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
North India calendar, computed for Chennai
- Thursday, 18 March 2027
- Tuesday, 7 March 2028
- Sunday, 25 February 2029
Where Amalaki Ekadashi falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 18 Mar
- 2028: 7 Mar, 10 days earlier
- 2029: 25 Feb, 11 days earlier
The dates, year by year
North India calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The Ekadashi of Phalguna Shukla. Every one of the twenty-four Ekadashis of the year carries a name and a story of its own. Of this one: the amla tree is worshipped and circled on it, since Vishnu is held to dwell in it; it falls in the Holi week. The vow underneath them is the same: a day without grain, given to Vishnu, with the night kept awake in the stricter houses.
- Deity
- Vishnu
- Kind
- Vratam Days kept by a fast or a vow, most of them coming round every lunar month.
Significance
Vishnu is held to dwell in the amla tree, and the story of Amalaki is of King Chitraratha of Vaidisha, whose whole city kept this Ekadashi beneath an amla tree with a night of songs; a hunter, drawn by the lamps and hungry, stayed the night listening and fasting because there was nothing to eat. He died soon after, and for that one night was born again as King Vasuratha, strong and just. The fruit is the gift of the day as much as the tree itself: amla is eaten, given away and offered, and the regard Ayurveda has for it as the fruit of long life sits behind the custom.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Amalaki Ekadashi: how it is kept
Keep ready
- tulsi leaves picked the day before
- a picture or image of Vishnu or Krishna
- a chowki and a yellow cloth
- panchamrit of milk, curd, ghee, honey and sugar
- yellow flowers and sandal paste
- a ghee lamp and incense
- a tulsi mala
- fruit for the offering
- the katha of the Ekadashi
- amla fruit, or an amla tree nearby
The steps
0 of 8 done
What is cooked
The phalahar is sabudana khichdi, kuttu or singhare ki puri, potatoes cooked with sendha namak, makhana kheer, fruit and milk, with no grain and no common salt. The parana is a light home meal taken after the charnamrit. Amla is eaten after the parana and given away with the daan.
The hour
Clock times for Thursday, 18 March 2027 at Chennai
The Ekadashi tithi at sunrise. Where it holds two sunrises the householder fasts on the first and the sanyasi, the widow and the Vaishnava on the second; where it began inside the arunodaya, the 96 minutes before that sunrise, the day is dasami-viddha and the fast moves to the next one; and where it holds neither sunrise, having begun after one and ended before the next, the fast is kept on the day it ran and the Vaishnava Gauna Ekadashi is the day after. The fast is broken at the parana, in the window the almanac gives after sunrise on the Dwadashi; the parana must not be left until the Dwadashi has ended.
The main rite. The Ekadashi of Phalguna Shukla at sunrise, taking the second day when the tithi runs across two sunrises. The fast is broken at the parana on the Dwadashi, inside the window the almanac gives.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Arunodaya | 04:39 | the 96 minutes before sunrise, the hour of the oil bath |
| Sunrise | 06:15 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
Sunrise 06:15, sunset 18:20, 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 06:44 until next day 01:52 | then Shukla Dwadasi until next day 23:18 |
| Nakshatra | Pushya until next day 03:21 | then Ashlesha until 2 days later, 01:32 |
| Rahu kaal | 13:48 to 15:18 (1 h 31 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 06:15 to 07:45 (1 h 31 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 09:16 to 10:47 (1 h 31 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:53 to 12:41 (0 h 48 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 14:30 | moonset next day 03:36 |
For Thursday, 18 March 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
No grain of any kind, and no rice above all; the day is kept on fruit, milk, sabudana and singhare or kuttu flour, and the strictest keep it without water. Tulsi is offered to Vishnu but never picked on the day itself.
What is avoided
No rice or grain of any kind, and no onion, garlic, meat or liquor; tulsi is not plucked on the day, and sleep in the daytime is avoided. Quarrels and harsh words are kept out of the fast, and the parana is not let slip past the Dwadashi.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
The north gives every Ekadashi its own name and quotes the dark-fortnight ones against the next month, because its month ends at the full moon; the south keeps the same days as the plain monthly Ekadasi. Smarta and Vaishnava households can differ by a day on which sunrise counts.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu
- Tamil Vaishnava homes that keep the named list worship the nelli tree on it, and nellikai, already part of every Tamil Dwadasi meal, is given away.
- North India (the dates above)
- Kept on Phalguna Shukla Ekadashi, four days before Holi. Varanasi keeps it as Rangbhari Ekadashi, when Shiva is said to bring Parvati home to Kashi and colour is first played at Kashi Vishwanath, and the Phalgun mela of Khatu Shyam in Rajasthan peaks on the same day.
The dates above are the North India 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.
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
Temples of 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.
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.