Enter a town or city, a date and a time above, and this free tool tells you which panchang day that moment belongs to: its weekday (vara), the sunrise that began it and the sunrise that ends it, and the tithi and nakshatra in force at that moment. It is useful for a birth, a journey or a puja that falls in the hours after midnight.
How it works
The calendar day changes at midnight, but the panchang day changes at sunrise. Drik Panchang puts it in the notes of every daily page: in the panchang the day starts and ends with sunrise. So 1 am on a Friday is still Thursday by the panchang, until the Sun rises. The janma panchang and the favourable day tools on this site use the same rule.
The tool works out the sunrise of your date at your town or city, with the upper edge of the Sun on the horizon and the usual allowance for refraction, the same sunrise as every panchang page on this site. If your time is before it, the moment belongs to the day before; if not, to the same day. The tithi and nakshatra come from the positions of the Sun and the Moon (NASA JPL DE440, Lahiri ayanamsa) at that exact moment.
Reading the result
The answer names the weekday of the panchang day and the date to look up in a panchang. The table gives the calendar date and time you entered, the Hindu day, the span from one sunrise to the next, and the tithi and nakshatra with the times they end. A daily panchang lists the tithi and nakshatra at sunrise, so the ones at your moment can be different; both are correct for what they describe.
How we checked it
We tested 51 moments at 17 places and dates, among them births after midnight, Fiji in the southern hemisphere, London, New York and Sydney on the days the clocks change, and dates in 1900 and 2074, each at the given time and one minute either side of sunrise. For every one, the Hindu day matched the sunrise from the Swiss Ephemeris (pyswisseph), and the tithi and nakshatra matched its positions.
Where traditions differ
The vara begins at sunrise, but sunrise itself can be taken in more than one way. Taking the centre of the Sun’s disc with no allowance for refraction, instead of the upper edge with refraction, makes sunrise about four minutes later in New Delhi (3.8 to 4.2 minutes through 2026, by the Swiss Ephemeris). Only a time that close to sunrise can come out on a different day. Festivals have their own rules for which day they fall on, often by the tithi at a set part of the day, so for a festival use the festival dates tool.
What it does not do
It does not cast a birth chart; for the five limbs of a birth moment and the Hindu month, use the janma panchang, and for the whole chart the free kundali. It does not choose a muhurat. If you type a time that does not exist on the clock because the clocks went forward that night, it asks for another time.
Frequently asked questions
↳ When does the Hindu day begin?
At sunrise. The day runs from one sunrise to the next, so the hours between midnight and sunrise belong to the day before.
↳ My baby was born at 2 am on a Monday. What is the vara?
If the birth was before sunrise, the vara is Sunday, the day before. Enter the date, time and place in the tool and it checks against the real sunrise of that place.
↳ Which panchang should I read for a time after midnight?
The panchang of the day before, if the time is before sunrise. The tool tells you the date to look up.
↳ Why is the tithi at my time different from the tithi in the panchang?
A daily panchang gives the tithi in force at sunrise. A tithi can end during the day, so the tithi at your moment can be the next one. The tool gives the one at your moment and when it ends.
↳ Does the place matter?
Yes. Sunrise is earlier in the east and later in the west, and changes with the season, so the same clock time can fall before sunrise in one city and after it in another.