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
North India calendar, computed for Chennai
- Monday, 14 June 2027
- Saturday, 3 June 2028
- Friday, 22 June 2029
Where Nirjala Ekadashi · Bhimseni Ekadashi falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 14 Jun
- 2028: 3 Jun, 10 days earlier
- 2029: 22 Jun, 18 days later
The dates, year by year
North India calendar, computed for Chennai
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.
Significance
Anyone who keeps no other Ekadashi is told that this one, kept whole, carries the merit of all of them, and so it is the Ekadashi of the ordinary household more than of the devout few: grandmothers, shopkeepers and students keep it who keep nothing else. The fast is paired with its opposite, the giving of water, so the same people who go without it all day set up the meetha jal stalls in the lanes and hand sherbet to every passer-by. A clay pot filled with water, a fan, an umbrella and mangoes given to a brahmin or a needy family is the daan of the day, because thirst is what the one who fasts has learnt. It is also called Pandava Ekadashi, and many families read Bhima's story aloud before the evening arti.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Nirjala Ekadashi · Bhimseni Ekadashi: how it is kept
Keep ready
- a picture or image of Vishnu
- tulsi leaves plucked the day before
- yellow flowers and chandan
- panchamrit for the offering
- a ghee lamp
- a new clay pot (ghada or surahi) for daan
- hand fans and an umbrella
- mangoes, melons and sugar
- sherbet or meetha jal for the roadside stall
The steps
0 of 8 done
What is cooked
Nothing is eaten or drunk on the Ekadashi itself. The Dwadashi parana opens with water and tulsi charnamrit, then a light meal of dal, rice, a plain sabzi and kheer, since rice returns after the Ekadashi; the daan plate carries mango, kharbooja and watermelon with sherbet and sugar.
The hour
Clock times for Monday, 14 June 2027 at Chennai
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 main rite. Shukla Ekadashi holding the sunrise, the later day when it holds two; the fast runs without water from that sunrise until the parana on the Dwadashi morning, inside the window the almanac prints.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | 05:42 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
Sunrise 05:42, sunset 18:36, 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 02:13 until next day 02:08 | then Shukla Dwadasi until 2 days later, 02:31 |
| Nakshatra | Chitra until 17:28 | then Swati until next day 18:23 |
| Rahu kaal | 07:19 to 08:56 (1 h 37 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 10:32 to 12:09 (1 h 37 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 13:46 to 15:22 (1 h 37 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:43 to 12:35 (0 h 52 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 14:37 | moonset next day 02:26 |
For Monday, 14 June 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
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.
What is avoided
No food and no water from sunrise to the parana, and no rice on the Dashami before it; tulsi is not plucked on the Ekadashi, so the leaves are gathered a day early. Sleeping by day, anger and harsh words are avoided, and the elderly, the sick, children and pregnant women keep a lighter form with water and fruit, as traditions allow.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
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.
In other regions
- Kannada
- Madhva families in Karnataka keep every Ekadashi without food or water, so this one is not set apart for them; others keep it with the ordinary Ekadashi fast.
- North India (the dates above)
- Kept most strictly in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi, where the lanes fill with sherbet stalls and the clay pot is given away; Mathura and Vrindavan keep it with the Yamuna bath and Haridwar with the Ganga.
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.
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.