Is there a dress code in Varanasi?
No rule says what you must wear in the city. Its best-known temple, Kashi Vishwanath, answers the question on its website: "There is no dress code for Darshan, however the devotees are advised to wear decent clothes." Darshan means seeing the deity.
You may read that men need a dhoti and women a saree. That story is from January 2020, and it was about the sanctum, the inner room where the lingam (Shiva's stone symbol) stands: people in pants or jeans, it said, would pray only from a distance. The senior government official for the area said at the time that no formal proposal was being considered.
The temple's questions page says nothing about clothes for the sanctum or for touching the lingam, which is called sparsh darshan. If you hope to do that, ask at the temple's helpdesk, near Gate 4, before you join the line.
In a holy city, decent clothes means covering your shoulders and knees. Long pants or a long skirt with a top that has sleeves will do it. So will a kurta (a long tunic) with pants. In winter you will want long sleeves anyway.
How cold is Varanasi in winter?
The weather office's station in the city, at Banaras Hindu University, gives these normal lows and highs, averaged over 1991 to 2020.
| Month | Low and high | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| November | 14.5°C to 29.2°C | Warm days. A light layer for early morning and night. |
| December | 10.1°C to 24.1°C | Cold at dawn, mild by noon. |
| January | 9°C to 21.9°C | The coldest month. Two warm layers at dawn and after dark. |
| February | 12.4°C to 26.7°C | Cool mornings, warm afternoons. |
These are 30-year averages, and a cold week can drop below them. You will rarely need an umbrella: the table counts fewer than two rainy days a month in winter.
Fog is the thing to plan for. The city station counts fog on 11.2 days in a normal December and 13 in January, and on about two days in November or February. Fog makes a cold morning damp, so wear one more layer than the temperature alone suggests. From a boat, you may not see the far bank of the river.
Dress for the whole day
A winter day here often starts on the river before sunrise and ends on the ghats after dark. The ghats are the wide stone steps that lead down to the river. Here is when the sun rises and sets.
| Date | Sunrise | Sunset |
|---|---|---|
| 15 November | 6:14 am | 5:10 pm |
| 15 December | 6:35 am | 5:10 pm |
| 15 January | 6:45 am | 5:29 pm |
| 15 February | 6:32 am | 5:51 pm |
So the day runs from a cold start to a mild noon and back to cold. Here is what to wear for each part.
| Part of the day | What it is like | Wear |
|---|---|---|
| A boat ride at dawn | The coldest hour. You sit still on open water, so you do not warm up. | A sweater, a padded jacket or a thick shawl, a scarf, and closed shoes with warm socks. In December and January, a cap that covers your ears. |
| Lanes and temples, late morning | Mild in the sun, cooler in the shade of the narrow lanes. | A long-sleeve top or a kurta. Carry the sweater. |
| The evening aarti on the ghats | The aarti, a prayer with fire lamps, starts around sunset. You sit or stand still while it gets dark. | The sweater and the jacket or shawl go back on. |
Shoes, phones and what to carry
Shoes. You take your shoes off before you enter a Hindu temple, and in Varanasi you may do it several times a day. Wear closed shoes that slip on and off easily, such as slip-on sneakers or loafers. The steps near the water can be wet, so choose flat soles that grip.
Your phone and pen. The Kashi Vishwanath temple's questions page says no gadgets of any kind may go inside, and no pens either. The trust has free lockers at several points around the temple. Before you go in, put your phone, pen and bag in a locker, and wear your warm layer rather than carry it.
A shawl. Pack a wool shawl. It keeps you warm on the boat, covers your shoulders at a temple, and is easy to carry over one arm once the day warms up.
Dev Deepawali night, 24 November 2026
Dev Deepawali, the night the ghats are lit with clay lamps, falls on Tuesday, 24 November 2026, by Drik Panchang's calendar for Varanasi. It gives 5:08 pm to 7:47 pm as the time to light the lamps. The sun sets that day at about 5:07 pm, so you will spend the evening outside in the dark.
The normal low for November is 14.5°C, and that is an average for the whole month: nights get cooler as the month goes on. Take a warm layer. Plan for crowds, and wear something festive that you can stand in for hours, or sit in on a boat:
- A silk or cotton kurta with a Nehru jacket (a short jacket with no sleeves and a stand-up collar), and a shawl for later.
- A saree or a kurta set with a full-sleeve blouse or a cardigan, and a shawl in a color from the outfit, so it still looks finished when you wrap the shawl around you.
Wear flat shoes here too. To build a festive outfit from clothes you already own, see our guide to what to wear for Diwali.
The rest of a winter trip
If Varanasi is one stop on a longer trip, see what to wear to the Taj Mahal in winter, what to wear in Delhi in winter, or our chart of what to wear at every temperature for any other forecast.
Planning each day with Ukti
Ukti is our app. If you let it read your location, it picks one outfit each morning for the weather where you are, from the clothes you own. So in Varanasi, the outfit is picked for Varanasi's weather. If you feel the cold more than most people, there is a setting for that: tell it you feel colder than the forecast. You can also talk to its stylist. Tell it the day's plan, such as a boat at dawn and the temple after, and it asks a few short questions before it makes the outfit.
Where the facts come from, read on 27 October 2026. The dress code, the rule on gadgets and pens, the helpdesk near Gate 4 and the free lockers: the Shri Kashi Vishwanath Temple Trust's questions page (a PDF on its website), answers 24, 26, 28 and 38. The 2020 story, what it said about the sanctum, and the official's answer: The Quint, 13 January 2020. Temperatures, rain and fog: the India Meteorological Department's climate table for Varanasi BHU, 1991 to 2020 (the lower table). Sunrise and sunset: sunrise-sunset.org, Varanasi, India time. The evening aarti's link to sunset: Brij Hotels' guide to Ganga aarti times (24 September 2025). Dev Deepawali's date and lamp time: Drik Panchang, set for Varanasi. The rest of this page is general advice. Rules can change, so check with the temple before you go.
