Rahu Kaal is one eighth of the time between your city's sunrise and sunset, which is why it is different in every city and every season. The timetable in calendars (Monday 7:30 to 9:00 AM) assumes a 6 AM sunrise, and is over 15 minutes off on 66 days in 100. Our Rahu Kaal page works it out each day from your own city's sunrise and sunset.
How is Rahu Kaal calculated?
Rahu Kaal is calculated by dividing the daylight, from sunrise to sunset in your own city, into eight equal parts. The weekday decides which part belongs to Rahu: the 2nd on Monday, the 3rd on Saturday, the 4th on Friday, the 5th on Wednesday, the 6th on Thursday, the 7th on Tuesday and the 8th, the last before sunset, on Sunday.
| Day | Part of the daylight | What the printed timetable says |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | 2nd of 8 | 7:30 AM – 9:00 AM |
| Tuesday | 7th of 8 | 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM |
| Wednesday | 5th of 8 | 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM |
| Thursday | 6th of 8 | 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM |
| Friday | 4th of 8 | 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM |
| Saturday | 3rd of 8 | 9:00 AM – 10:30 AM |
| Sunday | 8th of 8 | 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM |
Worked out by hand, for New Delhi on Monday 11 January 2027. The sun rises at 7:14 AM and sets at 5:43 PM, which is 628 minutes of daylight. One eighth of that is 78½ minutes. Monday's Rahu Kaal is the second eighth, so it begins one eighth after sunrise and ends two eighths after: 8:33 AM to 9:51 AM. The printed timetable says 7:30 to 9:00, and shares only the last 27 minutes with the real one.
The rule comes from the panchang tradition and is kept most strictly in South India, where it is called Rahu Kalam. Some pages print Saturday's Rahu Kaal as the 6th part of the day; it is the 3rd, which is why the timetable puts it at 9:00 to 10:30 in the morning.
How far off is the 7:30-to-9 timetable?
The printed Rahu Kaal timetable is wrong by more than 15 minutes on two days out of three. We worked out the real Rahu Kaal for all 40 cities on our panchang pages for every day from 1 November 2026 to 31 October 2027, 14,600 city-days in all, and set each beside the timetable. The real times are the ones our Rahu Kaal page and panchang show every day; the gaps below are the printed timetable's, not ours.
- On 66 days in 100 the real Rahu Kaal starts more than 15 minutes away from the timetable.
- On 34 days in 100 it is more than 30 minutes away.
- On 14 days in 100 the timetable's 90 minutes cover less than half of the real Rahu Kaal.
Every weekday is affected, and Sunday the most, because its Rahu Kaal ends at sunset, and sunset in New Delhi moves by nearly two hours through the year, from 5:25 PM in December to 7:22 PM in July.
| Day | The timetable says | Typical gap | Days off by more than 15 minutes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunday | 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM | 28 min | 72 in 100 |
| Tuesday | 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM | 25 min | 69 in 100 |
| Thursday | 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM | 24 min | 68 in 100 |
| Wednesday | 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM | 22 min | 66 in 100 |
| Monday | 7:30 AM – 9:00 AM | 21 min | 63 in 100 |
| Friday | 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM | 20 min | 62 in 100 |
| Saturday | 9:00 AM – 10:30 AM | 19 min | 60 in 100 |
The typical gap is the middle value over all 40 cities and the whole year; half of the days are further off than that.
Why Rahu Kaal is different in every city
Rahu Kaal is different in every city, by up to 90 minutes on the same day, because it is counted from each city's own sunrise and sunset while all of India keeps one clock. On a typical day its start is 84 minutes apart from the first city to the last; on 21 June 2027 it is 90 minutes apart, from Guwahati in the east to Rajkot in the west.
East and west move it most. The sun rises and sets about four minutes later on the clock for every degree of longitude you go west. India's clock is set for a line near Mirzapur, so cities well east of it, such as Kolkata and Guwahati, usually see Rahu Kaal earlier than the timetable, and cities in the west, such as Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Rajkot, see it later.
The season moves it too. In winter the day is short and starts late, so in the north Monday's Rahu Kaal comes well after 7:30. In summer the day is long and ends late, so Sunday's Rahu Kaal runs past 7 PM in Delhi and the west.
Wednesday shows the clock plainly. Wednesday's Rahu Kaal is the fifth eighth, which begins exactly at the middle of the day, the moment between sunrise and sunset. Over the year it begins as early as 11:06 AM (Guwahati, 4 November 2026) and as late as 1:01 PM (Rajkot, 10 February 2027). The timetable says 12:00 for everyone.
A common claim is that the 6-to-6 timetable is right near the equator. In India it is not only a matter of latitude. Chennai, far south, is still more than 15 minutes off on 38 days in 100, because its clock and its sun disagree by longitude as well.
