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
Maharashtra calendar, computed for Chennai
- Wednesday, 14 July 2027
- Sunday, 2 July 2028
- Saturday, 21 July 2029
Where Ashadhi Ekadashi · Pandharpur wari falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 14 Jul
- 2028: 2 Jul, 11 days earlier
- 2029: 21 Jul, 18 days later
The dates, year by year
Maharashtra calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The Ekadashi of the bright fortnight of Ashadh, the largest day of the Varkari year. The palkhis of Dnyaneshwar from Alandi and of Tukaram from Dehu walk for about three weeks to Pandharpur and reach it for this day, a few hundred thousand pilgrims in dindis with the tal and the veena, singing the abhangas of the sants and calling on Vitthal. It is also Devshayani: Vishnu lies down for the four months of chaturmas, and no wedding is held until he wakes at Kartiki Ekadashi.
- Deity
- Vitthal, Rukmini, Vishnu
- Kind
- Vratam Days kept by a fast or a vow, most of them coming round every lunar month.
Significance
For a Varkari family the wari is the year's pilgrimage made on foot, and the point is the walking together, rich and poor, singing, with no one first. Vitthal is held to have been standing on his brick at Pandharpur for twenty-eight ages, waiting for his devotee Pundalik to finish serving his parents, and the pilgrims come to a god who waits. The abhangas of Dnyaneshwar, Namdev, Tukaram and the other sants are the prayer, sung in Marathi, not in Sanskrit, which is why the wari belongs to every caste. Families that cannot walk keep the Ekadashi at home and go to their own town's Vitthal temple, since every Marathi town has one.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Ashadhi Ekadashi · Pandharpur wari: how it is kept
Keep ready
- an image or picture of Vitthal and Rukmini
- tulsi leaves, picked the day before
- a tulsi mala
- abir and bukka
- flowers
- a ghee lamp and incense
- the Haripath
- tal, the small cymbals
The steps
0 of 8 done
What is cooked
Upvas food only: sabudana khichdi, varaiche tandul, barnyard millet, with danyachi amti, a peanut curry, ratale, sweet potato, rajgira ladoo, fruit and milk. The pilgrims at Pandharpur are fed by the dindis and the townspeople, and the Dwadashi meal is a full one taken after the parana.
The hour
Clock times for Wednesday, 14 July 2027 at Chennai
Ashadh shuddha Ekadashi at sunrise, the householder taking the first of the two days when the tithi holds two sunrises and the warkari the day the panchang prints; the parana is the next morning.
The main rite. Ashadh shuddha Ekadashi at sunrise, taking the second day when the tithi runs at two sunrises. The fast is broken at the parana on the Dwadashi morning.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | 05:50 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
Sunrise 05:50, sunset 18:40, 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 Ekadasi from previous day 12:09 until 13:11 | then Shukla Dwadasi until next day 14:41 |
| Nakshatra | Anuradha until next day 03:18 | then Jyeshtha until 2 days later, 05:40 |
| Rahu kaal | 12:15 to 13:51 (1 h 36 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 07:26 to 09:02 (1 h 36 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 10:39 to 12:15 (1 h 36 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:49 to 12:40 (0 h 51 min) | the midday muhurta, not counted on a Wednesday |
| Moonrise | 15:14 | moonset next day 02:45 |
For Wednesday, 14 July 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
The full Ekadashi fast without grain, which Varkari households keep twice a lunar month through the year. It is broken at the parana on the Dwadashi, at Pandharpur with the temple prasad for those who walked.
What is avoided
No grain, no rice above all, and in strict houses no onion, garlic or salt of the ordinary kind. Tulsi is not picked on the Ekadashi itself. Weddings and thread ceremonies are not fixed in the four months of chaturmas that begin on this day.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Maharashtra keeps it as the wari; the rest of India keeps the same Ekadashi as Devshayani or Padma Ekadashi and dates the chaturmas bar on weddings from it. Traditions vary in an adhika Ashadh year on which of the two Ekadashis the four months begin at.
In other regions
- Telugu
- The Telugu country keeps it as Tholi Ekadasi, the first Ekadasi of the year's count, with a fast and the Vishnu temples crowded.
- Kannada
- The Varkaris of northern Karnataka walk to Pandharpur as well, and Karnataka keeps the day as Shayani Ekadashi.
- North India
- The north keeps the same Ekadashi as Devshayani, when Vishnu lies down for the four months of chaturmas.
- Maharashtra (the dates above)
- Maharashtra keeps it as the day of the wari, with the palkhis of Alandi and Dehu reaching Pandharpur and the Chief Minister's mahapuja at dawn.
The dates above are the Maharashtra 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
आषाढी एकादशीच्या हार्दिक शुभेच्छाAshadhi Ekadashichya hardik shubhechha
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Solapur, Maharashtra
The entry for this day names Pandharpur. The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. The palkhis of Dnyaneshwar from Alandi and of Tukaram from Dehu walk for about three weeks to Pandharpur and reach it for this day, a few hundred thousand pilgrims in dindis with the tal and the veena, singing the abhangas of the sants and calling on Vitthal.
Temples of Vitthal and Vishnu near you
Not recorded for this day in particular: the nearest temples of the day's own gods, for a reader whose own temple is not listed above.
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Venkatakrishnan (Parthasarathy) with the arrow scars on his face
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · The eight forms of Lakshmi in shrines on four floors, facing the sea
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Adhivyadhihara Bhaktha Anjaneyar, thirty-two feet tall from a single block of granite
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Neervanna Perumal below and Ranganathar on the hill, in four postures
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
Ashadhi Ekadashi · Pandharpur wari's own date is set by the rule in "The hour" above, and no muhurtham moves it. For a wedding around it, whose day the family does choose, the finder below applies these rules.
Vivaha, the marriage itself. The grading is the Tamil almanac one: nine wedding months, the seven wedding tithis, the marriage stars, and Mithunam, Kanni and Thulam as the best lagnas. Tuesday and Saturday rule a day out, as no Tamil almanac prints a wedding muhurtham on either. Confirm the chosen day and hour with the family astrologer.
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.