There is no one 'Chhath arghya time' for the whole country, and that is the single most useful thing to know before the festival. The arghya is offered to Surya at the exact moment the sun leaves the sky and again at the moment it returns — so the Sandhya Arghya is simply your city's sunset on Sunday, 15 November 2026, and the Usha Arghya is your city's sunrise the next morning, Monday, 16 November. Because sunset and sunrise move with longitude, the time is different in every city, and a headline that prints one Delhi clock is wrong for Patna, Chhapra or Kolkata.
How far apart? In Kolkata, far to the east, the sun sets around 4:52 PM; in Mumbai, to the west, not until 5:59 PM — over an hour later for the very same Sandhya Arghya. Patna, the heart of the Chhath belt, sits between them at about 5:00 PM, with the Usha Arghya at 6:07 AM the next dawn. The table below gives the sandhya and usha times for 46 cities across Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh and the cities where the community now keeps the vrat. Find your own city, and reach the ghat 30 to 45 minutes early.
Chhath arghya 2026 at a glance
Sandhya Arghya
Sun 15 Nov — at sunset
Usha Arghya
Mon 16 Nov — at sunrise
Why times differ
Arghya is your local sun
Cities covered
46 — Patna to Mumbai
The spread
Kolkata ~1 hr before Mumbai
Reach the ghat
30–45 min early
The arghya spread, across cities
Kolkata to Mumbai — over an hour apart for the same moment
Kolkata (earliest)
Sandhya 4:52 PM · Usha 5:49 AM
Farthest east — the sun sets first here
Patna (heartland)
Sandhya 5:00 PM · Usha 6:07 AM
The Chhath belt’s own ghat reference
Mumbai (latest)
Sandhya 5:59 PM · Usha 6:46 AM
Farthest west — over an hour after Kolkata
These three cities show the whole spread. Kolkata, farthest east, offers the earliest Sandhya Arghya of the belt; Mumbai, farthest west among the metros, the latest — the two are more than an hour apart for the same ritual moment. Patna sits in between and is the reference most families in the heartland use. Read each card as a pair: the evening arghya at sunset on 15 November, and the dawn arghya at sunrise on 16 November. Your own city is in the full table below.
Chhath arghya time by city — full table
Sandhya (15 Nov sunset) and Usha (16 Nov sunrise) for 46 cities
The table lists the Sandhya Arghya — your local sunset on Sunday, 15 November 2026 — and the Usha Arghya — your local sunrise on Monday, 16 November 2026 — for 46 cities. The Chhath heartland of Bihar, Jharkhand and eastern Uttar Pradesh comes first, then the NCR and the metros where the vrat now travels with the community. Each time is the computed sunset or sunrise for that city, so read the row for the place where you will actually stand at the ghat.
| City | Sandhya Arghya (15 Nov) | Usha Arghya (16 Nov) |
|---|---|---|
| Patna | 5:00 PM | 6:07 AM |
| Gaya | 5:02 PM | 6:06 AM |
| Muzaffarpur | 4:58 PM | 6:07 AM |
| Bhagalpur | 4:53 PM | 5:59 AM |
| Darbhanga | 4:56 PM | 6:05 AM |
| Begusarai | 4:57 PM | 6:03 AM |
| Chapra | 5:01 PM | 6:09 AM |
| Arrah | 5:02 PM | 6:09 AM |
| Samastipur | 4:57 PM | 6:05 AM |
| Munger | 4:55 PM | 6:01 AM |
| Purnia | 4:51 PM | 5:58 AM |
| Katihar | 4:51 PM | 5:57 AM |
| Sasaram | 5:06 PM | 6:11 AM |
| Ranchi | 5:03 PM | 6:03 AM |
| Jamshedpur | 5:01 PM | 5:58 AM |
| Dhanbad | 4:58 PM | 5:59 AM |
| Bokaro | 4:59 PM | 6:00 AM |
| Varanasi | 5:09 PM | 6:15 AM |
| Prayagraj | 5:14 PM | 6:20 AM |
| Ballia | 5:04 PM | 6:12 AM |
| Azamgarh | 5:07 PM | 6:16 AM |
| Ghazipur | 5:06 PM | 6:13 AM |
| Lucknow | 5:15 PM | 6:26 AM |
| Kanpur | 5:18 PM | 6:28 AM |
| Agra | 5:26 PM | 6:38 AM |
| Meerut | 5:24 PM | 6:43 AM |
| Ghaziabad | 5:26 PM | 6:43 AM |
| Noida | 5:26 PM | 6:43 AM |
| New Delhi | 5:27 PM | 6:44 AM |
| Gurugram | 5:28 PM | 6:44 AM |
| Faridabad | 5:27 PM | 6:43 AM |
| Chandigarh | 5:25 PM | 6:50 AM |
| Jaipur | 5:35 PM | 6:47 AM |
| Kolkata | 4:52 PM | 5:49 AM |
| Howrah | 4:52 PM | 5:50 AM |
| Mumbai | 5:59 PM | 6:46 AM |
| Pune | 5:56 PM | 6:41 AM |
| Ahmedabad | 5:55 PM | 6:53 AM |
| Surat | 5:56 PM | 6:49 AM |
| Nagpur | 5:31 PM | 6:24 AM |
| Indore | 5:42 PM | 6:40 AM |
| Bhopal | 5:35 PM | 6:34 AM |
| Raipur | 5:21 PM | 6:14 AM |
| Hyderabad | 5:39 PM | 6:21 AM |
| Bengaluru | 5:49 PM | 6:18 AM |
| Chennai | 5:39 PM | 6:08 AM |
How to use these times at the ghat
Reach early, read your own city, verify locally
Three things make this table work for you. First, reach the ghat about 30 to 45 minutes before the listed time — the soop and daura have to be arranged, the thekua and fruit laid out, and the vratti must step into the water calmly, not in a rush. Second, remember the time is your local sunset and sunrise, not a national clock, so use your own city's row and ignore any single 'Delhi time' printed elsewhere. Third, these are computed for each city centre; a riverbank a little east or west of you can differ by a minute or two, so confirm the final minute against your local Chhath panchang or the live panchang for your city.
See sunrise, sunset and panchang for your city
The arghya is your local sunset and sunrise. For the exact minute on 15 and 16 November in your own city — and the full day's panchang and choghadiya — open the live pages.
Chhath arghya 2026 — your questions
Sandhya, Usha, and why the time differs city to city