Panchang by City

Why the panchang is computed per city

A panchang is not one fixed printed table but an astronomical calculation for a particular place and time. The reason is simple: most panchang values depend on the positions of the Sun and Moon and on the day’s real sunrise and sunset, and all of these change with latitude and longitude. So on the same day the panchang of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai differs a little from each other — the sunrise tithi and nakshatra, the day and night choghadiya, and the Rahu Kaal all shift in time with location. Panchang Daily computes this for each city from its coordinates, so you get your own city’s exact panchang, not that of a distant one.

What changes with location

It helps to understand exactly which values location affects:

• Sunrise and sunset — earlier in eastern cities, later in the west; and the length of the day also changes with latitude. These two times are the foundation of the whole panchang’s timing.
• Choghadiya — since day and night are divided into eight parts each from sunrise and sunset, both the start times and durations of the choghadiya change with location.
• Rahu Kaal, Yamaganda, Gulika — these too are eighth-parts of the day, so they come earlier or later by city and grow or shrink with season.
• Tithi and nakshatra at sunrise — if a tithi or nakshatra is changing right around sunrise, the day’s tithi can differ by a day between eastern and western cities, because the panchang uses the tithi at sunrise as the day’s tithi.
• Abhijit and Brahma Muhurat — both are derived from midday and sunrise, so they shift with location.

This is why relying on a generic national table can be misleading — especially for the exact times of Rahu Kaal and choghadiya.

How sunrise varies across India

India is geographically vast, so sunrise differs considerably between cities. In the easternmost regions (such as Arunachal or Assam) the Sun rises about an hour and a half to two hours earlier than in the westernmost regions (such as Gujarat or Rajasthan) — even though the whole country keeps a single standard time (IST). This directly affects the panchang: Rahu Kaal begins much earlier in Guwahati than in Ahmedabad, even though the clock reads the same in both. Likewise, the length of the day differs by season between northern and southern cities, which changes the durations of the choghadiya and Rahu Kaal. This is why it is necessary to read your own city’s panchang.

What you get on a city page

Type your city into the search box above or pick it from the list. Each city page gives you all of today’s values for that city in one place: today’s tithi, nakshatra, yoga, karana, vaar and lunar month; sunrise, sunset, moonrise and midday; all sixteen day and night choghadiya with their times; Rahu Kaal, Yamaganda and Gulika; and the auspicious Abhijit and Brahma Muhurat — all on a live day timeline with a hand marking the current time. This makes it clear at a glance which window is running now and when the next auspicious time arrives.

India’s regional panchang traditions

Location changes not only the times but the calendar style. North India generally uses purnimanta months (ending at Purnima), while South and West India use amanta (ending at Amavasya) — the tithis are the same, only the Krishna-paksha month name shifts, so some festivals appear to fall in a different “month” by region. Tamil Nadu uses a solar calendar, in which months change with the Sun’s entry into a sign; Bengal and Kerala have their own solar reckonings and new years (Poila Baishakh, Vishu). Because of these differences, some festival dates can shift by a day between regions — which is why confirming with a local panchang is the tradition.

A wide list of cities

Panchang Daily covers the metros, capitals and many district towns across all major Indian states — from large cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune and Jaipur to pilgrimage towns such as Varanasi, Ujjain, Haridwar, Ayodhya and Tirupati. If your exact town is not listed, choose the nearest large city — a distance of a few kilometres makes only a few minutes’ difference to the panchang, which is negligible for everyday use.

For the diaspora

Indians living abroad often consult the panchang too — for vrats, festivals and puja. There are two options: if you want to keep a vrat by your ancestral city’s tithi, choose that city; and if you want times by your local sunrise, choose the nearest available city. Tithi and nakshatra are often read from the Indian reference, while sunrise-based times are local — which is why, abroad, the vrat date is usually matched to the Indian panchang.

Time zone and standard time

India keeps a single standard time — Indian Standard Time (IST, UTC+5:30) — whether a city is in the east or the west. This means that although the clock is the same everywhere, the real sunrise differs by city, and the panchang derives its times from that real sunrise. Panchang Daily shows all times in IST, computed from your chosen city’s real sunrise and sunset — so you get the same clock time you would observe in your city.

How we compute it for each city

For each city we derive the true positions of the Sun and Moon and the sunrise and sunset from its latitude and longitude using drik ganita (observational calculation), and from those we build the five limbs and the time-windows. This is more accurate than older tabular methods. No value is hand-edited. Even so, different panchangs may use a slightly different sunrise convention or ayanamsha, which can shift times by a few minutes; so for religious observance, also confirm with your local panchang.

Using it day to day

Once you have chosen your city, glance at its panchang each morning — today’s tithi, nakshatra, choghadiya and Rahu Kaal — and keep important tasks in an auspicious window and outside Rahu Kaal. To plan another day, use the muhurat planner; for upcoming festivals, the festival calendar; and for the fundamentals, the complete panchang guide. In this way, the city-wise panchang becomes a simple, trustworthy companion for your daily decisions.