Festival Krishna, Arjuna
Gita Jayanti · Mokshada Ekadashi
The Ekadashi of the bright fortnight of Margashirsha, held to be the day Krishna spoke the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna at Kurukshetra.
Gita Jayanti · Mokshada Ekadashi 2026 falls on Sunday, 20 December, 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
North India calendar, computed for Chennai
- Sunday, 20 December 2026
- Thursday, 9 December 2027
- Monday, 27 November 2028
Where Gita Jayanti · Mokshada Ekadashi falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2026: 20 Dec
- 2027: 9 Dec, 11 days earlier
- 2028: 27 Nov, 11 days earlier
The dates, year by year
North India calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The Ekadashi of the bright fortnight of Margashirsha, held to be the day Krishna spoke the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna at Kurukshetra. The Gita is read from end to end, Kurukshetra keeps a week-long festival, and the Ekadashi itself is called Mokshada, the one that gives release, and is kept for the ancestors as well.
- Deity
- Krishna, Arjuna
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
The Gita was not taught in a forest retreat but between two armies drawn up for battle, to a man who had laid down his bow, and the elders take that as the point: it is counsel for doing one's duty in the thick of life, not for escaping it. In the Gita itself Krishna names Margashirsha as the month he is among the months, so it is fitting that its birthday falls here. The Ekadashi has a story of its own in the Ekadashi mahatmya: King Vaikhanasa dreamed of his father suffering in hell and was told by the sage Parvata to keep this fast and give its merit to him, and the father was released, so the day is called Mokshada and families still offer its merit to their ancestors. At Jyotisar near Kurukshetra a banyan is shown as the tree under which the teaching was given, and the Brahma Sarovar is lit with lamps for the Gita Mahotsav.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Gita Jayanti · Mokshada Ekadashi: how it is kept
Keep ready
- a copy of the Bhagavad Gita
- a picture of Krishna and Arjuna on the chariot
- a chowki and a clean yellow or red cloth
- tulsi leaves picked the day before
- yellow flowers and sandal paste
- a ghee lamp and incense
- fruit, makhana and milk for the bhog
- black sesame and water for the ancestors
- a copy of the Gita to give away
The steps
0 of 8 done
What is cooked
The day is kept on the Ekadashi phalahar: fruit, milk, makhana, sabudana khichdi, and puri or halwa of kuttu or singhara flour, with a bhog of panchamrit and tulsi. The parana next morning is a simple sattvic meal, and Guruvayur and the Kerala temples give the Ekadasi prasadam.
The hour
Clock times for Sunday, 20 December 2026 at Chennai
Margashirsha Shukla Ekadashi at sunrise; the reading fills the day and the parana is the next morning.
The main rite. Margashirsha Shukla Ekadashi: the fast is kept from sunrise, the Gita is read through the day, often all eighteen chapters at a sitting, and the parana is taken on the Dwadashi morning within the hours the almanac gives.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | 06:26 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
Sunrise 06:26, sunset 17:47, 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 22:10 until 20:15 | then Shukla Dwadasi until next day 17:37 |
| Nakshatra | Ashwini until 14:56 | then Bharani until next day 13:09 |
| Rahu kaal | 16:22 to 17:47 (1 h 25 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 12:06 to 13:32 (1 h 25 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 14:57 to 16:22 (1 h 25 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:44 to 12:29 (0 h 45 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 14:08 | moonset next day 03:14 |
For Sunday, 20 December 2026 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
The ordinary Ekadashi fast without rice or grain, broken at the parana on the Dwadashi.
What is avoided
Rice, grain, pulses, onion and garlic are not eaten by those keeping the Ekadashi, and no tulsi leaf is plucked on the day. The Gita is not set on the floor or read with unwashed hands.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Kurukshetra and the Gita mandirs keep it hardest; the south marks the same Ekadashi within the Dhanur masa and often close to Vaikunta Ekadasi.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu
- Tamil Nadu marks the same Ekadashi, and in the years it falls in Margazhi, the solar month of Dhanus, it is Vaikunta Ekadasi itself, with the paramapada vasal opened at Srirangam.
- Kerala
- Kerala keeps Guruvayur Ekadasi, the Shukla Ekadashi of Vrischikam, which is very often this same day, and Guruvayur marks it as Gita Dinam, the day of the Gita.
- North India (the dates above)
- Kurukshetra keeps the Gita Mahotsav with the Brahma Sarovar lit and readings through the week, Jyotisar draws pilgrims to its banyan, and the Gita mandirs and ISKCON temples of every city hold day-long readings.
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.
Greeting
What is said to family and friends on the day
गीता जयंती की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएंGita Jayanti ki hardik shubhkamnayein
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Haryana
The entry for this day names Kurukshetra, and it is a temple of Krishna. The Ekadashi of the bright fortnight of Margashirsha, held to be the day Krishna spoke the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna at Kurukshetra.
Temples of Krishna 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.