The seven types
The choghadiya system comes from the Gauri tradition of the digests (tabulated in works such as the Kalaprakashika) and remains the everyday election tool across India — especially in Gujarat, where no shop opens without a glance at it. Seven types rule the slots; each belongs to a planet and carries a fixed quality:
| Choghadiya | Planet | Quality | Classical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amrit | Moon | ✓ Best | Nectar — the first choice for any auspicious beginning, medicine, worship |
| Shubh | Jupiter | ✓ Good | Auspicious — ceremonies, learning, meeting elders and officials |
| Laabha | Mercury | ✓ Good | Gain — trade, purchases, accounts, new employment |
| Chara | Venus | ✓ Good | Movable — travel, vehicles, anything meant to move; middling for fixed works |
| Udveg | Sun | ✕ Avoid | Agitation — avoid auspicious starts; tolerable for government dealings |
| Kaala | Saturn | ✕ Avoid | Time/death — avoid beginnings; said to be usable only for works of iron and oil |
| Rog | Mars | ✕ Avoid | Disease/conflict — avoid; reserved for works of confrontation |
How the sequence runs
The day slots begin at local sunrise with the weekday's own lord — Sunday opens with the Sun's Udveg, Monday with the Moon's Amrit, and so on — and the types then cycle in their fixed planetary order (Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars), each slot taking one-eighth of the daylight. The night slots run their own classical sequence from sunset. Because the eighths are ofdaylight, a slot is about 90 minutes, stretching in summer and shrinking in winter — which is why no honest choghadiya table can print fixed clock times.
A real day, computed
Here is the full sixteen-slot run for Delhi on 15 August 2026 (a Saturday), exactly as Bela's engine computes it — sunrise 5:51 AM, sunset 6:59 PM:
| # | Period | Choghadiya | Quality | Time (IST) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Day | Kaala | Avoid | 5:51 AM – 7:29 AM |
| 2 | Day | Shubha | Good | 7:29 AM – 9:08 AM |
| 3 | Day | Rog | Avoid | 9:08 AM – 10:46 AM |
| 4 | Day | Udveg | Avoid | 10:46 AM – 12:25 PM |
| 5 | Day | Chara | Good | 12:25 PM – 2:04 PM |
| 6 | Day | Laabha | Good | 2:04 PM – 3:42 PM |
| 7 | Day | Amrit | Best | 3:42 PM – 5:21 PM |
| 8 | Day | Kaala | Avoid | 5:21 PM – 6:59 PM |
| 9 | Night | Laabha | Good | 6:59 PM – 8:21 PM |
| 10 | Night | Udveg | Avoid | 8:21 PM – 9:42 PM |
| 11 | Night | Shubha | Good | 9:42 PM – 11:04 PM |
| 12 | Night | Amrit | Best | 11:04 PM – 12:25 AM |
| 13 | Night | Chara | Good | 12:25 AM – 1:47 AM |
| 14 | Night | Rog | Avoid | 1:47 AM – 3:08 AM |
| 15 | Night | Kaala | Avoid | 3:08 AM – 4:30 AM |
| 16 | Night | Laabha | Good | 4:30 AM – 5:51 AM |
Read it the way a practitioner does: if you must sign a contract that Saturday, the 14:04–15:42 Laabha or the 15:42–17:21 Amrit are your hours — and note they sit clear of the day'sRahu Kaal(09:08–10:47), which a good choghadiya alone does not guarantee.
How to use it — and where it stops
The working rule is one line: begin in Amrit, Shubh, Laabha or Chara; keep Udveg, Kaala and Rog for nothing you care about.For daily, low-stakes beginnings — a journey, a purchase, a first visit — that rule is the whole method, and it has run households for centuries.
Its limits are just as clear, and the classics state them: choghadiya is a qualitative day-filter. It knows nothing of the tithi, the nakshatra's suitability to your activity, the yoga, or your own birth star. A wedding or a griha pravesh therefore never rides on choghadiya alone — it needs the full election described inwhat is a muhurat?, with choghadiya picking the hour inside the elected day. The side-by-side is in muhurat vs choghadiya.
Choghadiya on Bela
Every city panchang page lists the day's sixteen slots with their qualities, and every date on themuhurat lists names the choghadiya its window was taken from — so the slot is never a bare assertion; you can see which rule produced it.