The duration between sunrise and the next sunrise, according to vedic astrology, is called (a)hora(tra). Hora is regarded as a important aspect of astrology. When no auspicious Muhurat is available for a specific task, vedic astrology is used to guide the administration of Hora Chakra.

Since we have 24 hours in a solar day (a Vedic day is calculated from sunrise to sunrise while the English calendar day is counted from midnight to midnight), therefore, we have 24 Horas during one solar day on Earth. A particular planet lords each Hora. The lordship is a chronological sequence of the planetary speeds going from fastest (Chandra/Moon) to slowest (Shani/Saturn) except for the first Hora of the week lorded by the Sun as a mark of respect since the Sun is the Lord of the Solar system and significator of Life or Srushti.

Ancient Hindu astrologers subdivided each sign of the Zodiac into halves and called each division a Hora. Thus, roughly 1 hour is needed for each Hora to pass the meridian or rise in the East. However, Hindu astrologers did not measure Time in hours and minutes, and they used Ghatis and Vighatis as measurement tools. Thus, one day had 60 Ghatis. Each zodiac sign comprises approximately 5 Ghatis or half a sign, and a Hora is about two and a half ghatis.

Hindu astrologers knew that some activities thrive or prosper during certain Ghatis, and some ‘fall through’ certain Ghatis. I have provided a table to make the Hora calculations simple and convenient.