India's ancient 60-ghati time system that starts at sunrise — live, this very moment
A modern clock divides the day into 24 hours and starts counting at midnight. The Indian system is different, and closer to the sky: the Vedic day begins at sunrise, and one full day-and-night is divided into 60 ghatis. A ghati is 24 minutes; it has 60 palas (24 seconds each), and a pala has 60 vipalas (0.4 second each).
| Vedic unit | Equals | In modern time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 ahoratra (day + night) | 60 ghatis | 24 hours |
| 1 ghati (nadi / danda) | 60 palas | 24 minutes |
| 1 pala | 60 vipalas | 24 seconds |
| 1 vipala | — | 0.4 second |
| 1 muhurta | 2 ghatis | 48 minutes |
| 1 prahara | 7½ ghatis | 3 hours |
A ghati is also called a nadi or danda, and the Hindi word for clock, ghadi, comes from it. Two ghatis make one muhurta (48 minutes) and seven and a half ghatis make one prahara (3 hours), so a day-and-night holds eight praharas and thirty muhurtas.
Tithi, nakshatra and weekday in the panchang all change at sunrise, so every astrological calculation also counts its day from there. In ancient times a water clock, the ghatika-yantra, measured the ghati: a bowl with a calibrated hole took exactly one ghati to sink.
Muhurta timing, the ishtakaal of a birth and many classical methods are still written in ghati and pala; the ishta ghati in a birth chart is exactly this. Rahu kaal, choghadiya and the abhijit muhurta are likewise found by dividing the span between sunrise and sunset.
The large number shows the time elapsed since today's sunrise as ghati : pala : vipala, ticking live. Below it are the ordinary time of the same moment, today's sunrise and the day length. The calculation uses Delhi's sunrise; the same clock with your own city's exact sunrise is on the panchang page.
Note that every ghati on this clock is exactly 24 minutes (60 equal ghatis). In the muhurta table, the 15 day muhurtas divide the day length equally and the 15 night muhurtas divide the night, so when the day is shorter or longer than 12 hours a muhurta's ghati drifts slightly from the clock's ghati.
There are 15 muhurtas from sunrise to sunset and 15 from sunset to the next sunrise, each about two ghatis long. Every muhurta has its presiding deity and nature; the eighth day muhurta is Abhijit, held auspicious for almost any undertaking (except on Wednesdays).
| # | Muhurta | Ghati | Time (Delhi) | Nature |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ☀️ day | ||||
| 1 | रुद्र (प्रातः) | 1–2 | 06:24 AM – 07:09 AM | inauspicious |
| 2 | आहि (प्रातः) | 3–4 | 07:09 AM – 07:55 AM | inauspicious |
| 3 | मित्र (प्रातः) | 5–6 | 07:55 AM – 08:40 AM | auspicious |
| 4 | पितृ (संगव) | 7–8 | 08:40 AM – 09:26 AM | inauspicious |
| 5 | वसु (संगव) | 9–10 | 09:26 AM – 10:12 AM | auspicious |
| 6 | वाराह (संगव) | 11–12 | 10:12 AM – 10:57 AM | auspicious |
| 7 | विश्वेदेवा (मध्याह्न) | 13–14 | 10:57 AM – 11:43 AM | auspicious |
| 8 | अभिजित (मध्याह्न) | 15–16 | 11:43 AM – 12:28 PM | auspicious |
| 9 | विधि (मध्याह्न) | 17–18 | 12:28 PM – 01:14 PM | auspicious |
| 10 | सुतमुखी (अपराह्न) | 19–20 | 01:14 PM – 02:00 PM | auspicious |
| 11 | पुरुहूत (अपराह्न) | 21–22 | 02:00 PM – 02:45 PM | inauspicious |
| 12 | वाहिनी (अपराह्न) | 23–24 | 02:45 PM – 03:31 PM | inauspicious |
| 13 | नक्तनचरा (सायाह्न) | 25–26 | 03:31 PM – 04:16 PM | inauspicious |
| 14 | वरुण (सायाह्न) | 27–28 | 04:16 PM – 05:02 PM | auspicious |
| 15 | अर्यमा (सायाह्न) | 29–30 | 05:02 PM – 05:48 PM | auspicious |
| 🌙 night | ||||
| 16 | गिरीश (प्रदोष) | 31–32 | 05:48 PM – 06:38 PM | inauspicious |
| 17 | अजपाद (प्रदोष) | 33–34 | 06:38 PM – 07:28 PM | inauspicious |
| 18 | अहिर्बुध्न्य (प्रदोष) | 35–36 | 07:28 PM – 08:19 PM | auspicious |
| 19 | पूषा (रात्रि) | 37–38 | 08:19 PM – 09:09 PM | auspicious |
