When is Kaal Bhairav Jayanti 2026?

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Timings on this page are computed for Kolkata.

The whole table below is recomputed for the city you pick. That is not cosmetic: an observance decided at moonrise, such as Karwa Chauth, can genuinely fall on a different day in two cities, and the moment the fast ends differs by more than an hour across India.

Computed for Kolkata

The date in Kolkata

Tuesday, 1 December 2026

Kaal Bhairav Jayanti is not a Gregorian date. It is Krishna paksha tithi 8 of Margashirsha in the purnimanta reckoning, and the Gregorian day it lands on moves by up to a month between years because twelve lunations fall about eleven days short of a solar year.

Tithi

Ashtami, Krishna paksha

Lunar month

Margashirsha (purnimanta)

Tithi begins

1 Dec, 00:12

Tithi ends

1 Dec, 23:14

Decided at

Pradosh (just after sunset)

Pradosh in Kolkata

1 Dec, 18:03

Pradosh in Kolkata falls at 18:03 on that day, and that is the instant the tithi has to be running at for the day to carry the observance. It is computed for this city rather than assumed, because it is what decides the date.

The two instants above are the astronomy and are not in dispute. The day is an interpretation of them: this observance is decided at pradosh, so it belongs to the day whose pradosh the tithi carries — not simply to the day the tithi begins.

Meaning and observance

What is Kaal Bhairav Jayanti?

Kaal Bhairav Jayanti (Kalabhairav or Bhairav Ashtami) marks the appearance of Kaal Bhairav, the fierce form of Shiva who guards Kashi as its kotwal. It is the Ashtami of the dark fortnight of Margashirsha as North India counts the month — the same day is Kartika Krishna Ashtami in the amanta reckoning of the south and west.

• It is dated by the Ashtami running at pradosh, the evening, which gives Drik Panchang's date in every year from 2016 to 2029. The sunrise rule puts it a day late in about half those years.
• Devotees visit Bhairav temples — the Kaal Bhairav temple in Varanasi and the one at Ujjain are the best known — and many keep a fast and a night vigil.
• Every month's Krishna Ashtami is a Kalashtami; this is the one counted as Bhairav's birth.

Muhurat · Kolkata

Kaal Bhairav Jayanti muhurat

16:51 to 19:15

That window is pradosh overlapped with Ashtami — the moment this observance is decided at, intersected with the tithi that defines it. Neither half is the answer on its own: the anchor window alone would give you a time at which the tithi may already have ended, and the tithi alone would give you most of a day.

Pradosh window

16:51 to 19:15

Ashtami runs

1 Dec, 00:12 to 1 Dec, 23:14

Pradosh is the twilight window that opens at sunset and runs three muhurtas. An observance kept in pradosh is kept inside it.

Auspicious windows that day

Windows usually worked around

These are the spans classical muhurta sets aside for beginnings. They are descriptions of a convention, not warnings: the observance is kept on its day regardless, and nothing here needs to be bought, corrected or remedied.

Every window above is computed for Kolkata on Tuesday, 1 December 2026, from that day's sunrise, sunset and the following sunrise. The Vedic day runs sunrise to sunrise, so a window whose clock time falls after midnight still belongs to the date named above rather than to the one the wall clock has turned over to.

• Choghadiya windows for today
• Rahu Kaal for your city
• Hora — the planetary hours

Kaal Bhairav Jayanti across five years

Two years back, this year, and two ahead. Past years are kept rather than dropped so you can check the engine against a calendar you already have.

Every row is computed for Kolkata from the same ephemeris, not looked up. Sunrise decides which day a tithi names, and sunrise differs across India by more than an hour, so a date computed for Delhi can be a day out elsewhere.

Why calendars disagree about this date

There is no single authority that settles a Hindu festival date, and the divergence is genuine rather than sloppy. Three causes account for almost all of it.

1. A tithi rarely starts at sunrise. One that is running at the deciding moment on two days — or on none — is claimed by both days under different rules.
2. Month reckoning. North India runs purnimanta, the south and west amanta. The same dark fortnight carries different month names in the two, so an observance defined as "krishna X of month Y" can land a full lunation apart.
3. Which moment decides. Most vratas belong to the day whose sunrise carries the tithi, but not all: this one is decided at pradosh. Almanacs that apply the sunrise rule to everything move several festivals by a day.

So this page shows its working. If your pandit or your family almanac gives a different day, the instants above will usually show you exactly why — and that is more useful than a date asserted without one.

Related timing

• The full vrat and tyohar calendar
• Panchang for your city — tithi, nakshatra, yoga, karana
• Choghadiya windows for the day
• Free kundli — see what this period touches in your own chart