Vara: the weekday and its lord
The seven Hindu weekdays are each named for a planet that is the lord of the day, in the same order as the days in the English week.
The seven days
Vara (also vasara) = weekday. The Hindu week has seven days, and each day belongs to a planet, called its lord. Many people also pair each day with a deity they honour that day, but that custom varies by family and region.
| Day | Sanskrit name | Lord |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday | Ravivara (Adityavara) | Sun (Surya) |
| Monday | Somavara (Chandravara) | Moon (Chandra) |
| Tuesday | Mangalavara (Bhaumavara) | Mars (Mangala) |
| Wednesday | Budhavara | Mercury (Budha) |
| Thursday | Guruvara (Brihaspativara) | Jupiter (Guru, Brihaspati) |
| Friday | Shukravara | Venus (Shukra) |
| Saturday | Shanivara | Saturn (Shani) |
The English names carry the same idea. Sunday is the Sun's day and Monday the Moon's. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday come from Norse gods matched to Mars, Mercury, Jupiter and Venus. Saturday is Saturn's day.
Why this order
The order of the days comes from the order of the seven classical planets by their apparent speed: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon. Each hour of the day is ruled in turn by these planets in that repeating order, and the day takes the name of the planet that rules its first hour.
If you begin on Sunday with the Sun and keep counting the hours (24 hours, 7 planets), the next day's first hour falls to the Moon, then Mars, and so on. That produces the familiar sequence Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn. The same system spread widely across the ancient world, which is why so many cultures share a seven-day week.
When does the Hindu weekday change?
In the Hindu reckoning the day runs from sunrise to the next sunrise. So the weekday changes at sunrise, not at midnight.
If you are awake at 2 a.m. after a Sunday night, the Panchang vara is still Sunday in the Hindu sense until the Sun rises. Then Monday begins. This site shows the day by sunrise in your city. Civil dates, as on your phone, still change at midnight.
What the day's lord is used for
The lord of the weekday affects several practical timings.
- Rahu Kalam moves to a different part of the day each weekday.
- Choghadiya begins its sequence with a different slot each weekday.
- Many families fast or pray on a particular day. Common customs include Shiva on Monday, Hanuman or the goddess on Tuesday, Vishnu or a guru on Thursday, the goddess Lakshmi on Friday and Shani or Hanuman on Saturday. Customs differ, so follow your own family's practice.
Combining vara with other limbs
Muhurat guidance often looks at the vara alongside the tithi and nakshatra. A day can be considered favourable for one kind of task and less so for another. These rules differ among traditions, and none of them replaces the advice of your priest or elders.
A note about time zones
The vara depends on local sunrise. Two cities in different time zones may be on different Hindu weekdays for a short window of the clock. When you read a Panchang for an event in India while you are in the USA, check which city's sunrise it uses.