Good times for an undertaking

The daytime between sunrise and sunset is divided into eight equal parts, and three of them are named after shadowy planets. Rahu Kaal falls in a different eighth on each weekday (the eighth, second, seventh, fifth, sixth, fourth and third parts from Sunday to Saturday); Gulika and Yamaganda follow their own weekday sequences. Each lasts about an hour and a half near the equinoxes, and longer or shorter as the day lengthens or shortens. These are local times and must be computed from the sunrise of the place in question; muhurta texts set them aside for beginnings, while routine work continues.

Abhijit is the eighth of the fifteen muhurtas of the day, centred on local apparent noon. It lasts two ghatis, about 48 minutes, running roughly 24 minutes either side of midday as measured from the actual sunrise and sunset of the place. Tradition treats it as a generally usable window on most days, with Wednesday commonly excepted. It shares its name with a 28th nakshatra, a short segment within Uttara Ashadha and Shravana, used in some older schemes.

Brahma muhurta is the second-last muhurta of the night, the window of two ghatis (about 48 minutes) that ends 48 minutes before sunrise. In a place where the Sun rises at 6:00, it runs from about 4:24 to 5:12, and it shifts with the seasons and the location. The texts associate it with study, recitation and quiet work before the day begins. Because it is tied to sunrise, it is not a fixed clock time.

Choghadiya ('four ghadis', about 96 minutes) divides the day and the night into eight parts each. Every part is assigned one of seven names, Udveg, Char, Labh, Amrit, Kaal, Shubh and Rog, in a sequence that starts from the weekday lord and cycles through the planetary order. Amrit, Shubh, Labh and Char are traditionally treated as usable, the rest set aside. The system is popular in Gujarat and Rajasthan and depends on local sunrise and sunset.

A hora is one twenty-fourth of the day, twelve from sunrise to sunset and twelve from sunset to sunrise, each stretched or shortened with the season. The first hora of the day belongs to the weekday lord, and the rest follow the planetary order Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, repeating. This is the same scheme that gave the weekdays their names, since the 25th hora of each day falls to the next planet in the sequence. Panchangs list the hora lord as one of the finer muhurta divisions.