Festival Pitrus, Yama, Durga
Mahalaya
The new moon that closes Pitru Paksha, on which shraddha is offered to every ancestor, and above all to those whose day of death is not known or who were missed during the fortnight.
Mahalaya 2027 falls on Thursday, 30 September, 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.
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
Bengal calendar, computed for Chennai
- Thursday, 30 September 2027
- Monday, 18 September 2028
- Sunday, 7 October 2029
Where Mahalaya falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 30 Sep
- 2028: 18 Sep, 11 days earlier
- 2029: 7 Oct, 18 days later
The days of Durga Puja
Part of the same festival, in order, in the Bengal calendar
- Mahalaya(this page) …
- Maha Shashthi · Bodhon …
- Maha Saptami …
- Maha Ashtami …
- Maha Navami …
- Bijoya Dashami …
The dates, year by year
Bengal calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The new moon that closes Pitru Paksha, on which shraddha is offered to every ancestor, and above all to those whose day of death is not known or who were missed during the fortnight. Gaya, Prayagraj, Haridwar and Nashik fill with families doing the pind daan; in Bengal the Mahalaya dawn broadcast of the Chandi opens the Durga Puja season.
- Deity
- Pitrus, Yama, Durga
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
The north also calls it Pitru Visarjani Amavasya, the new moon on which the ancestors, fed for a fortnight, are sent back to their own world, and a lamp is set at the door facing south in the evening to light their road. Sarva means all, and the day is kept not only for forebears whose tithis were missed but for the ones no one remembers: relatives without children to feed them, friends, teachers, the unmarried dead, and those whose names the family has lost. A household that could keep none of the fortnight's shraddhas is held to have kept them all if it keeps this one with care. By the next morning, in most years, the same house sows the jau for the Navratri, so it turns in one night from the ancestors to the goddess. In Bengal the Amavasya is Mahalaya, the dawn that ends Pitri Paksha and opens Devi Paksha: men offer tarpan waist-deep in the Ganga at the Kolkata ghats before sunrise, and every house wakes in the dark to the Mahishasura Mardini broadcast, so the day of the ancestors becomes the day the goddess is invited home.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Mahalaya: how it is kept
Keep ready
- a radio or television for the dawn recital
- kusha grass
- black til
- a copper kosha-kushi, the Bengali vessel and spoon for tarpan
- a gamchha and a clean dhoti
- flowers and tulsi
- a sidha or food for the brahmin
The steps
0 of 7 done
What is cooked
Tarpan is offered fasting, and the day's meal is niramish, vegetarian without onion or garlic: bhaat, dal, shukto, a bhaja and payesh. From this evening the house begins to plan the puja's bhog and the luchi and mishti of the days ahead.
The hour
Clock times for Thursday, 30 September 2027 at Chennai
The Amavasya tithi at sunrise, with the shraddha offered at aparahna, the afternoon.
The main rite. The Amavasya dawn: the radio recital is heard in the dark before sunrise, the tarpan is offered at the ghat as the sun comes up, and the Devi Paksha is counted from this new moon.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | 05:58 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
| Aparahna | 13:11 | the afternoon, three fifths of the daylight after sunrise |
Sunrise 05:58, sunset 18:00, 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 Amavasai from previous day 10:56 until 08:06 | then Shukla Prathamai until next day 05:36 |
| Nakshatra | Hasta until next day 02:12 | then Chitra until 2 days later, 00:50 |
| Rahu kaal | 13:29 to 14:59 (1 h 30 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 05:58 to 07:28 (1 h 30 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 08:59 to 10:29 (1 h 30 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:35 to 12:23 (0 h 48 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 05:54 | moonset 18:03 |
For Thursday, 30 September 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
The one who offers it fasts until the rite is over, then eats one plain meal. Food is set out for the crow, the cow, the dog and the guest before anyone eats.
