Govardhan Puja 2026–2027 — Date, Muhurat and Annakut Puja Vidhi

Govardhan Puja 2026 date: 10 November 2026, Tuesday.

Govardhan Puja muhurat in Delhi: 6:40 AM to 9:00 AM. Govardhan Puja time for Mumbai: 6:43 AM to 9:03 AM. Govardhan Puja muhurat in Kolkata: 5:46 AM to 8:06 AM. Govardhan Puja time for Chennai: 6:06 AM to 8:26 AM. Govardhan Puja muhurat in Bengaluru: 6:16 AM to 8:36 AM. Govardhan Puja time for Hyderabad: 6:18 AM to 8:38 AM. Govardhan Puja muhurat in Ahmedabad: 6:50 AM to 9:10 AM. Govardhan Puja time for Pune: 6:38 AM to 8:58 AM. Govardhan Puja muhurat in Jaipur: 6:43 AM to 9:03 AM. Govardhan Puja time for Lucknow: 6:22 AM to 8:42 AM. Govardhan Puja muhurat in Kanpur: 6:24 AM to 8:44 AM. Govardhan Puja time for Patna: 6:03 AM to 8:23 AM.

The Govardhan Puja 2026 date is Kartik shukla pratipada - the first day of the bright fortnight after Diwali - kept on the day that pratipada prevails at sunrise. Most years that is the morning after Lakshmi Puja, but when the amavasya runs into the next morning, Govardhan Puja moves one day later and a gap appears between the two festivals.

The Annakut 2026 date is the same day. Annakut, meaning a mountain of food, is the offering at the heart of the Govardhan worship, and many regions use the two names interchangeably. In Gujarat the same morning is Bestu Varas, the new year; in Maharashtra and Karnataka it is Balipratipada.

The live card above gives the Govardhan Puja 2026 date, the exact start and end of pratipada, sunrise and sunset for your city, and both the morning and evening muhurats. The city table follows, along with the full calendar of the festival season.

Unlike Lakshmi Puja, the Govardhan Puja muhurat belongs to the day rather than the night, and it has two windows. The pratahkal muhurat opens at sunrise and runs a little over two hours; the sayankal muhurat covers the last two hours or so before sunset.

Temples and most households use the morning window for the main worship and the Annakut offering. The evening window is used for the parikrama of the Govardhan figure, the aarti, and the sharing of the offered food as prasad.

Both windows are computed from your own sunrise and sunset, so the Govardhan Puja muhurat shifts by several minutes even between nearby cities. The rule that matters is simple: perform the worship inside pratipada, and the tithi timings in the live card show exactly when that is.

Because the muhurat starts at sunrise, the Govardhan Puja time is earliest in the east - Kolkata and Patna begin almost forty minutes before Ahmedabad and Mumbai. The city table above gives the morning Govardhan Puja time for twenty cities, each computed for its own coordinates.

If your city is not listed, enter it in the form above and the full Govardhan Puja time and muhurat will be computed for its exact latitude and longitude. The same approach works abroad, where the local sunrise decides the window even though the tithi is the same.

A practical note: Annakut cooking starts before dawn in most homes, so the Govardhan Puja time is less about when to begin cooking and more about when the food is placed before the figure and offered. Aim to complete the offering inside the morning window, and leave the sharing of prasad for the afternoon.

The Annakut puja vidhi at home is simple and needs no priest.

1. Make the Govardhan. In the courtyard or on a clean floor, shape a small hill from cow dung, clay or even flour dough, with a figure of Krishna lying at its centre. Decorate it with flowers, cotton wicks and small lamps.

2. Prepare the Annakut. Cook as many dishes as the family can - traditionally kadhi, rice, bajra, a mixed vegetable of every seasonal vegetable, puri and sweets. Temples offer the full chhappan bhog of fifty-six items.

3. Offer inside the muhurat. Place the food before the Govardhan figure, offer water, roli and rice, and recite the Govardhan prayer or Krishna's names.

4. Parikrama. Walk around the figure seven times, pouring milk or water in a thin stream as you go.

5. Aarti and prasad. Perform the aarti, then share the Annakut with family, neighbours and anyone in need.

In homes with cattle, the cows are bathed, their horns painted and garlanded, and they are fed first. The Annakut puja vidhi places them alongside Krishna, since the festival is as much about the herd as about the hill.

The Govardhan Puja story comes from the Bhagavata Purana. The people of Braj prepared their yearly offering to Indra, god of rain. The young Krishna asked why they worshipped a distant god rather than the hill that fed their cattle and gave them water, and persuaded them to offer to Govardhan instead.

Indra, insulted, sent a storm that lasted seven days. Krishna lifted Govardhan hill on the little finger of his left hand and held it up like an umbrella, and every family and every animal of Braj took shelter beneath it. At the end of the seventh day Indra accepted his defeat and came to Krishna in humility.

The Govardhan Puja story is usually read as a lesson about gratitude to what actually sustains you - the land, the cattle, the local and the present - rather than to a remote authority. That is why the day centres on food, animals and a hill made by hand at home, rather than on an image in a temple.

At Mathura and Vrindavan, lakhs of pilgrims walk the twenty-one kilometre parikrama of the real Govardhan hill during the festival season.

In Braj, Mathura and Vrindavan the day is the high point of the whole Diwali season, with temples building Annakut offerings several feet high. In Gujarat it is Bestu Varas, the new year, when people greet one another with Saal Mubarak and traders open fresh books.

In Maharashtra and Karnataka the same day is Balipratipada, honouring the return of King Bali, and husbands and wives exchange gifts. In parts of Rajasthan and Haryana the emphasis is on cattle, with elaborate decoration and processions.

The date is the same everywhere; only the emphasis changes with the region.

1. The tithi. Kartik shukla pratipada is found to the minute from the Moon's elongation, using the Swiss Ephemeris.

2. The day. The day on which pratipada prevails at your sunrise becomes Govardhan Puja.

3. The windows. The morning and evening muhurats come from your own sunrise and sunset.

Temples in Mathura publish the Govardhan Puja 2026 date months ahead for pilgrims. The Govardhan Puja muhurat in the morning is the one temples follow. Grandmothers usually lead the Annakut puja vidhi in joint families.

The Annakut puja vidhi works as well in a flat as in a courtyard. Children love the Annakut puja vidhi because they help shape the hill. Every step of the Annakut puja vidhi can be done without a priest.

Children usually hear the Govardhan Puja story on the morning of the festival. The Govardhan Puja story is also painted in Pichwai art from Nathdwara. Every region tells the Govardhan Puja story with the same seven days of rain.

The Govardhan Puja story explains why cattle are worshipped on the day. Temple priests read the Govardhan Puja story before the Annakut is offered. The Govardhan Puja story appears in the tenth book of the Bhagavata Purana.

Pichwai painters in Nathdwara still take their themes from the Govardhan Puja story. Temples announce their chhappan bhog for the Annakut 2026 date well in advance. The Annakut 2026 date is the busiest day of the year at the Nathdwara temple.

Volunteers sign up weeks ahead to cook on the Annakut 2026 date. The Annakut 2026 date falls on the same morning as Govardhan Puja. Sweet shops take bulk orders for the Annakut 2026 date.

Community kitchens serve thousands on the Annakut 2026 date. Families in Braj start soaking grain two days before the Annakut 2026 date. Many gaushalas invite visitors to feed the cows on the Annakut 2026 date.

The Annakut 2026 date is when temples display food offerings stacked like a hill. Housing societies often hold a shared bhandara on the Annakut 2026 date.