Pitru Paksha 2026 Dates — Every Shradh Tithi With Its Timing

For sixteen days each year, from the purnima of Bhadrapada to the amavasya of Ashwin, Hindu families turn their attention to their ancestors. The pitru paksha 2026 dates for your chosen year are at the top of this page, computed from the actual tithi boundaries rather than taken from a printed calendar.

The fortnight is not mournful. It is closer to an annual obligation discharged with care - water offered, food shared, and a portion set aside for the crow, the cow and the dog. The tradition holds that the ancestors descend to the earthly realm for these days and return at the end of the amavasya, and that what is offered reaches them.

What is avoided during the fortnight is beginnings: weddings, house entries, new businesses, major purchases. Ordinary life, work, travel and daily worship continue without change - a point often exaggerated in modern retellings.

Shradh is performed on the tithi on which the person died, not on the anniversary of the calendar date. That is the single most important thing to understand about the fortnight, and it is why a list of shradh dates 2026 tithi wise is more useful than a list of dates alone.

Find the tithi of your ancestor's death in the table above and it gives you this year's date. Where two tithis fall on one day - which happens when a tithi is short - both are marked, and the family performs the rite on that single day.

Three tithis carry special assignment. Chaturdashi is reserved for those who died an unnatural death - accident, violence, suicide. Navami, called Matri Navami, is for the mother and the women of the family. And Bharani Panchami is kept for anyone who died in the year just past.

The fortnight closes with the amavasya of Ashwin, known as Sarva Pitru Amavasya and also as Mahalaya Amavasya. It is the most important day of the sixteen, and for many families the only one they observe.

Its function is practical. Shradh on the correct tithi assumes you know the tithi, and a great many families do not - records were not kept, or a generation passed without the knowledge being transmitted. The sarva pitru amavasya date serves for every ancestor whose tithi is unknown, for anyone whose day was missed, and for the family line as a whole.

In Bengal, Mahalaya carries a second meaning entirely: it marks the invitation to Durga to descend, and the pre-dawn recitation of the Mahishasura Mardini is one of the most recognisable broadcasts in the Indian calendar. The two observances sit on the same day without conflict - ancestors in the morning, the goddess invoked as the day turns.

The date for your chosen year is the last row of the shradh table above, with its tithi timings.

The tarpan vidhi and timing matter more than the scale of the ceremony. Shradh belongs to the afternoon - the aparahna kaal, the eighth to twelfth of the fifteen parts into which the daylight is divided. Performing it in the morning is specifically avoided.

Within the afternoon, kutup muhurat - the eighth part, roughly a forty-eight minute window a little before midday's end - is held to be the most suitable, followed by rohina muhurat. Both are computed for your city on this page from your own sunrise and sunset, and they shift by a few minutes over the sixteen days.

The rite itself is not complicated. The performer wears the sacred thread over the right shoulder, faces south, and offers water mixed with black sesame through kusha grass held in the hand, naming three generations of ancestors. Pind daan follows where it is performed - rice balls with sesame, ghee and honey. A meal is then offered to brahmins or to anyone in need, with cloth and dakshina.

The part no family skips is the food set aside for the crow, the cow and the dog before anyone eats. The crow in particular is held to carry the offering, and its arrival is taken as acceptance.

1. The fortnight located. The purnima of Bhadrapada and the amavasya of Ashwin are computed from the Sun's sidereal position and the Moon's elongation, fixing the sixteen days for any year.

2. Each tithi placed. Every tithi from purnima through amavasya is tracked to the minute, and assigned to the day on which it prevails at your city's sunrise.

3. Muhurat from your own day. Sunrise and sunset for your latitude and longitude divide the daylight into fifteen parts, giving kutup, rohina and aparahna windows in local time.

Nothing on this page is taken from a fixed list. As a shradh tithi calculator it recomputes everything for the year and city you choose, which is why it holds for any year rather than only the current one.

Shradh addresses three generations on the father's side - father, grandfather and great-grandfather - and three on the mother's, named in the offering. Beyond them, the offering extends to the whole line through the general formula, and on the final amavasya to every ancestor without distinction.

The performer is traditionally the eldest son, and after him any son, then a grandson, then a brother, nephew or the closest male relative in the line. Where no son exists the tradition provides for a daughter or her son, and modern practice has widened this considerably - daughters performing shradh for parents is now common and accepted in most communities, including at Gaya.

One detail families often ask about: the mother's shradh is performed on her tithi like anyone else's, but Matri Navami - the ninth tithi of the fortnight - is set aside for all the women of the line, whether or not their individual tithis are known. Similarly, anyone who died in the year just past may be remembered on Bharani Panchami.