What is avoided
No new purchase, no celebration and no haircut until the rite is done, and nothing is begun that day; onion, garlic, meat, masoor dal and alcohol stay out of the kitchen. The one who offers the shraddha eats only after the crow, the cow and the guest have been fed.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
The whole country keeps this new moon, under the names Sarva Pitru Amavasya, Mahalaya Amavasya and Mahalaya Amavasai. Kerala's largest bali day is Karkidaka Vavu two months earlier instead. Bengal keeps the dawn of Mahalaya as the opening of Devi Paksha: tarpan at the ghats at first light, and the Mahishasuramardini recital in the voice of Birendra Krishna Bhadra on the radio at four in the morning, broadcast since 1931. Durga Puja normally follows six days later, though in a year with an adhika Ashwin it waits a month. Assam keeps the same dawn at the Brahmaputra ghats.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu
- Tamil Nadu keeps it as Mahalaya Amavasai, with tarpanam at Rameswaram, Kanyakumari and the temple tanks, and the Navaratri Kolu is set up the next day.
- Telugu
- The Telugu country keeps it as Mahalaya Amavasya, and Telangana opens Bathukamma that evening.
- Kannada
- Karnataka keeps it as Mahalaya Amavasya, the shraddha for all, just before the Mysuru Dasara begins.
- North India
- Gaya, Prayagraj, Haridwar and Varanasi fill with families making the last pind of the fortnight, and Pehowa near Kurukshetra is the great place for Haryana and the Punjab; every house in the Hindi belt lights the south-facing lamp that evening.
- Maharashtra
- Maharashtra keeps Sarvapitri Amavasya for every ancestor whose tithi is unknown or was missed, and the ghatasthapana follows next morning.
- Bengal (the dates above)
- Bengal keeps Mahalaya at Babughat, Ahiritola and the other Kolkata ghats with tarpan at first light, and the Mahishasura Mardini in Birendra Krishna Bhadra's voice on Akashvani before dawn; in many workshops of Kumartuli the eyes of the goddess are painted in on this day, the chokkhu daan.
- Nepal
- Nepal keeps the last of the Sorha Shraddha on this Aunsi, and Ghatasthapana follows.
- Sindhi
- For a community that left its graves and its river behind in 1947 the last clause of this day is not a technicality: the tarpanam is for every ancestor whose tithi was not written down, which in many Sindhi families is most of them.
The dates above are the Bengal 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
শুভ মহালয়াShubho Mahalaya
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Kollumangudi, Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu
This day is kept for Pitrus, and the gazetteer keeps this temple for Pitru and ancestors. Visited where a family quarrel or a father’s displeasure is read into the chart, and on amavasai for the ancestors.
- Tamil Nadu
This day is kept for Pitrus, and the gazetteer keeps this temple for Pitru and ancestors. Tula snanam through Aippasi, when lakhs bathe at the ghats, and amavasai tarpanam are what most come for.
- Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu
This day is kept for Pitrus, and the gazetteer keeps this temple for Pitru and ancestors. Amavasai tarpanam and Maha Sivaratri are its days
- Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu
This day is kept for Pitrus, and the gazetteer keeps this temple for Pitru and ancestors. Amavasai and Aadi Amavasai tarpanam on the nearby shore are what most come for.
- Erode, Tamil Nadu
This day is kept for Pitrus, and the gazetteer keeps this temple for Pitru and ancestors. Maha Sivaratri and amavasai tarpanam are its days.
- Jaffna, Northern Province, Sri Lanka
This day is kept for Pitrus, and the gazetteer keeps this temple for Pitru and ancestors. Aadi Amavasai tarpanam at Keerimalai is the largest ancestor rite in the north of the island.
26 more temples in this gazetteer are 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.
- Ayi Giri Nandini (Mahishasura Mardini)
- Ya Devi Sarvabhuteshu
- Pitru tarpanam sankalpam
A name without a link is a long reading, read in full from the family’s own copy or at the place of worship; the library prints the shorter prayers.
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.