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
Bengal calendar, computed for Chennai
- Friday, 17 September 2027
- Sunday, 17 September 2028
- Monday, 17 September 2029
Where Vishwakarma Puja falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 17 Sep
- 2028: 17 Sep, 1 day later
- 2029: 17 Sep, 1 day earlier
The dates, year by year
Bengal calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The day of Vishwakarma, the architect and engineer of the gods, kept in every workshop, factory, garage and studio in Bengal. The machines and the tools are washed, marked with sindur, garlanded and left alone for the day, an image of the deity on his elephant is installed at the gate, and the workers are fed khichuri; kites go up over Kolkata and Howrah all afternoon. It is the one Bengali festival fixed by the Sun rather than the Moon, so it barely moves from the seventeenth of September.
- Deity
- Vishwakarma
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
Vishwakarma is the maker of the gods' world: he built Indra's city, golden Lanka and Krishna's Dwaraka, and when his daughter Sanjna could not bear the blaze of her husband the Sun, he set the Sun on his lathe and trimmed him, and from the shavings forged the Sudarshana chakra, Shiva's trident and the lance of Kartikeya. In Odisha he is said to have come as an old carpenter to carve Jagannath, and the images stand unfinished because the door was opened on him too soon. Bengal keeps him as the god of everyone who works with a tool, so the rickshaw, the loom, the lathe, the printing press and the bus are all worshipped on the same morning. The idea is a simple one: the thing that earns the house its bread is thanked once a year and given a day of rest.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Vishwakarma Puja: how it is kept
Keep ready
- sindur and sandal paste
- marigold garlands and mango leaves
- an image or picture of Vishwakarma
- a ghat of water with mango leaves
- flowers and durba grass
- a lamp and incense
- fruit and sweets
- kites and cotton thread
The steps
0 of 8 done
What is cooked
The workshop cooks for everyone: khichuri, labra, beguni, tomato chutney and payesh or a sweet, eaten sitting in rows, and the kite-flying afternoon runs on telebhaja and tea from the corner shop.
The hour
Clock times for Friday, 17 September 2027 at Chennai
The Kanya sankranti day, the last day of Bhadro; the puja is in the morning and the kites fly in the afternoon.
The main rite. The Kanya sankranti day, the last day of Bhadro, when the Sun enters Virgo; the puja is done in the morning, the machines rest for the rest of the day, and the kites go up in the afternoon.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Aparahna | 13:17 | the afternoon, three fifths of the daylight after sunrise |
Sunrise 05:58, sunset 18:09, 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 Dwitiyai from 05:52 until next day 06:44 | then Krishna Thritiyai until 2 days later, 07:10 |
| Nakshatra | Uttara Bhadrapada until 15:29 | then Revati until next day 16:48 |
| Rahu kaal | 10:32 to 12:03 (1 h 31 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 15:06 to 16:38 (1 h 31 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 07:29 to 09:01 (1 h 31 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:39 to 12:28 (0 h 49 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 18:55 | moonset next day 07:37 |
For Friday, 17 September 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
No fast is kept. Khichuri, labra and beguni are cooked at the workshop and eaten by everyone there.
What is avoided
No machine is run and no tool is used after the puja, and a tool is never stepped over or kicked, that day or any other. Kites are flown with cotton thread, not the glass-coated nylon manja, which is banned for the birds and the people it cuts.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, Assam and Tripura keep the Kanya sankranti; other parts of India keep Vishwakarma on other days, and the south keeps the same instinct at the Ayudha Puja of Navaratri.
In other regions
- North India
- Bihar, Jharkhand and the industrial towns of the Hindi belt keep the same sankranti; Delhi, Haryana and the Punjab keep their Vishwakarma Divas on the day after Diwali instead.
- Bengal (the dates above)
- Bengal keeps it in every factory, press, garage and taxi stand, with the kites thickest over the old roofs of north Kolkata and Howrah, and the jute mills and railway workshops along the river holding large pujas of their own.
- Assam
- Assam keeps the same sankranti in the tea gardens, the oil towns and the workshops of Guwahati, with the image installed at the factory gate.
- Nepal
- Nepal keeps Vishwakarma Puja on the same sankranti in its factories and workshops, and the buses, trucks and taxis are garlanded and marked with tika.
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 বিশ্বকর্মা পূজাShubho Bishwakarma Puja
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.