For those who died by accident, violence or suicide, Chaturdashi is the assigned tithi, and the rite is performed without the usual celebratory elements.

Gaya in Bihar holds the foremost position for pind daan, and the sixteen days of Pitru Paksha see the Gaya Shradh Mela draw lakhs of families. The tradition holds that a shradh performed at the Vishnupad temple and on the banks of the Falgu releases the ancestors permanently, so that annual rites become unnecessary - though most families continue them anyway.

Prayagraj at the Sangam, Haridwar, Varanasi, Nasik, Ujjain and Rameswaram all carry their own standing for these rites, and each has priests who maintain family registers going back generations - the pandas at Haridwar and Gaya in particular, whose ledgers let a visiting family trace their own line by village and surname.

But the rite does not require travel. Performed at home, by a river, or even with a bowl of water on a terrace facing south, the tarpan is complete if done with attention on the correct tithi at the correct hour. A priest helps with the mantras; his absence does not invalidate the offering. What families in cities most often do is a simple home tarpan on the tithi, food given to someone in need, and a portion set out for the crow.

Is Pitru Paksha inauspicious? No, and this is the most common misunderstanding. It is a period of obligation, not of ill fortune. What is avoided is beginnings - weddings, house entries, new ventures - because attention belongs elsewhere for sixteen days. Work, travel, study, medical treatment and daily worship all continue normally.

Can we celebrate a birthday or buy something needed? Necessities are bought without concern. Celebrations are usually kept small or moved. A birthday in the family is generally marked quietly rather than skipped.

What if both parents are alive? Then no shradh is performed for them, but the rite for grandparents and earlier generations continues if the responsibility falls to you.

What if we missed the tithi? Sarva Pitru Amavasya on the last day covers it. This is precisely why that day exists.

Do we need a priest? Helpful, not essential. Tarpan with water and black sesame, a meal offered to someone in need, and the portion for the crow, cow and dog constitute a complete observance in every tradition.

This Pitru Paksha & Shradh dates 2026 list answers the six questions people search most — Pitru Paksha & Shradh today, types of Pitru Paksha & Shradh, Pitru Paksha & Shradh rules what not to do, mrityu Pitru Paksha & Shradh dates, Pitru Paksha & Shradh kab hai — each with the rule behind it. The Pitru Paksha & Shradh dates 2026 list above computes your own result free; the sections below explain what it means, and a Pitru Paksha & Shradh dates 2026 list that shows its working is one you can check against any astrologer.

Pitru Paksha & Shradh 2026 List — Every Period to the Minute

The Pitru Paksha & Shradh dates 2026 list above gives the start and end of every period in IST with its type.

Pitru Paksha & Shradh Today — Yes or No, and Until When

Pitru Paksha & Shradh today is shown at the top of the result and in the form.

Types of Pitru Paksha & Shradh — the Weekday Decides

Types of Pitru Paksha & Shradh are named from the weekday the period begins: Sunday Roga, Monday Raja, Tuesday Agni, Friday Chora and Saturday Mrityu, with Wednesday and Thursday unnamed. The timeline colours each period by its type so the serious ones stand out.

Pitru Paksha & Shradh Rules What Not to Do — the Five Classical Restrictions

Pitru Paksha & Shradh rules what not to do come down to five things: laying a roof, gathering wood or fuel, making a bed, travelling south, and a cremation without Pitru Paksha & Shradh shanti. Daily work, office and most rituals continue as normal.

Mrityu Pitru Paksha & Shradh — the One to Plan Around

Mrityu Pitru Paksha & Shradh dates are those that begin on a Saturday - the type families take most seriously. Risky work, long journeys and new beginnings are best kept outside it.

Pitru Paksha & Shradh Kab Hai — Is Mahine Ka Pitru Paksha & Shradh

Pitru Paksha & Shradh kab hai ka jawab upar hai: aaj Pitru Paksha & Shradh hai ya nahi, agla Pitru Paksha & Shradh kab se kab tak, aur uska prakar. Poore saal ki list aur har Pitru Paksha & Shradh ka shuru-ant samay minute tak diya gaya hai.

If you came to this Pitru Paksha & Shradh dates 2026 list to check a result from another app, compare the degree, not just the sign — two tools using different ayanamsas will disagree by about a sign near boundaries. This Pitru Paksha & Shradh dates 2026 list prints Lahiri, the value used, and every intermediate step, so the Pitru Paksha & Shradh dates 2026 list result can be verified line by line.