Choghadiya in Rajkot — slot lengths, sunrise anchor and the full grid

Rajkot sits 11.7 degrees west of the meridian that defines IST, which puts its solar noon 46.8 minutes behind clock noon — the largest lag of the eleven cities here, and 38 minutes more than Chennai’s. Its slots are ordinary at 1h 21m to 1h 41m; what is unusual is that the whole grid opens late against everyone else’s clock.

choghadiya rajkot, rajkot choghadiya today, aaj ka choghadiya rajkot, shubh choghadiya

In Rajkot, Gujarat, a daylight choghadiya runs 1h 21m to 1h 41m, sunrise moves 1h 27m across the year, and solar noon sits 46.8 minutes behind the clock. All three computed at 22.30°N 70.80°E.

India runs one timezone across nearly 30 degrees of longitude, and Rajkot sits at the far western end of it. That single fact does more to Rajkot’s choghadiya table than its latitude does.

The arithmetic is four minutes per degree. Rajkot is at 70.80°E; IST is defined at 82.5°E; the difference is 11.7 degrees, or 46.8 minutes of solar time. Every sunrise, every sunset and therefore every slot boundary carries that lag.

It is why a Rajkot sunrise in mid-January lands at 07:29 while Chennai — at almost the same latitude difference from the equator in the other direction — sees 06:36 on the same clock. Same country, same time on the wall, 53 minutes of daylight apart.

Eleven point seven degrees west, and what that costs on the clock

On the longest day of the year Rajkot’s daylight runs 06:04 to 19:34 — 13h 30m. Chennai’s, on the same date, runs 05:44 to 18:38, or 12h 54m. The two day lengths are within 36 minutes of each other, yet Rajkot’s entire grid sits nearly an hour later on the clock, and its sunset is the latest in this cluster by a wide margin.

For anyone reading a choghadiya table printed for "India", this is the failure mode. A table calculated for Delhi or Chennai and used in Saurashtra will have every boundary too early, by between 26 and 38 minutes, all year round. That is a fifth to a quarter of a slot — routinely enough to name the wrong choghadiya.

The lag is also completely constant, which makes it the easiest error to correct for: unlike the seasonal swing, it never changes. If you only ever fix one thing about a borrowed table, fix this one.

How long one Rajkot choghadiya is, through the year

Sunrise, sunset and the resulting eighth at the year's four turning points, computed for 2026.

Rajkot sits at 22.30°N, and latitude is the only thing that sets slot length. Its daylight runs from 10h 46m on 22 December to 13h 30m on 21 June — a swing of 2h 44m — so one eighth of it moves between 1h 21m and 1h 41m. That is 20 minutes of variation in the same named slot.

Date	Sunrise	Sunset	Daylight	One day slot	One night slot
March equinox (20 March)	06:51	18:58	12h 07m	1h 31m	1h 29m
June solstice (21 June)	06:04	19:34	13h 30m	1h 41m	1h 19m
September equinox (22 September)	06:36	18:44	12h 08m	1h 31m	1h 29m
December solstice (21 December)	07:22	18:08	10h 46m	1h 21m	1h 39m

Across the whole year a Rajkot daylight slot runs 1h 21m to 1h 41m and a night slot 1h 19m to 1h 39m. At the equinoxes the two are equal — that is what an equinox is.

Where Rajkot's grid sits on the clock, and why

Sunrise in Rajkot runs from 06:02 on 7 June to 07:29 on 15 January. That is 1h 27m of movement in the first boundary of the day, and since every later boundary is measured from it, the whole grid travels the same distance.

Longitude adds a second offset that never changes. At 70.80°E, 11.70° west of the 82.5°E timezone meridian, solar noon in Rajkot falls at about 12:47 rather than 12:00 — 46.8 minutes after the clock, on every date of the year. Against 1h 41m and 1h 21m slots that is roughly a 46-to-58 per cent share of one slot, borrowed from a neighbouring city's table and never repaid.

