Nirjala Ekadashi · Bhimseni Ekadashi Vratam The Ekadashi of the bright fortnight of Jyeshtha, kept without water, which is what the name says.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Nirjala Ekadashi · Bhimseni Ekadashi
- हिन्दी
- निर्जला एकादशी
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 Ekadashi of the bright fortnight of Jyeshtha, kept without water, which is what the name says. It is also called Bhimseni Ekadashi: Bhima, who could not keep the other twenty-three, was told that this one alone would carry the merit of them all. It falls in the hottest fortnight of the year, which is the point of it.
- Deity
- Vishnu
- Kind
- Vratam Days kept by a fast or a vow, most of them coming round every lunar month.
The hour
The rule in words
Shukla Ekadashi at sunrise, with the dasami-viddha and kshaya cases settled as for every Ekadashi; in 2024 the tithi began 40 minutes before the sunrise of 17 June, so the fast was the 18th, and the parana is the next morning, within the window the almanac gives after sunrise on the Dwadashi.
The fast
Neither food nor water from sunrise to the next morning's parana. Water pots, fans, melons and sherbet are given away, and the fast is broken with water first.
Where the regions differ
Kept across the north and west; the southern calendars mark the same Ekadashi without the waterless rule, and many families keep it in the lighter form. Traditions vary on whether the elderly and the sick take water.
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.