सूर्योदयः · sūryodayaḥ
Sunrise Time Today
The exact moment the Sun's upper edge clears the horizon where you are, with every stage of dawn before it and the sunrise-based timings a Panchang is built on. Pick your city or use your location.
Calculating for your place…
Calculated in your browser from the positions of the Sun and Moon — within about a minute of observatory tables. Your location never leaves your device. Times assume a flat horizon at sea level; hills or tall buildings delay what you actually see.
Sunrise-based timings for today
A Panchang measures the day from sunrise, so these periods move with it.
Sunrise for the next 7 days
For the place selected above, in its local time.
What exactly counts as sunrise
Sunrise is the moment the top edge of the Sun touches the horizon, not its centre. Two corrections make that happen earlier than geometry alone would suggest. The Sun's disc is about half a degree wide, so its upper edge appears about 16 arcminutes before its centre would. And the atmosphere bends sunlight over the horizon by roughly 34 arcminutes. Together they mean the Sun is visible while it is still about 0.83° below the true horizon — a couple of minutes of daylight you get for free every morning and every evening.
Dawn, step by step
The sky's last trace of darkness begins to lift. Before this moment the faintest stars are visible.
The horizon line becomes visible at sea — the reason navigators named it.
Enough light to read outdoors. Bright planets and stars fade out.
The "rise of Aruna", the Sun's charioteer — the reddening sky. Dharmashastra counts four ghatis before sunrise, and some Ekadashi rules depend on which tithi holds at this hour.
Why sunrise matters in the Panchang
A Panchang day — the savana dina — runs from one sunrise to the next, not from midnight. The tithi in force at sunrise, the udaya tithi, names the whole day, which is why two cities can print different tithis on the same date. Sunrise also anchors the daily periods above: Brahma Muhurta sits two muhurtas before it, Rahu Kaal is one eighth of the time from sunrise to sunset, and an Ekadashi fast is broken (parana) after sunrise on Dwadashi.
Morning sandhya — the junction of night and day — is the traditional time for the Sandhyavandana and the Gayatri mantra, addressed to Savitr, the Sun as the power that stirs the world awake. Offering water to the rising Sun, arghya, belongs to the same moment.
The twelve names of the Sun
The twelve postures of Surya Namaskara are traditionally each paired with one name of the Sun:
Why the earliest sunrise isn't on the longest day
You might expect the earliest sunrise on the June solstice and the latest on the December one. In north India the earliest sunrise actually comes a week or two before the June solstice, and the latest arrives in the second week of January. The reason is that solar noon itself drifts through the year — the Earth's tilt and its slightly elliptical orbit make the Sun run a few minutes fast or slow against the clock. That drift, the "equation of time", shifts both sunrise and sunset, pulling their extremes away from the solstices.
Frequently asked questions
What time is sunrise today?
Today's sunrise for your chosen city or location is shown at the top of this page, worked out live for that place and shown in its own time zone. It changes by up to a minute or two each day.
Is sunrise time the same across a city?
Very nearly. Every 100 km you move east brings sunrise roughly 4 minutes earlier at Indian latitudes, so within one city the difference is usually under a minute. Hills and tall buildings matter more — they can hide the Sun for several minutes after the official time.
What is Brahma Muhurta and when is it?
Brahma Muhurta is the second-to-last muhurta of the night: it begins two muhurtas (about 96 minutes) before sunrise and ends 48 minutes before it. It is traditionally recommended for study, prayer and meditation. Today's exact window for your place is listed above.
Why does a Panchang use sunrise rather than midnight?
Because the Vedic civil day, the savana dina, is reckoned from sunrise to sunrise. Whatever tithi, nakshatra and yoga are in force at sunrise give their names to the whole day.
How accurate are these times?
Within about a minute of standard astronomical tables, for a flat horizon at sea level. Real-world sunrise can be slightly later behind hills or buildings, and slightly earlier from a high viewpoint.