Festival Vishnu, Lakshmi, Parasurama
Akshaya Tritiya · Akha Teej
The third day of the bright fortnight of Vaishakha, one of the few days of the year that need no muhurtham at all: anything begun on it is held to be akshaya, not to run out.
Akshaya Tritiya · Akha Teej 2027 falls on Saturday, 8 May, computed for Chennai.
Latitude, longitude and time zone 13.08, 80.27
Asia/Kolkata · UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place.
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A tithi that ends at dusk in Chennai can still be running at dusk a thousand kilometres west, which moves the day. Sunrise and sunset here are computed for the place above.
When it falls next
Tamil Nadu calendar, computed for Chennai
- Saturday, 8 May 2027
- Thursday, 27 April 2028
- Wednesday, 16 May 2029
Where Akshaya Tritiya · Akha Teej falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 8 May
- 2028: 27 Apr, 10 days earlier
- 2029: 16 May, 18 days later
The dates, year by year
Tamil Nadu calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The third day of the bright fortnight of Vaishakha, one of the few days of the year that need no muhurtham at all: anything begun on it is held to be akshaya, not to run out. It is the day Parasurama was born, the day the Ganga came down, the day Sudama brought Krishna his handful of poha, and at Puri the day the chariots for the Rath Yatra are begun. Gold is bought on it across India.
- Deity
- Vishnu, Lakshmi, Parasurama
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
Tradition counts this Tritiya as the day the Treta Yuga began, the day Surya gave the exiled Pandavas the akshaya patra, the vessel that never ran empty, and the day Vyasa began to dictate the Mahabharata to Ganesha, so the whole of it is bound up with things that do not run out. The older north Indian sense of the day is that what is given on it is never lost, which is why the daan of a water pot, a fan, sattu or an umbrella to someone facing the summer mattered long before the gold did. In the Char Dham the doors of Gangotri and Yamunotri open for the season on this day, and in Vrindavan it is the one day of the year that Banke Bihari's feet are shown, covered in sandal paste. Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh call it Akha Teej and hold more weddings on it than on almost any other day, since no muhurtham need be asked for.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Akshaya Tritiya · Akha Teej: how it is kept
Keep ready
- a picture of Vishnu or Lakshmi Narayan
- yellow cloth and yellow flowers
- akshat (whole unbroken rice)
- chandan and tulsi
- jau (barley) or sattu
- soaked chana dal and kakdi (cucumber)
- a new clay matka with a lid
- a hand fan and an umbrella for daan
- gur or sugar
- a ghee lamp
- the new gold, silver or vessel, if one is bought
The steps
0 of 8 done
What is cooked
The north offers and eats the foods of the hot season: jau ka sattu as a sherbet or a laddoo, soaked chana dal with kakdi, kheer, aam panna and gur, and many homes taste the first ripe mango of the year after offering it. Rajasthan's Akha Teej meal is khichda of wheat or bajra with imlani, the tamarind drink, and Bikaner flies kites for the city's founding day; the Jains break the Varshi Tap with sugar cane juice, and the Telugu and Tamil homes make payasam and panakam.
The hour
Clock times for Saturday, 8 May 2027 at Chennai
The Tritiya running at madhyahna, midday, is the classical rule, and the calendar takes that day; the whole day is held auspicious, so a purchase or a beginning at any hour will do.
The main rite. The Vishnu and Lakshmi puja is done in the morning or at midday on the Tritiya that runs at madhyahna. The whole day is abujh, needing no muhurtham, so a purchase, a wedding or a beginning at any hour will serve.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Madhyahna | 12:06 | midday, the midpoint of sunrise and sunset |
Sunrise 05:46, sunset 18:25, UTC+5.5. These are the instants the rule is read at, not the temple's own puja times, which every temple prints for itself.
The day itself
| What | When | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Tithi | Shukla Dwitiyai from previous day 14:14 until 11:43 | then Shukla Thritiyai until next day 09:04 |
| Nakshatra | Rohini until 21:53 | then Mrigashira until next day 20:00 |
| Rahu kaal | 08:56 to 10:31 (1 h 35 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 13:40 to 15:15 (1 h 35 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 05:46 to 07:21 (1 h 35 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:40 to 12:31 (0 h 51 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 07:05 | moonset 20:31 |
For Saturday, 8 May 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
No fast is required, though some keep it for Vishnu and Lakshmi. Barley, water pots, fans and sesame are given away, and in Jain practice it is the day the year-long fast of Rishabhanatha was broken with sugar cane juice.