How often the timetable is wrong in your city
How often the printed timetable misses your city's Rahu Kaal, from 32 days in 100 in Visakhapatnam to 97 in Rajkot, depends mostly on how far east or west you live. In the west it is off by more than 15 minutes on nine days in ten or more; on the east coast near India's clock line, on about one day in three.
| City | Off by more than 15 min | Off by more than 30 min | Largest gap in the year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guwahati | 87 in 100 | 63 in 100 | 79 min, Sunday 29 November 2026 |
| Kolkata | 66 in 100 | 38 in 100 | 61 min, Sunday 22 November 2026 |
| Patna | 52 in 100 | 18 in 100 | 52 min, Sunday 29 November 2026 |
| Visakhapatnam | 32 in 100 | 2 in 100 | 34 min, Sunday 22 November 2026 |
| Lucknow | 48 in 100 | 16 in 100 | 51 min, Sunday 4 July 2027 |
| Chennai | 38 in 100 | 3 in 100 | 34 min, Sunday 11 July 2027 |
| Hyderabad | 52 in 100 | 17 in 100 | 46 min, Sunday 11 July 2027 |
| Bengaluru | 61 in 100 | 22 in 100 | 44 min, Sunday 11 July 2027 |
| New Delhi | 65 in 100 | 34 in 100 | 69 min, Sunday 4 July 2027 |
| Amritsar | 78 in 100 | 51 in 100 | 84 min, Sunday 4 July 2027 |
| Mumbai | 93 in 100 | 67 in 100 | 71 min, Sunday 11 July 2027 |
| Ahmedabad | 92 in 100 | 69 in 100 | 78 min, Sunday 4 July 2027 |
| Rajkot | 97 in 100 | 84 in 100 | 84 min, Sunday 4 July 2027 |
The cities run from east to west. Each of the 40 has its own day-by-day Rahu Kaal on the Rahu Kaal page.
Rahu Kaal through the year in New Delhi
Rahu Kaal in New Delhi moves by more than an hour through the year on the days that sit near sunrise and sunset. Monday's is late in winter, when the sun rises after 7; Sunday's is late in summer, when the sun sets after 7.
| Date | Monday's Rahu Kaal | Against the timetable (7:30) | Date | Sunday's Rahu Kaal | Against the timetable (4:30) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Nov 2026 | 8:00 AM – 9:21 AM | 30 min later | 8 Nov 2026 | 4:09 PM – 5:31 PM | 20 min earlier |
| 14 Dec 2026 | 8:22 AM – 9:40 AM | 53 min later | 13 Dec 2026 | 4:08 PM – 5:25 PM | 22 min earlier |
| 11 Jan 2027 | 8:33 AM – 9:51 AM | 63 min later | 10 Jan 2027 | 4:23 PM – 5:42 PM | 6 min earlier |
| 8 Feb 2027 | 8:27 AM – 9:50 AM | 58 min later | 14 Feb 2027 | 4:46 PM – 6:10 PM | 17 min later |
| 8 Mar 2027 | 8:07 AM – 9:35 AM | 37 min later | 14 Mar 2027 | 4:59 PM – 6:28 PM | 29 min later |
| 12 Apr 2027 | 7:35 AM – 9:10 AM | 5 min later | 11 Apr 2027 | 5:09 PM – 6:44 PM | 39 min later |
| 10 May 2027 | 7:14 AM – 8:55 AM | 15 min earlier | 9 May 2027 | 5:20 PM – 7:01 PM | 50 min later |
| 14 Jun 2027 | 7:07 AM – 8:52 AM | 23 min earlier | 13 Jun 2027 | 5:35 PM – 7:19 PM | 65 min later |
| 12 Jul 2027 | 7:15 AM – 8:59 AM | 15 min earlier | 11 Jul 2027 | 5:38 PM – 7:22 PM | 68 min later |
| 9 Aug 2027 | 7:26 AM – 9:06 AM | 3 min earlier | 8 Aug 2027 | 5:27 PM – 7:07 PM | 57 min later |
| 13 Sep 2027 | 7:37 AM – 9:10 AM | 8 min later | 12 Sep 2027 | 4:57 PM – 6:30 PM | 27 min later |
| 11 Oct 2027 | 7:46 AM – 9:13 AM | 16 min later | 10 Oct 2027 | 4:30 PM – 5:57 PM | on time |
A Delhi family that waits for the timetable's 9:00 AM on a January Monday before setting out leaves in the middle of the real Rahu Kaal, which lasts until 9:51.
How long is Rahu Kaal?
Rahu Kaal is not always 90 minutes. It is one eighth of the daylight, so it is short in winter and long in summer. In New Delhi it lasts 77 minutes on 21 December 2026 and 105 minutes on 21 June 2027. Nearer the equator the day changes less: in Chennai it runs from 85 minutes (20 December 2026) to 97 minutes (24 June 2027), and in Guwahati from 79 minutes (24 December 2026) to 103 minutes (23 June 2027).
When the printed timetable is good enough, and when it is not
Treat the printed timetable as a reminder of which part of the day Rahu Kaal falls in, never as its time. It can be close: in Chennai and Visakhapatnam it is within 15 minutes on about two days in three. But it is never safe on a summer Sunday or a winter Monday in the north and west, and in Mumbai, Ahmedabad or Rajkot it is off on nine days in ten.
When the day matters (a griha pravesh, a new shop, signing for a house), look up your own city's Rahu Kaal for that date. If you have only your city's sunrise and sunset, work it out as in the Delhi example: take the minutes of daylight, divide by eight, and count the weekday's part from sunrise.
Tradition keeps Rahu Kaal free of new beginnings; work already under way carries on. What it is avoided for, and Yamaganda and Gulik Kaal beside it, are on the Rahu Kaal page.
