: whatever is begun in it is said to repeat, so it is avoided for anything you would not want twice and, in some lineages, chosen on purpose for what you would, such as the start of a long-term practice. The table above gives all three for each weekday, and the same sunrise arithmetic applies to each.

How much weight should Rahu Kaal carry?

Treat it as a daily rule of thumb, not a substitute for a muhurat. For the events that matter, a wedding, a Griha Pravesh, the opening of a shop, the timing is chosen from the tithi, the nakshatra, the sign rising at the hour and the charts of the people involved; Rahu Kaal, Yamaganda and Gulika are then simply among the windows excluded. For everyday decisions, respect the window when it costs you nothing to do so, and do not let it paralyse you when it does. A start delayed by ninety minutes has never harmed anyone; a start refused for weeks because every hour looked inauspicious has.

If you are fixing a date for a ceremony, a business opening or a signing in Mauritius, send the details and the birth dates involved and I will work out a muhurat for you, with the local Rahu Kaal already accounted for. Timing for business decisions is part of our career and business astrology service.

Frequently asked questions