Datta Jayanti Festival The full moon of Margashirsha, held to be the birth of Dattatreya, the son of Atri and Anasuya in whom Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva stand as one figure with three heads and the four dogs and the cow beside him.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Datta Jayanti
- हिन्दी
- दत्त जयंती
- मराठी
- दत्त जयंती
Only the names actually in use are listed. A blank script is not an omission: the day may simply not be kept there, or be kept under a different festival's name.
UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place: 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
Looking for the calendar this day belongs to
This day does not fall again in the next three years at this place. A few days are tied to the solar month rather than to the civil year, so a year can hold two of them or none.
What the day is
The full moon of Margashirsha, held to be the birth of Dattatreya, the son of Atri and Anasuya in whom Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva stand as one figure with three heads and the four dogs and the cow beside him. The Gurucharitra is read through the seven days before it in the Datta houses of Maharashtra, and Audumbar, Narsobawadi and Ganagapur keep the largest festival. The birth is held to have been at dusk, which is the hour of the arati.
- Deity
- Dattatreya, Anasuya, Atri
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
The hour
The rule in words
Margashirsha Pournima running at pradosha, because Dattatreya is held to have been born at dusk and the Marathi panchangs take the Pournima that covers that hour; else the Pournima at sunrise.
The fast
Those reading the Gurucharitra keep one meal a day through the seven days. The offering is a plain one, since the deity is held to take bhiksha, a handful of food asked for at the door.
Where the regions differ
Maharashtra, Goa and northern Karnataka keep it, and the Datta sampradaya of Narasimha Saraswati and Swami Samarth is its home. The rest of India marks the same full moon only as Margashirsha Purnima.
Fixing a day for it
The muhurtham rules that go with this festival
A temple visit, or the first darshan at a new temple. No weekday is ruled out: Tuesday belongs to Murugan and the Amman, Saturday to Perumal and Sani, so the day usually follows the deity rather than the almanac. Ashtami and Chaturdasi are the two tithis held back for darshan, with the standing exceptions of Sivaratri on Krishna Chaturdasi and Kala Bhairava Ashtami, which are kept on those very days. Rahu kaal, Yamaganda and Gulika kaal are not scored here; the panchangam page prints them for the day you pick, and most families simply wait them out.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it. 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.