A hora is a planetary hour: the day from sunrise is divided into 24 of them, each ruled by one of the seven planets in the fixed order Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars. The first hora after sunrise belongs to the lord of that weekday, which is where the weekday names come from. Enter your date and city to see the full 24-hora timeline computed from your local sunrise, with the hora running right now highlighted.
Computed for , New Delhi · refreshed hourly
New Delhi · Saturday, 24 October 2026 · Sunrise 06:27 · Sunset 17:43
In Vedic astrology (Hora Shastra), each day is split into 24 planetary hours called horas that run in a fixed cycle - Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars - repeating through day and night. The first hora after sunrise is ruled by the lord of that weekday (Sun on Sunday, Moon on Monday, and so on), and every hora carries the nature of its ruling planet.
That cycle is the descending order of the classical orbital periods, and it is also why the weekdays follow the order they do: count seven horas on from the Sun's and you land on the Moon, the lord of the next day. Twenty-four horas advance the cycle by three places, which is exactly the step from one weekday lord to the next.
Match the hora's ruling planet to the task you have in mind:
The match to make is between the nature of the ruling planet and the nature of the work, not between the hora and any particular date. Since the same seven planets repeat every seven horas, the one you want comes round roughly twice in a working day, so there is usually more than one usable window.
The first hora begins at your city's true sunrise for the date you choose. Sunrise and sunset are computed for your latitude, longitude and time zone, which is why the same hora starts at a different clock time in Delhi and in Chennai on the same date. Two conventions are in use for how long a hora lasts, and the page lets you switch between them. By default it follows the panchang convention that Drik Panchang and most printed almanacs use: daylight is divided into twelve equal horas from sunrise and the night into twelve from sunset, so a summer day hora runs longer than an hour and a night hora shorter. The other is the Muhurta Chintamani's (1.55): twenty-four equal horas of two and a half ghatis each, from one sunrise to the next. They name different planets for most of the day, so the page always states which one you are looking at.
The table marks each hora benefic, neutral or malefic: Jupiter, Venus, Mercury and the Moon are shown as benefic, the Sun as neutral, and Mars and Saturn as malefic. On dates and latitudes where the Sun does not rise or set at all, the hora table cannot be built and the page says so instead of showing an approximated day - a hora is a division of the real day, and a made-up sunrise would produce a different quantity wearing the same label.
For educational purposes. Astrological interpretations are traditional and not a substitute for professional advice.