Measure	Value
Earliest sunrise	06:02 on 7 June
Latest sunrise	07:29 on 15 January
Longest daylight	13h 30m on 21 June
Shortest daylight	10h 46m on 22 December
Annual day-length swing	2h 44m
Solar noon vs clock noon	+46.8 minutes

The full daylight grid for Rajkot on 21 June

Sunday, sunrise 06:04, sunset 19:34 — the year's longest daylight and therefore its longest slots.

13h 30m of daylight, divided by eight, gives 101 minutes a slot. Sunday is ruled by Sun, so the sequence opens on Udveg at 06:04 and closes on Udveg at 19:34 — the eighth slot repeating the first, as it does on every weekday. Of the eight, 4 are favourable.

Slot	Choghadiya	Lord	Clock time in Rajkot	Reading
1	Udveg	Sun	06:04 – 07:45	avoid for starts
2	Chal	Venus	07:45 – 09:26	favourable
3	Labh	Mercury	09:26 – 11:07	favourable
4	Amrit	Moon	11:07 – 12:49	favourable
5	Kaal	Saturn	12:49 – 14:30	avoid for starts
6	Shubh	Jupiter	14:30 – 16:11	favourable
7	Rog	Mars	16:11 – 17:52	avoid for starts
8	Udveg	Sun	17:52 – 19:34	avoid for starts

Times computed from NOAA sunrise/sunset at this city's coordinates. Rounded to the minute for display.

The same eight slots on 22 December, compressed

Tuesday, sunrise 07:22, sunset 18:08: 10h 46m of daylight, 2h 44m less than 21 June had. Each slot has shrunk to 81 minutes from 101, and sunrise itself has moved 1h 19m later.

Compare the third row of each grid and the whole argument of this page is in one line: Labh ran 09:26–11:07 in 21 June and Chal runs 10:04–11:24 in 22 December. Same city, same position in the grid, no overlap at all.

Slot	Choghadiya	Lord	Clock time in Rajkot	Reading
1	Rog	Mars	07:22 – 08:43	avoid for starts
2	Udveg	Sun	08:43 – 10:04	avoid for starts
3	Chal	Venus	10:04 – 11:24	favourable
4	Labh	Mercury	11:24 – 12:45	favourable
5	Amrit	Moon	12:45 – 14:06	favourable
6	Kaal	Saturn	14:06 – 15:27	avoid for starts
7	Shubh	Jupiter	15:27 – 16:48	favourable
8	Rog	Mars	16:48 – 18:08	avoid for starts

The night that follows 21 June in Rajkot

Sunset at 19:34 to the next sunrise is 10h 30m, so each night slot is 79 minutes — 22 minutes shorter than that same day's daylight slots, because midsummer is when the night is the compressed half. In 22 December the relationship inverts and Rajkot's night slots reach 1h 39m.

The sequence is not the day sequence continued: it starts on Shubh, ruled by Jupiter, where the daylight had started on Udveg. The slots after midnight still belong to Sunday, because the vedic day turns over at sunrise and not at 00:00.

Slot	Choghadiya	Lord	Clock time in Rajkot	Reading
1	Shubh	Jupiter	19:34 – 20:52	favourable
2	Amrit	Moon	20:52 – 22:11	favourable
3	Chal	Venus	22:11 – 23:30	favourable
4	Rog	Mars	23:30 – 00:49	avoid for starts
5	Kaal	Saturn	00:49 – 02:07	avoid for starts
6	Labh	Mercury	02:07 – 03:26	favourable
7	Udveg	Sun	03:26 – 04:45	avoid for starts
8	Shubh	Jupiter	04:45 – 06:04	favourable

Times after 24:00 are shown on the following morning's clock; the row still belongs to the previous weekday.

Rajkot against the other cities in this cluster

The two numbers that make one Indian city’s choghadiya different from another’s: how far its solar noon sits from clock noon, and how much its daylight swings across the year.

