Ekadashi Dates 2026 — Every Fast, Its Name and Its Parana Time

Ekadashi falls twice each lunar month, on the eleventh tithi of the bright and dark halves. That makes twenty-four in an ordinary year, and twenty-five or twenty-six when an extra month is inserted. The ekadashi dates 2026 table above lists every one with its name, its lunar month, the exact minutes the tithi begins and ends, and the parana window for your own city.

Two things separate this list from a printed calendar. First, the timings are computed from the actual positions of the Sun and Moon rather than copied, so they hold for any year you choose and for any city. Second, the parana window - the period in which the fast must be broken - is calculated from your local sunrise together with the moment the tithi ends, which is the part most lists leave out entirely.

If you only need the next one, it sits at the top of the page in its own card with everything you need for that single day. The full year's list follows below it.

Each of the twenty-four has its own name, its own story and its own reason for being kept. The full ekadashi vrat list with names appears in the table above alongside the dates; here are the ones that matter most in practice.

The name comes from the lunar month and the paksha, not from the Gregorian month, which is why the same name falls on a different date each year. In an adhik maas year the repeated names carry the prefix Adhik, and the calculator marks them automatically.

Most families keep two or three rather than all twenty-four - commonly Nirjala, Devshayani, Devuthani and one connected to a family wish. Reading the ekadashi vrat list with names above makes it easy to pick the ones that matter to you and note them for the year.

The nirjala ekadashi date falls in the bright half of Jyeshtha, usually in late May or June - the hottest weeks of the Indian year, which is precisely the point. Nirjala means without water, and the fast is kept from sunrise to the parana the next morning without food or drink of any kind.

The story attached to it concerns Bhima, who could not manage the other twenty-three because of his appetite. Vyasa told him to keep this one alone, and that doing so would give him the merit of all of them. For that reason it is also called Bhimseni or Pandava Ekadashi, and it draws far more keepers than any other.

A practical note, because the heat is real. Anyone with blood pressure issues, diabetes, kidney problems or who works outdoors should keep the phalahar form instead, and the tradition has always allowed that. Water is permitted for the ill, the elderly and children without any loss of merit - the texts are explicit about it.

The nirjala ekadashi date for your chosen year is marked in the main table, and the parana window matters more on this day than any other, since the fast has run a full twenty-four hours without water by then.

Knowing when to break ekadashi fast is where most people go wrong, and the rule is specific. The fast is broken on Dwadashi, the day after, after sunrise and after the ekadashi tithi has ended - and within the first quarter of the day, which works out to roughly two and a half hours from sunrise.

Two conditions must both be met. If the tithi is still running at sunrise, you wait until it ends before eating. If the tithi ended overnight, you may break the fast any time in the window from sunrise onwards. Eating before the tithi ends, or after the window closes, is traditionally held to cancel the merit of the fast.

There is one exception worth knowing. On Hari Vasara - the first quarter of Dwadashi - the parana is delayed until it passes. Where that applies, the window shown on this page already accounts for it, since both the tithi end and the sunrise are computed for your city.

What to eat first is a matter of custom rather than rule. Most families break the fast with water and tulsi, then something simple - fruit, curd rice, or a light meal. Heavy or fried food immediately after a twenty-four-hour fast is a poor idea whatever the tradition says.

The ekadashi fasting rules are simpler than their reputation. The core prohibition is grains - rice, wheat, all pulses and beans. Onion, garlic and non-vegetarian food are avoided, and observance begins the previous evening on Dashami with a single light meal before sunset.

Within that, three levels exist. Nirjala is without water. Phalahar allows fruit, milk, curd, nuts, root vegetables such as potato and sweet potato, and flours made from water chestnut or buckwheat. Simple abstention - just avoiding grains and keeping the day quiet - is entirely acceptable, and is what most working people do.

