Sunrise, brahma muhurta and the lunar day in Rishikesh

Uttarakhand, India · 30.09°, 78.27° · Asia/Kolkata

Written and reviewed by The Kriya Yogi · Updated 21 September 2026

Friday, November 6, 2026

Brahma muhurta

4:59 AM – 5:47 AM

Sunrise

6:35 AM

Sunset

5:27 PM

Daylight

10h 52m

Lunar day (tithi)

Dvadashi

Fortnight

Waning (krishna)

Moon

Waning crescent · 11% lit

Nakshatra

Hasta

Rishikesh lies well east within a single national time zone, so the Sun rises earlier on the clock here than in western India — one reason ashram schedules there begin so early.

Rishikesh has functioned as a center of yoga and meditation practice for longer than almost anywhere else on this list, with ashrams, ghats along the Ganga and teaching lineages that have drawn practitioners from around the world for well over a century. Its position in the foothills of the Himalayas gives it a noticeably cooler climate than most of the Indian plains, with genuinely cold winter mornings that make the traditional pre-dawn wake-up a real test of discipline, and a monsoon season, roughly July through September, that brings heavy rain and can swell the river considerably. As noted above, ashram schedules here tend to begin very early, in part because the town's position well east within Indian Standard Time means the sun itself rises earlier on the clock than it does across most of the country, so a 5 a.m. start is closer to true first light here than the same hour would be in Mumbai or Delhi.

The next ten days in Rishikesh

Times are local to Rishikesh and recalculated every time this page loads. The lunar day shown is the one in force at local sunrise.

Date	Brahma muhurta	Sunrise	Sunset	Daylight	Tithi	Moon	Nakshatra
Fri, Nov 6	4:59 AM – 5:47 AM	6:35 AM	5:27 PM	10h 52m	DvadashiWaning (krishna)	11% · waning crescent	Hasta
Sat, Nov 7	5:00 AM – 5:48 AM	6:36 AM	5:27 PM	10h 51m	TrayodashiWaning (krishna)	5% · waning crescent	Chitra
Sun, Nov 8	5:01 AM – 5:49 AM	6:37 AM	5:26 PM	10h 49m	ChaturdashiWaning (krishna)	2% · waning crescent	Svati
Mon, Nov 9Amavasya (new moon)	5:02 AM – 5:50 AM	6:38 AM	5:25 PM	10h 48m	AmavasyaWaning (krishna)	0% · new moon	Svati
Tue, Nov 10	5:02 AM – 5:50 AM	6:38 AM	5:25 PM	10h 46m	PratipadaWaxing (shukla)	1% · new moon	Vishakha
Wed, Nov 11	5:03 AM – 5:51 AM	6:39 AM	5:24 PM	10h 45m	DvitiyaWaxing (shukla)	3% · waxing crescent	Anuradha
Thu, Nov 12	5:04 AM – 5:52 AM	6:40 AM	5:24 PM	10h 44m	TritiyaWaxing (shukla)	7% · waxing crescent	Jyeshtha
Fri, Nov 13	5:05 AM – 5:53 AM	6:41 AM	5:23 PM	10h 42m	ChaturthiWaxing (shukla)	13% · waxing crescent	Mula
Sat, Nov 14	5:06 AM – 5:54 AM	6:42 AM	5:23 PM	10h 41m	PanchamiWaxing (shukla)	20% · waxing crescent	Purva Ashadha
Sun, Nov 15	5:07 AM – 5:55 AM	6:43 AM	5:22 PM	10h 39m	ShashthiWaxing (shukla)	28% · waxing crescent	Uttara Ashadha

How far the window moves across the year here

At Rishikesh's latitude of 30.1°, the June solstice brings sunrise at roughly 5:17 AM with about 14h 05m of daylight, while the December solstice brings sunrise at roughly 7:09 AM with about 10h 12m. Both figures are computed for this location, not averaged from anywhere else. If the pre-dawn window is out of reach in one half of the year, the tradition's own priority applies: Patanjali's guidance (Yoga Sutras 1.14) is that practice takes hold through long, uninterrupted, earnest attention — consistency first, ideal hour second.

In practice, most people who keep an early routine here do not chase the brahma muhurta window exactly on the days when it falls hardest against their sleep or their working hours. A workable pattern is to pick a fixed clock time that lands inside the window for most of the year, adjust it by a season if the drift becomes extreme, and treat the days it falls slightly outside the ideal 96-to-48-minute band as still worthwhile rather than wasted — the texts describe brahma muhurta as favorable, not as the only valid hour. Seated meditation, pranayama and a short asana warm-up all transfer reasonably well between a strict pre-dawn slot and a slightly later one; what tends to break a habit is not timing drift but skipping the day entirely because the ideal moment has already passed.

Practice timing in Rishikesh

+ What time is brahma muhurta in Rishikesh today?

Working back from a computed sunrise of 6:35 AM, the window runs from about 4:59 AM to 5:47 AM local time — 96 to 48 minutes before sunrise. It moves every day with the Sun, so check the table rather than fixing it in your head.

+ Which lunar day is it in Rishikesh today?

At local sunrise it is Dvadashi, in the waning (krishna) fortnight, with the Moon about 11% illuminated in Hasta. Tithis run between roughly 19 and 26 hours, so a single date can straddle two; the label here is the one in force at sunrise, which is the usual convention.

+ How much does sunrise move across the year in Rishikesh?

At this latitude, the June solstice sunrise falls around 5:17 AM with about 14h 05m of daylight, and the December solstice sunrise around 7:09 AM with about 10h 12m. That spread is exactly why a sunrise-anchored routine and a clock-anchored one diverge.

+ Are these times exact?

Sunrise and sunset are computed for a sea-level horizon and should be within a minute or two of an observatory table; hills, buildings and altitude shift what you actually see. Tithi and nakshatra use truncated lunar series, so near a boundary a full panchanga may label the day differently. Nothing here is intended for ritual muhurta determination.

Method

Sunrise, solar noon and sunset: the standard sunrise equation, using the −0.833° altitude convention for the apparent upper limb and refraction at a sea-level horizon.
Lunar day and nakshatra: solar and lunar ecliptic longitudes from truncated Meeus series (Jean Meeus, "Astronomical Algorithms"), with tithi as 12° steps of elongation and nakshatra as 13°20′ steps of sidereal longitude under a linear Lahiri-style ayanamsa approximation.
Brahma muhurta: the 48-minute muhurta ending one muhurta before sunrise. Conventions vary between teachers; this is the most common arithmetic definition.
Not for ritual muhurta determination — for that, use a panchanga computed within your own tradition.

Timing guidance on this page is traditional and practical, not medical. Nothing here is a religious ruling or a substitute for a panchanga from your own lineage.