What is avoided
Nothing is borrowed or lent, and no one is turned away from the door empty-handed, since what goes out on this day is held to stay out and what is given is held to come back. Meat and alcohol are left alone in homes that keep the puja.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Gold buying is the common Indian face of the day; Bengal opens the new account book, the halkhata; Odisha begins the paddy sowing and the chariot building; the Jains keep Varshi Tap parana.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu (the dates above)
- Tamil Nadu keeps Atchaya Thiruthiyai chiefly as a day to buy gold and to give, and the Vishnu temples of Kumbakonam bring their deities out together on Garuda.
- Telugu
- The Telugu country buys gold on it, and at Simhachalam the Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha is shown in his true form at the Chandanotsavam, the one day his sandal paste is taken off.
- Kannada
- Karnataka buys gold and gives water pots on it, and Basava Jayanti falls on the same Tritiya.
- North India
- The Hindi belt keeps it with the Ganga bath, the water pot given away and the gold bought in the afternoon; Vrindavan shows Banke Bihari's feet, and Gangotri and Yamunotri open for the season. Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh call it Akha Teej and marry on it.
- Maharashtra
- Maharashtra counts Akshayya Tritiya among the saade teen muhurta, closes the Chaitra Gauri with a last haldi kunku, and gives a pot of water to the ancestors as the udakumbha daan.
- Bengal
- Bengal opens the halkhata, the new account book, in many shops with a Ganesha and Lakshmi puja and sweets for the customers.
- Sindhi
- A trading community keeps it closely: the Sindhi shops open the day with it, and gold or a token weight of metal is bought for the house even where a venture is not begun.
- Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh
- Chhattisgarh keeps it as Akti, the first day of its agricultural year: a few seeds are put in a pot or in a corner of the field as a symbolic first sowing before the real one begins, and the clay doll weddings are held for the children on the same morning.
The dates above are the Tamil Nadu reckoning, because that is the calendar this key belongs to. Switch the tradition on the calendar page to see how another one dates the same day.
Greeting
What is said to family and friends on the day
अक्षय तृतीया की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएंAkshaya Tritiya ki hardik shubhkamnayein
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Chikkamagaluru, Karnataka
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Akshaya Tritiya and Navaratri are its days
- Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. The form is seen only on Akshaya Tritiya, when the sandal is removed for Chandanotsavam.
- Banke Bihari Temple, Vrindavan 1,634 kmMathura, Uttar Pradesh
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Janmashtami, Holi and Akshaya Tritiya, when the feet are shown, are its days.
- Tungnath Temple 1,939 kmChopta, Rudraprayag, Uttarakhand
The gazetteer line names the day as the edge of this temple’s open season. Open about Akshaya Tritiya to Diwali.
- Rudranath Temple 1,941 kmChamoli, Uttarakhand
The gazetteer line names the day as the edge of this temple’s open season. Open about Akshaya Tritiya to Kartik Purnima.
- Madhyamaheshwar Temple 1,956 kmRudraprayag, Uttarakhand
The gazetteer line names the day as the edge of this temple’s open season. Open about Akshaya Tritiya to Bhai Dooj.
4 more temples in this gazetteer are recorded for the day. Find temples near you.
Your family's own temple comes first, and its calendar is the one that decides.
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A temple is listed here only where the gazetteer's own line names this day, or where this day's own entry names the town, or where the day belongs to the ancestors or the nagas and the temple is recorded for that rite. Where neither table says anything, nothing is listed as kept for the day; where fewer than three are, the nearest temples of the day's own gods are added under a heading of their own.
Mantras
The prayers said with the day. Each opens with its words and meaning.
Fixing a day for it
The muhurtham rules for a puja held alongside, whose day the family chooses
Akshaya Tritiya · Akha Teej's own date is set by the rule in "The hour" above, and no muhurtham moves it. For a gold around it, whose day the family does choose, the finder below applies these rules.
Buying gold or jewellery. Poosam is the star for buying gold, and Akshaya Tritiya (Vaishakha Shukla Thritiyai) and Dhanteras (Krishna Trayodasi before Deepavali) are the two days the whole country buys on, whatever else the day carries. No lagna rule is applied here, so the day is graded as a whole.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it.
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A printed panchangam can differ by a day where an almanac reads a tithi at a different instant, and a family's own custom always comes first. Where the practice genuinely varies, the text says so rather than choosing for you.