Janmashtami 2026 Nishita Puja Time by City: Midnight Window for 4 September (Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and 5 More)
Nishita Kaal is the midpoint of the night, not 12 on the clock, so it shifts by city. Computed windows for Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Lucknow for 4 September 2026, and what Ashtami ending at 00:14 means for each.
Every Janmashtami guide says the puja happens "at midnight". Fewer say which midnight. The hour the shastra asks for is Nishita Kaal — the muhurta centred on the midpoint between sunset and the next sunrise — and because the sun sets in Kolkata about 49 minutes before it sets in Delhi, that midpoint lands at a different clock time in every city. This article works the Nishita window out for eight Indian cities for the night of 4 September 2026 (Friday), and flags this year's one complication: Ashtami tithi ends at 00:14 on 5 September, before most of those windows close.
The short answer
In Delhi, Nishita on Janmashtami night runs from 23:57 to 00:43 (sunset 18:38 on 4 Sep, sunrise 06:02 on 5 Sep, local midnight 00:20). Mumbai is later at 00:14–01:00, Kolkata earlier at 23:12–23:58. The full table is below, with how much of each window still falls inside Ashtami.
What Nishita actually is
Classical texts divide the night into fifteen muhurtas of equal length. The eighth — the one straddling the exact middle of the night — is Nishita. It depends on nothing but the sun: not the tithi, not the nakshatra. Nishita happens every night of the year; Janmashtami attaches the birth puja to it because, by tradition, Krishna was born at the midnight hour of Krishna Ashtami. The texts give no further reason for the hour, and we will not manufacture one.
The arithmetic is four steps:
- Take sunset on the day and sunrise the next morning, both for your own city.
- Subtract to get the length of the night — roughly 11 h 24 min in Delhi, up to 11 h 42 min in Chennai and Bengaluru in early September.
- Halve it and add to sunset: that is local midnight, which in these eight cities lands anywhere from 25 minutes before 12:00 on the clock (Kolkata) to 37 minutes after it (Mumbai).
- Divide the night by 30 (about 23 minutes). Nishita begins that long before local midnight and ends that long after — a window of roughly 46 minutes.
Nishita by city — night of 4–5 September 2026
All times IST, 24-hour. Sunset is for 4 September, sunrise for 5 September. All eight rows use sunrise and sunset from the AstroVedansh panchang engine; a printed panchang may differ from them by a minute or two. That does not move the window in practice — both ends shift the same way, so the midpoint barely changes.
| City | Sunset (4 Sep) | Sunrise (5 Sep) | Local midnight | Nishita Kaal | Part inside Ashtami (ends 00:14) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delhi | 18:38 | 06:02 | 00:20 | 23:57 – 00:43 | 23:57 – 00:14 (17 min) |
| Mumbai | 18:49 | 06:25 | 00:37 | 00:14 – 01:00 | effectively none — whole window in Navami |
| Kolkata | 17:49 | 05:21 | 23:35 | 23:12 – 23:58 | entire window |
| Chennai | 18:16 | 05:58 | 00:07 | 23:44 – 00:30 | 23:44 – 00:14 (30 min) |
| Bengaluru | 18:27 | 06:09 | 00:18 | 23:55 – 00:41 | 23:55 – 00:14 (19 min) |
| Hyderabad | 18:26 | 06:03 | 00:15 | 23:51 – 00:38 | 23:51 – 00:14 (23 min) |
| Jaipur | 18:42 | 06:08 | 00:25 | 00:02 – 00:48 | 00:02 – 00:14 (12 min) |
| Lucknow | 18:22 | 05:48 | 00:05 | 23:42 – 00:28 | 23:42 – 00:14 (32 min) |
The pattern is geography: the further east, the earlier the sun sets and rises, so Kolkata's Nishita is done before the clock reaches 12; the further west, the later — Mumbai's window does not open until 00:14.
