Kashi Vishwanath temple timings in Varanasi: darshan hours, every aarti and when to go

Kashi Vishwanath opens at about 2:30 to 2:45 AM, when Mangala Aarti ticket holders are let in. Free darshan starts at 4 AM, though the trust keeps 4 to 5 AM for local devotees, so visitors may get in nearer 5. The temple closes at 11 PM after the Shayan Aarti. It's open every day of the week, and darshan only stops while an aarti is going on.

That's the short answer. The longer one matters if you're bringing parents, booking an aarti or coming on a Monday in Sawan, because timings move and the trust's own pages don't fully agree with each other. We drive families to this temple most weeks, so this is the schedule we plan around. We checked all of it on shrikashivishwanath.org on 10 October 2026.

Kashi Vishwanath aarti timings and fees

Kids under 12 go free on every paid aarti. Each adult needs a printed ticket and an identity card. There are no cancellations, refunds or date changes on aartis, since the trust counts the money as a donation. So book once the trip is fixed, not before.

Mangala is the one people really want, and it's the hardest to get. When we looked on 10 October, the General quota showed zero seats for nearly every date up to 9 November, while Tatkal had 100 a day. In practice General sells out about a month ahead, and Tatkal at 11 AM the day before is your real chance if you've left it late. General ticket holders go in at Gate No. 1 (Dhundi Raj Ganesh) and Tatkal holders at Gate 4B. If your ticket names a gate, that's the one to use.

On Purnima the Saptarishi Aarti starts about an hour early. That's written in the trust's own terms, and the trust also says full moons and eclipses can shift other timings. If your date falls on one, look at the notices page the day before.

Darshan timings, and the quieter windows

Plain darshan is free. The trust's FAQ asks whether you need to pay to enter, and the answer printed there is simply no. You get three free windows, fitted around the aartis.

• 4:00 AM to 11:00 AM (4 to 5 AM is set aside for local devotees, per the trust's notices page)
• 12:20 PM to 7:00 PM
• 8:30 PM to 9:00 PM, the short gap between Saptarishi and Shringar

People ask us for the quiet hour, and we have to be straight with them. The trust doesn't publish wait times for ordinary days, so nobody can promise you an empty temple. What we've seen is that weekends and festival days mean three to six hours in the general line. A plain weekday that isn't a festival, a Purnima or in Sawan is your best bet. Mind the clock near the aartis too. Darshan pauses for each one, so if you join at 10:45 AM or 6:45 PM you may end up waiting out the aarti before the line moves.

If hours of standing won't work for someone in your group, Sugam darshan is the answer. It's ₹300 a head at the trust's checkout. A Shastri walks you in by a shorter line, and a free locker and box prasad are included. Kids under 12 and differently-abled devotees pay nothing. An older page on the trust's own site still says ₹250, but the checkout price is the one you'll pay. Slots run inside the darshan windows (the schedule page says 6 AM to 6 PM), never during an aarti and not on special days. Same-day tickets are sold only at the helpdesk counter, and you collect your Shastri at the helpdesk near Shapuri Mall in Bansfatak. How to book Sugam darshan yourself, step by step.

What to leave behind, and what to carry

This is where families lose the most time, usually at the locker queue. Phones aren't allowed inside, and neither are smartwatches, electronic car keys, cameras, recording glasses or anything else that records. The trust's FAQ even bans pens. For Sawan 2026 its CEO added earphones, tobacco, cosmetics and large bags.

Free lockers sit at Mandir Chauk, YSK-1, YSK-2, YSK-3 and the helpdesk, but the trust itself says there aren't many and asks people to leave things at the hotel. We tell our guests the same. Bring your ticket, your ID and a little cash for the offering box, and that's it.

Leather is a grey area. None of the trust pages we read bans it, yet most visitors leave belts and wallets behind, and we'd do the same. Clothes work the same way. The trust says there's no dress code and only asks for decent clothes. Covered shoulders and knees never draw a second look, so that's what we'd wear.

