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
Tamil Nadu calendar, computed for Chennai
- Sunday, 20 December 2026
- Saturday, 8 January 2028
- Sunday, 16 December 2029
Where Vaikunta Ekadasi falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2026: 20 Dec
- 2028: 8 Jan, 346 days earlier
- 2029: 16 Dec, 342 days later
The dates, year by year
Tamil Nadu calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The Shukla Ekadasi of Margazhi, the greatest Ekadasi of the Vaishnava year. The Paramapada Vasal, the gate of Vaikuntha, is opened before dawn at Srirangam and the other Vishnu temples, and the deity passes through it while the Tiruvaimozhi is sung; the crowd follows, since passing the gate that morning is held to open the way to Vaikuntha.
- Deity
- Vishnu, Ranganatha
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
The Vaishnava telling is that the two asuras Madhu and Kaitabha, forgiven by Vishnu at the end of their fight, asked that whoever saw him come through the northern door on this Ekadasi, and heard their story, should reach Vaikuntha, and the Paramapada Vasal is opened in their memory. At Srirangam the day stands in the middle of the Adhyayana Utsavam of some three weeks: ten days of Pagal Pathu, when the hymns of the Alvars are recited by day, and ten nights of Ra Pathu from the Ekadasi, when Nammalvar's Tiruvaimozhi is sung, the araiyars act out its verses, and the last night ends with Nammalvar's moksham. Ranganatha comes through the gate in the Ratnangi, his coat of rubies, having been seen in the Mohini alankaram the day before. At home the day is a fast and a vigil: families stay awake with the Tiruvaimozhi and the Vishnu Sahasranamam, and the children with the paramapadam board of snakes and ladders, whose last square is Vaikuntha itself.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Vaikunta Ekadasi: how it is kept
Keep ready
- tulasi leaves picked on the Dasami
- a tulasi garland
- thiruman and srichurnam, or the family's mark
- kuthuvilakku and ghee
- a picture or vigraham of Perumal
- flowers and fruit
- milk
- the Vishnu Sahasranamam and the Divya Prabandham
- a paramapadam board and dice
- agathi keerai, nellikkai and sundakkai for the Dwadasi meal
The steps
0 of 8 done
What is cooked
Nothing on the Ekadasi itself for those who keep it strictly; others take milk, fruit and the fasting foods such as boiled sweet potato. The Dwadasi parana in Tamil homes is a set meal: agathi keerai poriyal, nellikkai pachadi or thuvaiyal, sundakkai in a kuzhambu or fried, with plain rice, paruppu and rasam, and a payasam or akkaravadisal. Temples give out sakkarai pongal and the Dwadasi prasadam to those who kept the vigil.
The hour
Clock times for Sunday, 20 December 2026 at Chennai
The Ekadasi tithi at sunrise, read as the Vishnu temples read it: the second day when the tithi holds two sunrises, the day after when the Dasami was still running at arunodaya, and the Dwadasi day when the tithi holds no sunrise at all, as in December 2025, when it ran from 07:52 on the 30th to 05:01 on the 31st and Srirangam kept the 31st. The gate is opened in the last watch of the night, between about 3 and 5 in the morning; the fast runs to the parana on the Dwadasi.
The main rite. The Shukla Ekadasi of Margazhi as it stands at sunrise; the gate is opened in the last watch of the night before dawn, and the fast is broken on the Dwadasi within the parana window.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Arunodaya | 04:50 | the 96 minutes before sunrise, the hour of the oil bath |
| 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
A full Ekadasi fast: no rice or grain, and in the strict form no food or water at all through the night, with the fast broken after sunrise on the Dwadasi within the parana window.
What is avoided
No rice or grain from the Dasami night to the parana, no onion or garlic, and no sleep through the Ekadasi night for those who keep the vigil. Tulasi is not plucked on the Ekadasi, and the fast is neither broken before the parana window opens nor carried past it.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Tamil Nadu and Kerala keep it at Srirangam, Tirupati and Guruvayur; Andhra and Karnataka call the same day Vaikuntha Ekadasi or Mukkoti Ekadasi, and the north knows it as Putrada Ekadashi in Pausha.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu (the dates above)
- Srirangam is the centre, with the gate opened on the Ekadasi and the Ra Pathu nights after it; Triplicane, Srivilliputhur, Thirukkoshtiyur and every Divya Desam in the state open their gates the same morning, and many Tamil families call the day Mukkodi Ekadasi.
- Kerala
- Kerala keeps it as Swargavathil Ekadasi at Sree Padmanabhaswamy in Thiruvananthapuram and the Vishnu temples, with the northern door opened; Guruvayur's own great Ekadasi falls a month earlier, in Vrischikam.
- Telugu
- The Telugu country keeps it as Mukkoti Ekadasi, with the Vaikuntha Dwaram at Tirumala opened for the days that follow and the uttara dwara darshanam at Bhadrachalam and the other Vishnu temples.
- Kannada
- Karnataka keeps Vaikuntha Ekadashi at the Venkateshwara and Ranganatha temples, where a vaikuntha dwara is opened or built for the day, with the fast broken on the Dwadashi.
- North India
- The north keeps the same Ekadashi under the name its month gives it, Pausha Putrada or in some years Mokshada, as an Ekadashi fast without the gate.
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.
Greeting
What is said to family and friends on the day
இனிய வைகுண்ட ஏகாதசி நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள்Iniya Vaikunta Ekadasi nalvazhthukkal
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Vaikunta Ekadasi and the Chithirai Brahmotsavam are its days.
- Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Brahmotsavam in Purattasi and Vaikunta Ekadasi are its days
- Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu
The entry for this day names Srirangam. The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. The Paramapada Vasal, the gate of Vaikuntha, is opened before dawn at Srirangam and the other Vishnu temples, and the deity passes through it while the Tiruvaimozhi is sung
- Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Vaikunta Ekadasi and the Chithirai festival are its days
- Mandya, Karnataka
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Vaikunta Ekadasi is its day.
- Mandya, Karnataka
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Vaikunta Ekadasi 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.
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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.