Beyond food, the ekadashi fasting rules ask for restraint generally: no anger, no gossip, no sleeping in the day, and no cutting hair or nails. Reading the Vishnu Sahasranama, keeping a lamp lit and staying awake at night are the positive observances, none of them compulsory.

The one rule that is genuinely firm is the parana, covered above. Everything else scales to what a person can manage - a point the texts make repeatedly and which modern retellings tend to forget.

1. The tithi, exactly. The angle between the Moon and the Sun is tracked through the year with the Swiss Ephemeris in the sidereal zodiac; the moments the eleventh tithi begins and ends are found to the minute.

2. The day of observance. The fast is kept on the day the tithi prevails at your city's sunrise, which the calculator determines from your latitude and longitude rather than assuming.

3. The name. The lunar month is derived from the Sun's sidereal position - and for the dark half, from the following purnima - giving the correct classical name for every date, with adhik maas handled automatically.

4. The parana window. The next day's sunrise and the tithi's end are combined to give the exact window in which the fast should be broken, in your local time.

Allowed. Fruit of every kind, milk, curd, paneer and ghee. Potato, sweet potato, arbi, raw banana and pumpkin. Kuttu (buckwheat), singhara (water chestnut) and rajgira (amaranth) flours. Sabudana, makhana, dry fruits and nuts. Sendha namak - rock salt - rather than ordinary table salt. Tea, coffee and plain water where the fast is not nirjala.

Not allowed. All grains without exception - rice, wheat, maida, suji, oats, corn. All pulses and beans, including besan. Onion and garlic. Ordinary salt. Non-vegetarian food, eggs, alcohol. Honey is avoided by some traditions and accepted by others.

The reasoning behind the grain prohibition is worth knowing. The classical explanation holds that the sins of the world take refuge in grains on ekadashi. The practical one is that a grain-free day gives the digestive system a monthly rest, which is roughly what a modern nutritionist would say about a fortnightly light day.

Sabudana khichdi, kuttu ki puri with aloo, singhare ka halwa and fruit chaat are the standard dishes. A caution worth adding: a fast kept on fried sabudana and sweets is not much of a fast physically, whatever the ritual position. Fruit, milk and water serve the purpose better.

Occasionally a panchang shows ekadashi on two consecutive days, or two families in the same town keep it on different days. This is not an error, and the reason is worth understanding.

The tithi is a moving thing - it begins and ends at a particular minute, and it may span two sunrises or none. Smarta households, following one set of rules, keep the fast on the first day the tithi touches sunrise. Vaishnava households follow a stricter rule that requires the tithi to be unbroken by dashami at sunrise, which sometimes pushes their observance to the second day.

Where the difference arises, the Vaishnava date is often called Vaishnava Ekadashi in panchangs and printed a day later. Both are correct within their own tradition. This page follows the common smarta rule - the day the tithi prevails at sunrise in your city - which is what most north Indian families use.

The same ambiguity explains why an online list and your family priest may differ by a day. If your family has always kept it on a particular convention, follow that; the tithi times given here let you check either rule yourself, since both the start and end minute are shown.

Most people keeping ekadashi today are working, commuting and managing a household through it, which the classical texts did not have to consider. A few practical adjustments make the difference between a fast kept well and one abandoned by evening.

Prepare the night before. The Dashami meal before sunset is not a formality - it is what carries you through. Eat properly, and keep fruit and milk ready for the next day so you are not making decisions while hungry.

Hydrate if you are not keeping nirjala. Water, coconut water and milk are allowed in the phalahar form, and the texts nowhere require dehydration.

Know when to stop. Anyone on regular medication, with diabetes, low blood pressure, or who is pregnant or nursing should keep the lightest form or skip it entirely. Every classical source permits this without any loss of merit - the rule is explicit, not a modern concession.

Finally, keep the parana window in view. After a full day without grain, the body will accept a light break-fast far better than a heavy one, and the tradition's insistence on doing it early in the morning happens to be good advice physiologically as well.

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