A period · Ashadha Shukla 11 to Kartika Shukla 11 · amanta reckoning
Sat, 25 Jul – Fri, 20 Nov
Chaturmas 2026 runs from Saturday, 25 July to Friday, 20 November — 119 days. Today is day 94 of 119. It opens on Ekadashi of Shukla paksha and closes on Dev Uthani Ekadashi.
2027: Wednesday, 14 July to Wednesday, 10 November 2027
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Saturday, 25 July to Friday, 20 November 2026
Chaturmas is a period, not a day. It opens on Shukla paksha tithi 11 of Ashadha and closes on Dev Uthani Ekadashi, Shukla paksha tithi 11 of Kartika, in the amanta reckoning. Both ends are computed each year, so the Gregorian dates move by up to a month between years, and so can the number of days between them.
The first and last days are each computed from the Moon and the Sun for New Delhi, so the length of the period is an answer rather than a constant: a tithi that is skipped or repeated inside it moves the last day without changing what the period is.
Chaturmas, the four months, is a season of restraint and devotion rather than a single puja. It runs from Devshayani Ekadashi, when Vishnu is said to lie down on the serpent Shesha in his yogic sleep, to Dev Uthani (Prabodhini) Ekadashi, when he wakes. In New Delhi it begins on Saturday, 25 July 2026 and ends about four months later on Dev Uthani Ekadashi. Families give up certain foods month by month, keep weddings and other samskaras for after it, and add japa, reading and charity to their days; sannyasis and Jain monks stay in one place for the season.
| Muhurat | Time in New Delhi | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Devshayani Ekadashi: the observance begins | 9:13 AM (24 Jul) to 11:34 AMWhen Ekadashi, the festival's tithi, begins and ends. | Chaturmas opens on Devshayani Ekadashi, Ashadha Shukla Ekadashi, when Vishnu is laid to rest; the Ekadashi's span on the opening day is shown. It closes about four months later on Dev Uthani Ekadashi, Kartika Shukla Ekadashi. In a year with an extra lunar month (adhik maas) inside it, the season stretches to five months. |
| Sunrise: the sankalp | 5:38 AMThe upper edge of the Sun on the horizon, with refraction. | Take the Chaturmas sankalp after the morning bath on the opening day, naming what you will give up and what you will keep up through the four months. |
| Brahma muhurta: the daily practice | 4:15 AM to 4:56 AMThe 14th of the night's fifteen muhurtas, ending one muhurta before sunrise. | The hour before dawn, for the bath, japa and reading that the season asks for, every day of the four months. |
| Pradosh: the evening lamp | 7:16 PM to 9:21 PMFrom sunset for three night muhurtas (a fifth of the night). | Many keep an evening lamp before Vishnu or the tulsi plant through the season, and above all in Kartika, its last month. |
Every time above is computed for New Delhi around Saturday, 25 July 2026, from the sunrise, sunset and the positions of the Sun and Moon for this city. The Vedic day runs sunrise to sunrise, so a window whose clock time falls after midnight still belongs to the evening before; a time on another date carries that date.
On the opening day, worship Vishnu, lay his image on a small bed with a yellow cloth if that is your family's custom, and resolve before him what you will observe: a food you will give up, a practice you will keep, a scripture you will read. Keep the vow within what your health allows.
The classical scheme takes one thing away each month: leafy greens in Shravana, curd in Bhadrapada, milk in Ashwin, and urad and most dals in Kartika. Many also keep away from onion, garlic, brinjal and radish for the whole season, and all keep away from meat and alcohol. Follow as much of it as your family does.
Bathe early, offer water to the Sun, light a lamp before Vishnu or the tulsi, and do japa: Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya, or the name you hold dear. Many read the Vishnu Sahasranama, the Bhagavata, the Ramcharitmanas or the Gita a little each day.
The season holds nine Ekadashis, counting the two that open and close it (eleven in a year with an adhik maas). Many who fast on no other Ekadashi keep these.
Those keeping the full vow eat once a day, sleep on the floor or a simple bed, eat in silence, and keep celibacy; many households simply eat simpler food and spend less on themselves.
Weddings, the sacred thread ceremony, a child's mundan and moving into a new home are traditionally held over until after Dev Uthani Ekadashi. Festivals are not: Raksha Bandhan, Janmashtami, Ganesh Chaturthi, Navratri and Diwali all fall within Chaturmas and are kept with joy.
Charity is the season's other half: food, grain and clothes to those who need them, and lamps (deep daan) in Kartika. Many give away, at the end, the very thing they gave up.
On the closing Ekadashi, Vishnu is woken with conch, bells and the Uttishthottishtha Govinda verse, and in many homes the tulsi plant is married to Vishnu as Shaligram (Tulsi Vivah) that day or soon after. The vow is completed with an udyapan: a puja, food for a priest or the needy, and gifts, and the wedding season opens.