Ashtami ends at 00:14 — what that means for each city
Krishna Ashtami of Bhadrapada (Shravana in the amanta reckoning) begins on 4 September at 02:25 and ends on 5 September at 00:14. Unlike sunrise, a tithi boundary is the same instant everywhere in India: it is set by the angular distance between Moon and Sun, which does not depend on where you stand. So while Nishita differs city by city, the 00:14 cut-off is identical for all of them.
The consequence: in every city except Kolkata, the Nishita window runs past the end of Ashtami, and in Mumbai it opens at 00:14, the very minute Ashtami ends. Two positions exist on what to do, and both have textual standing:
- Tithi-first: the vrata day was fixed by Ashtami (4 September), and the birth puja should also fall while Ashtami still runs. Start at the opening of the window; in Mumbai and Jaipur, where it opens late, perform the puja a little before local midnight so that it finishes by 00:14.
- Nishita-first: once the day is fixed, the puja belongs to that night's Nishita, and the tithi turning over partway through is not a defect. Use the table as printed.
Most temples and households follow the second and announce the birth around 12 on the clock. If your family or guru lineage follows the first, plan to be finished by 00:14. We are not ranking the two; the texts support both.
The panchang picture for 4 September (Delhi)
- Tithi: Krishna Ashtami, 4 Sep 02:25 to 5 Sep 00:14; then Navami until 5 Sep 21:54.
- Nakshatra: Rohini (first pada) at sunrise on 4 Sep; Mrigashira at sunrise on 5 Sep — check your own panchang for the exact Rohini end.
- Yoga Harshana; weekday Friday.
- Sunrise 06:01, sunset 18:38; moonrise 22:28 — relevant only to those whose tradition offers arghya to the moon this night.
- Rahu Kaal 10:45 – 12:20 — a daytime period with no bearing on the midnight puja.
Ashtami and Rohini both at sunrise on the same day is a convenience this year: the sunrise-tithi rule and the nakshatra rule both point to 4 September, so the usual Smarta-versus-Vaishnava split over the date largely does not arise. The reasoning is covered in the Janmashtami 2026 date and muhurat guide.
Working it out for a city not listed
Take sunset on 4 September and sunrise on 5 September for your location from any panchang or weather app. Add 24 hours to the sunrise figure and subtract sunset: that is the night length. Add half of it to sunset: local midnight. Subtract and add one-thirtieth of the night to that: your Nishita. Example — sunset 18:30, sunrise 06:00 gives a night of 11 h 30 min, local midnight 00:15, Nishita 23:52 to 00:38. The puja is valid anywhere in the window; insisting on the exact midpoint is a feature of a few traditions, not a general rule.
A brief Nishita puja sequence
The full vidhi and the midnight katha are in the Janmashtami puja vidhi and katha article; here is only the timing, so everything fits inside a 46-minute window:
- 20–30 minutes before the window: bathe, dress, set up the altar and the cradle; keep panchamrit, tulsi, butter and mishri, fruit within reach.
- As the window opens: sankalpa, then abhishek of the Bal Gopal image with panchamrit and water.
- Fresh cloth, sandal paste, flowers, tulsi leaves; incense and lamp; offer butter-mishri and panchamrit.
- At local midnight (the middle column of the table): announce the birth, blow the conch, do the aarti, rock the cradle.
- Distribute prasad. Those fasting break the fast after sunrise or once Navami has begun, as their tradition prescribes.
Done without hurry this takes 40–45 minutes, which is why the preparation belongs before the window, not inside it.
In short
On the night of 4 September 2026, Janmashtami's Nishita Kaal is 23:57–00:43 in Delhi, 00:14–01:00 in Mumbai, 23:12–23:58 in Kolkata, 23:44–00:30 in Chennai, 23:55–00:41 in Bengaluru, 23:51–00:38 in Hyderabad, 00:02–00:48 in Jaipur and 23:42–00:28 in Lucknow. Ashtami ends for everyone at 00:14 on 5 September; only Kolkata's window sits entirely inside it. Sunrise and sunset differ by city, so in borderline cases check your own local panchang — the tithi page shows the current tithi and its end time.
Puja timing and procedure vary by region and family tradition; take the final call from your own purohit or lineage.