Background: Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is the most common chronic systemic inflammatory polyarthritis. The most common extra articular complication is cardiovascular system involvement which can be assessed by Heart Rate Variability (HRV). In our study, we assessed the cardiovascular autonomic function in newly diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis individuals by using short term Heart Rate Variability (HRV) analysis. Materials and methods: It was a cross sectional study. 40 newly diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis individuals were selected from Rheumatology outpatient department, Stanley Medical College. Age and sex matched 40 healthy subjects were selected as controls. HRV parameters were recorded by using RMS polyrite version 2.2 D hardware. Statistical analysis: Statistical analysis was done by using SPSS version 17. Independent ‘t’ test was done to compare the groups. Results: The comparison of the mean Heart Rate (HR) showed a statistically significant increase in the study group (79.55 ± 7.78) than the control group (70.83 ± 7.52). The systolic blood pressure (SBP) was significantly increased in the study group (118.3 ± 7.1) than the control group (108.3 ± 10.1). There was a significant reduction of SDNN in the study group (24.97 ± 8.9) than the control group (51.64 ± 25.35). There was a significant reduction in RMSSD in the study group (22.92 ± 12.77) than the control group (55.73 ± 33.44). Conclusion: We observed that there was reduced vagal activity and increased sympathetic activity in newly diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis individuals. Thus assessment of autonomic functions by HRV analysis helps in early diagnosis and prompt intervention of cardiovascular complications in RA patients.