/v1/panchang/durmuhurta

Durmuhurta intervals.

What this tells you

Durmuhurta ("bad muhurta") is a set of weekday-specific inauspicious windows. The time from sunrise to sunset is split into 15 equal muhurtas, and on each weekday one or two of them are Durmuhurta. Rahu Kaal is 1/8th of the daytime; a Durmuhurta is 1/15th, so its length changes with the season. Only daytime muhurtas are returned. Avoid starting important work during these windows.

Muhurta 8 is the same window as Abhijit Muhurta. On Wednesday the API marks Abhijit as not available; on Friday it returns muhurta 8 as a Durmuhurta and still returns Abhijit in /v1/panchang/choghadiya and /v1/panchang/advanced.

Request

All requests require an Authorization header with your dv_live_* API key.

example request

curl "https://api.lifeastroapi.com/v1/panchang/durmuhurta?date=2027-01-15&tz=Asia%2FKolkata&lat=28.6139&lon=77.209" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Query parameters

Checked against the API: a parameter is marked required when the request fails without it.

Name	Required	Example	Description
`date`	yes	`2027-01-15`	Date (YYYY-MM-DD).
`tz`	yes	`Asia/Kolkata`	Timezone: IANA name (Asia/Kolkata) or UTC offset (+05:30).
`lat`	yes	`28.6139`	Latitude in decimal degrees.
`lon`	yes	`77.209`	Longitude in decimal degrees.

Response (200 OK)

The real response to the example request above, generated from the API itself. Long arrays are trimmed to their first two items. Field names are stable across versions.

200 response

{
  "date": "2027-01-15",
  "location": {
    "lat": 28.6139,
    "lon": 77.209,
    "alt": 0
  },
  "tz": "Asia/Kolkata",
  "slots": [
    {
      "muhurta_index": 8,
      "window": {
        "start_jd": 2461420.777406,
        "end_jd": 2461420.806641,
        "start_local": "2027-01-15 12:09:28",
        "end_local": "2027-01-15 12:51:34"
      }
    },
    {
      "muhurta_index": 12,
      "window": {
        "start_jd": 2461420.894346,
        "end_jd": 2461420.923581,
        "start_local": "2027-01-15 14:57:51",
        "end_local": "2027-01-15 15:39:57"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Field reference

Every field in the response, with its type, a real example, and what it means.

Field	Type	Meaning
date	string (YYYY-MM-DD)	The requested date. example: `"2027-01-15"`
location	object	Echo of lat, lon and alt (metres). example: `{ "lat": 28.6139, "lon": 77.209, "alt": 0 }`
tz	string	Echo of the tz you sent. All *_local times are in this zone. example: `"Asia/Kolkata"`
slots	array (1–2 items)	The Durmuhurta windows of the day. Wednesday has 1; every other weekday has 2. example: `[…]`
slots[].muhurta_index	integer (1–15)	Which of the 15 equal daytime muhurtas (counted from sunrise) is a Durmuhurta. example: `8` Jyotish: Positions used by this API: Sunday 2 and 9, Monday 7 and 8, Tuesday 6 and 10, Wednesday 8, Thursday 5 and 10, Friday 8 and 12, Saturday 3 and 6.
slots[].window.start_jd / end_jd	number	Start and end of the window as Julian Day in UT. example: `2461420.777406`
slots[].window.start_local / end_local	string (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS)	Start and end of the window in local time (request tz). Each window is 1/15th of the daytime, about 48 minutes near the equinox. example: `"2027-01-15 12:09:28"`

Usage tips

How to use it

Show as "avoid" zones
On a daily schedule view, shade the Durmuhurta windows with a subtle red pattern. Do not alarm the user with modals.
Use the window, not a fixed 48 minutes
The length follows the length of the day. Read `window.start_jd` and `window.end_jd` (or the local strings) instead of adding 48 minutes to a start time.

Errors

Every error follows the same envelope. Use the error.code field (not the message) for conditional logic in your integration.

401 Unauthorized

{
  "error": {
    "code": "unauthorized",
    "message": "missing or invalid API key",
    "request_id": "req_01hqy7k8c3e7m1n"
  }
}

402 Payment Required

{
  "error": {
    "code": "trial_exhausted",
    "message": "your free trial credits are exhausted — pick a plan to continue",
    "top_up_url": "https://lifeastroapi.com/pricing",
    "request_id": "req_01hqy7k8c3e7m1n"
  }
}

429 Too Many Requests

{
  "error": {
    "code": "rate_limited",
    "message": "rate limit exceeded; retry after 12 seconds",
    "request_id": "req_01hqy7k8c3e7m1n"
  }
}

Try it

Get a dv_live_* key from your dashboard and paste into the cURL snippet above. New accounts get 1,500 free credits. Sign up.