Print your aarti or Sugam ticket. The terms ask for a hard copy, and your phone will be in a locker anyway. Everyone on a Mangala ticket also needs their own identity card.

Sparsh darshan, where you get to touch the lingam, is the one we can't promise. On 10 October 2026 it wasn't on the trust's booking list at all, and the Sugam ticket says it doesn't cover Sparsh. It was stopped over New Year (until 3 January 2026), over Mahashivratri and right through Sawan 2026, and we haven't seen any report of it coming back. Ring the trust helpline on 7080292930, between 9 AM and 6 PM, before you plan a trip around it.

The busy days, and what changes on them

Sawan Mondays are the big ones. Sawan 2026 ran from 30 July to 28 August, with Mondays on 3, 10, 17 and 24 August. Roughly 5.30 lakh people came on the first Monday alone, and the CEO warned of six to seven hour waits. Sugam tickets weren't sold on three of those Mondays (10, 17 and 24 August). VIP and protocol darshan stayed off all month, and only 100 Mangala tickets went on sale each day.

Mahashivratri runs on its own clock. Mangala moves to 2:15–3:15 AM, and after that darshan barely stops. In 2026 it went on for about 45 hours and ended at 11 PM on 16 February. The four prahar pujas take the place of the evening aartis, there's no Mangala the next morning, and Sparsh, special and VIP darshan aren't given. By 9 AM that day about 4 lakh people had been through, and the queue stretched 4 km. Here's how we'd plan Mahashivratri 2027 with elders.

Purnima pulls Saptarishi an hour earlier, as above. Around New Year, expect a repeat of last time, when sparsh, protocol and special darshan were halted until 3 January 2026.

Getting there: where the van stops and how far you walk

No vehicle reaches the temple. The trust marks the whole stretch from Godowlia to Maidagin as a no-vehicle zone, so every car, auto and van stops at one end or the other. Ours usually drops you at Godowlia, and from there it's about ten minutes on foot through Vishwanath Gali. Some days the police diversions push the drop to the Maidagin side or further back. Inside the zone there's an e-kart service for differently-abled devotees.

Coming up from the river? Ghat-side entry runs from 6 AM to 9 PM, though the Ganga Dwar can close when the water is high. Gate numbers are honestly a mess across sources, the trust's own site included, so go by the gate printed on your ticket.

On a temple day our Urbania driver gets you to the right drop point before your slot, parks at the closest spot the police allow and waits there, so nobody hunts for a far-off car park afterwards. He'll know which approach is open that day. The low step helps elders, who'll be climbing in and out a lot. For Mangala at 3 AM we usually pick up around 2 AM, depending on where you're staying.

GST, toll and parking are extra, at actuals.

Where the sources disagree

We'd rather show you the mess than pretend it's tidy. On 10 October 2026 the trust's website gave three opening times: 2:30 AM on its rituals page, 2:45 AM on its notices page and 3 AM in its FAQ. The notices page also has Mangala at 2:45–3:45 AM and Bhog at 11:30 AM–12:30 PM, while the booking pages say 3:00–4:00 and 11:15–12:20. The rituals page ends Saptarishi at 8:30 PM rather than 8:15. The notices page also keeps 4 to 5 AM for local devotees, which no other page mentions, so if you're not from Varanasi, plan on about 5 AM and ring 7080292930 to check.

Our guess is that the notices page still carries the Maha Kumbh schedule, since Amar Ujala reported the same 2:45 Mangala in January 2025. We've used the booking-page times here because that's what your ticket holds you to, and you'd turn up at the reporting time either way. Wikipedia's 3:30 AM Mangala is out of date. If anything changes, the trust's notices page and helpline will know before we do.

Got a slot booked and want the day planned around it? WhatsApp us on 9250331290 with the date and your ticket time, and we'll tell you the pickup time and how the walk looks that day.