What is Rahu Kalam?

Rahu Kalam (also spelled Rahu Kaal) is a roughly 90-minute period that occurs every day, considered inauspicious for beginning new activities — starting a journey, signing a contract, launching a business, or holding a ceremony. It's named after Rahu, one of the two "shadow" points in Vedic astrology formed by the Moon's orbital nodes.

How Rahu Kalam is calculated

The daylight period — from sunrise to sunset — is divided into 8 equal parts. Rahu Kalam always falls in a specific one of those 8 parts depending on the day of the week, in this fixed order:

Important: the clock times above are an illustrative example only, based on a 6:00 AM sunrise and 6:00 PM sunset. Since actual sunrise and sunset shift through the year and vary by city, the real clock time for Rahu Kalam changes daily — a local Panchang for your exact city and date will give you the precise window.

Is Rahu Kalam the only inauspicious period?

No — Vedic Panchang also tracks Yamagandam and Gulika Kalam, two further daily inauspicious windows calculated the same way (dividing daylight or night into 8 parts) but assigned to different parts of the day. Rahu Kalam is simply the most widely observed of the three in everyday practice.

What's considered favourable instead

Many people instead look for Abhijit Muhurat — a roughly 48-minute window around local solar noon, considered auspicious on most days except Wednesday. Read our Shubh Muhurat guide, or for a fuller 7-type system across the whole day, see our Choghadiya guide.