Latitude, longitude and time zone 13.08, 80.27
Asia/Kolkata · UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place.
Read more Show less
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
- Sunday, 3 January 2027
- Saturday, 22 January 2028
- Wednesday, 10 January 2029
Where Ekadasi falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 3 Jan
- 2028: 22 Jan, 19 days later
- 2029: 10 Jan, 12 days earlier
The dates, year by year
Tamil Nadu calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The eleventh day of each fortnight, the fasting day of the Vaishnava calendar, kept twice a lunar month. The vow is Vishnu's: no grain of any kind passes the lips, the day is spent in reading and in the temple, and the night is often kept awake. There are twenty-four of them in an ordinary year and twenty-six when a month is intercalated.
- Deity
- Vishnu
- Kind
- Vratam Days kept by a fast or a vow, most of them coming round every lunar month.
Significance
The southern house keeps Ekadasi for Perumal, and the story it tells to explain the rule is King Ambarisha's, from the Bhagavatam: when the sage Durvasa, arriving on the Dwadasi, kept him waiting past the hour to break his fast, Ambarisha sipped a little water rather than let the parana lapse, and Vishnu's discus defended him against the sage's anger. That is why the parana on Dwadasi is taken as seriously as the fast itself. Another explanation often given is that the eleven, ekadasa, are the ten senses and the mind, and the day is for resting all eleven. In practice the fast is gentler in most southern homes than in the rulebook, many giving up rice and keeping the rest, and the Dwadasi meal with its greens and gooseberries is looked forward to as much as the fast.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Ekadasi: how it is kept
Keep ready
- tulasi leaves picked the day before
- a lamp with ghee or gingelly oil
- flowers for Perumal
- the Vishnu Sahasranama or the Gita
- fruit and milk
- a small vessel for tulasi theertham
- agathi keerai, nellikai and sundakkai for the Dwadasi meal
The steps
0 of 7 done
What is cooked
The fast is kept on fruit, milk and water; homes that allow a meal make it of wheat, as rava upma or chapathi, and Maharashtra's fasting fare is sabudana khichdi, bhagar of barnyard millet and a peanut amti, rich enough that a Marathi saying jokes that Ekadashi means eating double. The Tamil Dwadasi meal is rice with agathi keerai poriyal, nellikai pachadi and sundakkai, often with a payasam; Kerala and Karnataka homes break it with a plain rice meal after the tulasi theertham.
The hour
Clock times for Sunday, 3 January 2027 at Chennai
The Ekadasi tithi at sunrise: the first of the two days when it holds two sunrises (the second is the Vaishnava day), the next day when the Ekadasi began inside the arunodaya and the Dasami therefore pierced it, and the day it ran on when it holds neither sunrise. The fast is broken at the parana, in the window the almanac gives after sunrise on the Dwadasi, which is usually the first quarter of the day and must not run past the Dwadasi itself.
The main rite. The Ekadasi at sunrise, the second day when the tithi runs across two sunrises. The Perumal temple is visited at dawn or at the evening puja, and the fast is broken on Dwadasi morning in the parana window, early and never after the Dwadasi has run out.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Arunodaya | 04:56 | the 96 minutes before sunrise, the hour of the oil bath |
| Sunrise | 06:32 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
Sunrise 06:32, sunset 17:55, 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 | Krishna Ekadasi from previous day 14:25 until 16:09 | then Krishna Dwadasi until next day 18:16 |
| Nakshatra | Vishakha until 21:37 | then Anuradha until 2 days later, 00:15 |
| Rahu kaal | 16:29 to 17:55 (1 h 25 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 12:13 to 13:39 (1 h 25 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 15:04 to 16:29 (1 h 25 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:50 to 12:36 (0 h 46 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 02:38 | moonset 14:14 |
For Sunday, 3 January 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
No rice and no grain of any kind; many keep it on fruit, milk and water alone, and the strictest keep it without water. It is broken at the parana with rice or with the tulsi theertham.
What is avoided
No rice or grain, and for the strict no beans or lentils either; no tulasi is plucked, and sleeping through the day is avoided. The parana is never left past the Dwadasi, and the day is kept free of meat, onion and garlic.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Vaishnava and smarta almanacs can put the same Ekadasi a day apart, because a smarta household takes the tithi at sunrise and a Vaishnava one waits for the tithi to be free of the tenth; ask which your family follows. The north gives each of the twenty-four its own name.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu (the dates above)
- Tamil Srivaishnava homes keep both Ekadasis of the month with the Perumal temple and the Divya Prabandham, and the Dwadasi meal of agathi keerai and nellikai is a Tamil habit; Vaikunta Ekadasi in Margazhi is the one the whole state keeps.
- Kerala
- Kerala keeps Ekadasi nombu mostly by giving up rice for wheat or for fruit, and Guruvayur is its centre; the Guruvayur Ekadasi of Vrischikam is the one of the year.
- Telugu
- Telugu homes keep Ekadasi upavasam with a visit to the Venkateswara temple, and the Ashadha Shuddha one is Tholi Ekadasi, the first Ekadasi, which opens the round of festivals.
- Kannada
- The Madhva families of Karnataka keep it most strictly of all, without grain and often without water, with the Udupi Krishna Matha setting the day for them; smarta homes keep it more gently.
- Maharashtra
- Marathi panchangs print Shuddha and Vadya Ekadashi, and the Varkaris keep every one for Vitthal, with the abhangas of Tukaram and Dnyaneshwar sung in the evening; Ashadhi and Kartiki are the two that end at Pandharpur.
- Nepal
- Nepali households, the women above all, keep the monthly Ekadashi on fruit and milk, and the reclining Vishnu at Budhanilkantha draws its largest crowds on the Ekadashis that open and close his four months of sleep.
- Tulu Nadu
- A Tulu household keeps the Ekadashi of both fortnights, and at Udupi it is the day of the Krishna Matha own observance.
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.
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Ekadasi and pournami are its days.
- Guruvayur Sri Krishna Temple 537 kmThrissur, Kerala
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Ekadasi, Ashtami Rohini and the Utsavam in Kumbham are its days.
- Solapur, Maharashtra
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. The Lord who has waited on a brick for his devotee, and the end of the Ashadi Ekadasi wari from Alandi and Dehu.
- Pune, Maharashtra
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Kartik Vadya Ekadasi is its day.
- Khatu Shyamji Temple 1,671 kmSikar, Rajasthan
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Ekadasi and Sundays are its days.
- Budhanilkantha Temple 1,718 kmKathmandu, Bagmati, Nepal
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Haribodhini Ekadasi in Kartik is its day
1 more temple in this gazetteer is recorded for the day. Find temples near you.
Your family's own temple comes first, and its calendar is the one that decides.
Read more Show less
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.
Read more Show less
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.