ನಿಶೀಥ ಮುಹೂರ್ತ | Nishita Muhurta

Nishita is the eighth of the fifteen muhurtas of the night, which places it astride the true midpoint between sunset and the next sunrise. It lasts about forty-eight minutes.

Note that this is not midnight by the clock. The midpoint of the night moves with sunset and sunrise and in India usually falls between about 23:45 and 00:45, depending on the place and the season.

Where it decides a date

Nishita matters chiefly because two of the largest observances of the year are fixed to it.

Krishna Janmashtami is kept on the day whose Nishita carries Ashtami of the dark fortnight of Shravana, because Krishna is held to have been born at midnight. This is why Janmashtami can fall on a day whose sunrise tithi is Saptami, and why it sometimes falls on different days for different communities: the Vaishnava reckoning adds further conditions involving the Rohini nakshatra.

Maha Shivaratri is kept on the day whose Nishita carries Chaturdashi of the dark fortnight of Magha. The principal abhishekam is performed during this period, which is why the vigil runs to the middle of the night rather than to dawn.

Anudina uses the Nishita of each day when deciding which date carries these two, rather than the sunrise tithi, which is why its dates for them agree with published almanacs.

The four watches

Maha Shivaratri divides the night further into four praharas, quarters of the interval from sunset to sunrise, with an abhishekam in each. The second prahara contains Nishita in most cases. Almanacs that print all four times are giving the quarters of the night, not fixed three-hour blocks.

Outside these observances, Nishita is generally not a period for beginnings. It belongs to vigil, to recitation and to rites performed at night.