| 20 | अश्विनी (रात्रि) | 39–40 | 09:09 PM – 10:00 PM | auspicious |
| 21 | यम (रात्रि) | 41–42 | 10:00 PM – 10:50 PM | inauspicious |
| 22 | अग्नि (रात्रि) | 43–44 | 10:50 PM – 11:41 PM | auspicious |
| 23 | विधाता (निशीथ) | 45–46 | 11:41 PM – 12:31 AM, 20 अक्तू | auspicious |
| 24 | कण्ड (रात्रि) | 47–48 | 12:31 AM, 20 अक्तू – 01:22 AM, 20 अक्तू | auspicious |
| 25 | अदिति (रात्रि) | 49–50 | 01:22 AM, 20 अक्तू – 02:12 AM, 20 अक्तू | auspicious |
| 26 | अमृत (रात्रि) | 51–52 | 02:12 AM, 20 अक्तू – 03:03 AM, 20 अक्तू | auspicious |
| 27 | विष्णु (रात्रि) | 53–54 | 03:03 AM, 20 अक्तू – 03:53 AM, 20 अक्तू | auspicious |
| 28 | द्युमद्गद्युति (रात्रि) | 55–56 | 03:53 AM, 20 अक्तू – 04:44 AM, 20 अक्तू | auspicious |
| 29 | ब्रह्म (अरुणोदय) | 57–58 | 04:44 AM, 20 अक्तू – 05:34 AM, 20 अक्तू | auspicious |
| 30 | समुद्र (अरुणोदय) | 59–60 | 05:34 AM, 20 अक्तू – 06:25 AM, 20 अक्तू | auspicious |
The table comes from the same engine that gives the two-ghati muhurtas in our panchang; times are for Delhi. When fixing a time for a task, check the choghadiya, rahu kaal and hora along with the muhurta.
Multiply the ghatis elapsed after sunrise by 24 to get minutes, then add them to the sunrise time to get the clock time. Below, every fifth ghati is shown for today's Delhi sunrise at 06:24 AM.
| Ghatis after sunrise | Minutes | Clock time (today, Delhi) |
|---|---|---|
| 0 ghati | 0 | 06:24 AM |
| 5 ghati | 120 | 08:24 AM |
| 10 ghati | 240 | 10:24 AM |
| 15 ghati | 360 | 12:24 PM |
| 20 ghati | 480 | 02:24 PM |
| 25 ghati | 600 | 04:24 PM |
| 30 ghati | 720 | 06:24 PM |
| 35 ghati | 840 | 08:24 PM |
| 40 ghati | 960 | 10:24 PM |
| 45 ghati | 1080 | 12:24 AM |
| 50 ghati | 1200 | 02:24 AM |
| 55 ghati | 1320 | 04:24 AM |
| 60 ghati | 1440 | 06:24 AM (≈ next sunrise) |
Ishtakaal is the time elapsed from sunrise at the birthplace to the moment of birth, in ghati and pala. Suppose a birth in Delhi today at 10:30 AM with sunrise at 06:24 AM: the gap is 246 minutes = 10 ghati 15 pala. Old birth records write this very figure as “ishta ghati 10/15”.
Going the other way, from an old record's ishta ghati to clock time, add ghati × 24 + pala × 0.4 minutes to that day's sunrise. The ghati-pala converter does both directions.
Exactly 24 minutes: 24 hours ÷ 60 ghatis = 24 minutes, and the clock's ghati does not change with the length of day or night. A ghati has 60 palas (24 seconds each) and a pala has 60 vipalas (0.4 second each).
Because the Vedic day (vaar) changes at sunrise; tithi, nakshatra, rahu kaal and choghadiya are all counted from it. So the ghati count also starts at zero at sunrise and reaches 60 at the next sunrise.
Two ghatis, that is 48 minutes. There are 15 in the day and 15 in the night, 30 in all. In practice the day muhurtas are the day length ÷ 15, so in summer and winter they run slightly longer or shorter than 48 minutes.
The time elapsed from sunrise at the birthplace to the birth moment, in ghati and pala; old birth records wrote the time in this form. The classical method for the ascendant and house cusps runs on ishtakaal; modern software does the same calculation internally from clock time.
Minutes = ghati × 24 + pala × 0.4. For example 10 ghati 20 pala = 240 + 8 = 248 minutes = 4 hours 8 minutes. The reverse: minutes ÷ 24 = ghatis, remainder × 2.5 = palas. The converter on our calculators page works both ways.
In the eighth muhurta of the day, roughly between the 14th and 16th ghati, that is about 48 minutes around local midday. Today's exact Abhijit time is in the muhurta table above and on the panchang page.
Today's Panchang (Delhi) · Today's Choghadiya · Today's Rahu Kaal · Shubh Muhurat · Ghati-pala ↔ hours-minutes converter · Agnivasa · Shivavasa · Bhadra · Free Kundali (with ishta-ghati)