City	Solar noon vs clock	Annual day-length swing	Daylight slot range
Ahmedabad	+39.7 min	2h 50m	1h 20m – 1h 42m
Mumbai	+38.5 min	2h 18m	1h 22m – 1h 40m
New Delhi	+21.2 min	3h 39m	1h 17m – 1h 45m
Surat	+38.7 min	2h 35m	1h 21m – 1h 41m
Rajkot (this page)	+46.8 min	2h 44m	1h 21m – 1h 41m
Vadodara	+37.3 min	2h 44m	1h 21m – 1h 41m
Pune	+34.6 min	2h 14m	1h 23m – 1h 39m
Bangalore	+19.6 min	1h 32m	1h 25m – 1h 37m
Hyderabad	+16.1 min	2h 05m	1h 23m – 1h 39m
Jaipur	+26.9 min	3h 23m	1h 18m – 1h 44m
Chennai	+8.9 min	1h 33m	1h 25m – 1h 37m

A positive offset means the sun peaks after the clock says noon. All eleven cities are on one timezone, which is why the column has a 38-minute spread.

Building the grid by hand, from three numbers

Three facts produce the whole table: the weekday, the sunrise and the sunset. Nothing else is needed, and nothing else is used.

Step	Value
Sunrise and sunset	06:04 and 19:34 — 13h 30m of daylight
Divide by eight	810 ÷ 8 = 101 minutes, or 1h 41m per slot
Sunday's opener	Udveg — the choghadiya of Sun, which rules Sunday
Walk the fixed cycle	Udveg → Chal → Labh → Amrit → Kaal → Shubh → Rog → Udveg
Third boundary, as a check	06:04 + 2 × 1h 41m = 09:26

The third slot on 21 June in Rajkot is Labh, running 09:26 to 11:07, and the eighth is Udveg from 17:52. Every boundary follows from the same division, and the same three facts on any other date give that date's grid.

Use the city's own sunrise, never a neighbour's. The eleven cities in this cluster span 37.9 minutes of solar time on an identical clock.

Frequently asked

Why is sunrise so late in Rajkot?

Because Rajkot is 11.7 degrees west of 82.5°E, the meridian that defines Indian Standard Time, and each degree is four minutes of solar time. That puts local solar noon 46.8 minutes behind clock noon — the largest such lag of any city in this cluster.

Can I use a national choghadiya table in Rajkot?

Not without adjusting it. A table computed for Delhi will be about 26 minutes early here and one computed for Chennai about 38 minutes early, every day of the year. Since a slot is only about 1h 21m to 1h 41m long, that is enough to read the wrong name.

How long is a choghadiya in Rajkot?

1h 21m to 1h 41m of daylight through the year, and 1h 19m to 1h 39m at night. Rajkot’s day-length swing of 2h 44m is unremarkable; it is the clock offset, not the slot length, that makes this city distinctive.

What this page can NOT tell you

• These are geometric sunrise and sunset times at the city centre. A tradition that uses the visible sunrise over a real horizon — hills, buildings, haze — will differ, and it is not wrong to.
• The figures are computed for a fixed reference year so this page cannot go stale on the shelf. Sunrise repeats to within seconds across years, so they hold; they are still not a substitute for looking up an actual date.
• Choghadiya carries no personal component. Your chart, dasha and transits are absent from every number here, and two people in this city read exactly the same table.
• The favourable / avoid labels are conventional and they do not predict outcomes. They rank a preference between otherwise equal moments, which is a much smaller claim than the word "auspicious" usually carries.
• The 46.8-minute lag is a longitude fact, not an error to be corrected in your head. Rajkot’s sun genuinely peaks at 12:47 IST, and every choghadiya boundary here is anchored to the sun, not the clock.

Choghadiya is a folk-electional convention, not a prediction. It labels slices of the day by tradition; it does not know what you are doing, who you are, or how it turned out. Treat a label as a preference, and never as permission or prohibition.

How AskSoma computes and what we refuse to claim · Engine: NOAA solar position (sunrise/sunset), ±1 minute against published almanac times · Ayanamsa: not used — choghadiya is a sunrise-to-sunset division, with no sidereal component · Content reviewed 2026-08-08