Choghadiya today

Choghadiya divides the daytime and the night into eight equal parts each, named Amrit, Shubh, Labh, Char, Udveg, Kaal and Rog after the planets that rule them. It is used to pick a time for a task, and it follows current almanac practice.

Amrit, Shubh and Labh are counted good, and Udveg, Kaal and Rog are avoided. Char is neutral and is commonly counted with the good periods, especially for travel. The classical texts read do not describe choghadiya; the periods here follow current almanac practice.

One eighth of the daytime or of the night. With twelve hours of daylight that is 90 minutes. In India a day choghadiya is longer in summer and shorter in winter, and a night choghadiya the other way round.

The daytime and the night are divided separately, so their parts have different lengths unless day and night are equal. They also run in different sequences: the day starts from the weekday’s own planet, and the night from the planet five places further on in the order Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars.

We have not found it in any classical text we checked: Muhurta Chintamani, Muhurta Martanda, Brihaj-jyotihsara, the Kalaprakasika, and Gujarati almanac manuals printed in 1895 and 1916. The classical texts read do not describe choghadiya; the periods here follow current almanac practice.