सुप्ते त्वयि जगन्नाथ जगत्सुप्तं भवेदिदम् ।
विबुद्धे त्वयि बुध्येत जगत्सर्वं चराचरम् ॥
Supte tvayi jagannatha jagat suptam bhaved idam
vibuddhe tvayi budhyeta jagat sarvam characharam
Meaning: When you sleep, O Lord of the world, this world sleeps; when you wake, the whole world, moving and unmoving, wakes.
When and how: Said on Devshayani Ekadashi as Vishnu is laid to rest, at the start of the sankalp. The Bhavishya Purana gives it for laying Vishnu to rest.
उत्तिष्ठोत्तिष्ठ गोविन्द त्यज निद्रां जगत्पते ।
त्वयि सुप्ते जगन्नाथ जगत्सुप्तं भवेदिदम् ॥
Uttishthottishtha Govinda tyaja nidram jagatpate
tvayi supte jagannatha jagat suptam bhaved idam
Meaning: Rise, rise, Govinda; give up your sleep, Lord of the world. While you sleep, O Lord of the world, this world sleeps.
When and how: Said on Dev Uthani Ekadashi with conch and bells, to wake Vishnu and close the season. These are the opening lines of the waking verse the Nirnaya Sindhu quotes from the Varaha Purana.
ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya
Meaning: Om: salutation to the Lord Vasudeva.
When and how: Daily japa, 108 times, through the four months. In the Bhagavata Purana, Narada teaches it to the boy Dhruva.
शान्ताकारं भुजगशयनं पद्मनाभं सुरेशं विश्वाधारं गगनसदृशं मेघवर्णं शुभाङ्गम् ।
लक्ष्मीकान्तं कमलनयनं योगिभिर्ध्यानगम्यं वन्दे विष्णुं भवभयहरं सर्वलोकैकनाथम् ॥
Shantakaram bhujaga-shayanam padmanabham suresham vishvadharam gagana-sadrisham megha-varnam shubhangam
Lakshmi-kantam kamala-nayanam yogibhir dhyana-gamyam vande Vishnum bhava-bhaya-haram sarva-lokaika-natham
Meaning: I bow to Vishnu, peaceful in form, lying on the serpent, lotus-navelled, lord of the gods, support of the universe, vast as the sky, dark as a rain cloud, beautiful of limb; beloved of Lakshmi, lotus-eyed, reached by yogis in meditation; who takes away the fear of worldly life, the one lord of all the worlds.
When and how: A morning meditation on Vishnu resting on Shesha, the very image of Chaturmas. A traditional dhyana verse, recited among the opening verses of the Vishnu Sahasranama.
ॐ नमः शिवाय
Om Namah Shivaya
Meaning: Om: salutation to Shiva.
When and how: Shravana, the first month of the season, belongs to Shiva; many add this japa through it. The words namah shivaya come from the Shri Rudram of the Yajurveda.
The Puranas picture Vishnu, at the start of the rains, lying down on the coils of the serpent Shesha in the ocean of milk, in yoga nidra, the sleep that is meditation rather than rest. The four months of that sleep are Chaturmas, and Vishnu wakes on Kartika Shukla Ekadashi, which is why it is called Prabodhini, the awakening, or Dev Uthani, the gods' rising.
One telling links the sleep to King Bali. When Vishnu, as the dwarf Vamana, took the three worlds from Bali in three strides, he was so moved by Bali's generosity that he granted him a boon, and agreed to stay with him in the underworld. Lakshmi won him back, and Vishnu is said to keep his promise for four months each year, the months of Chaturmas.
Popular belief adds that while Vishnu sleeps, Shiva watches over the world, which is why Shravana, the first month of the season, is Shiva's month of worship, and why, just after the season ends, Hari and Hara are worshipped together on Vaikuntha Chaturdashi in Kartika.
The season was always a time of staying put. In the rains the roads turned to mud, rivers flooded, and countless small creatures came out on the earth, so wandering monks, Hindu and Jain alike, stopped travelling and stayed in one place, teaching. That custom, chaturmasya, is kept by sannyasis and Jain monks to this day.
Chaturmas is a season for turning inward. While Vishnu rests, the household too keeps things simple: fewer pleasures at the table, fewer celebrations of its own, more prayer, reading and giving. It is not an inauspicious time; the year's greatest festivals fall inside it. Only the samskaras that begin a new chapter of life, above all weddings, are held over for Vishnu's waking.
Tradition also explains the rules plainly. In the rainy months, digestion is weaker, leafy greens carry insects, and milk and curd spoil quickly; the month-by-month restraints follow the season's health as much as its devotion.
It is kept across traditions in its own way: by Vaishnava households with the month-by-month fasts, by ISKCON and other Gaudiya Vaishnavas as Chaturmasya, by Swaminarayan devotees with extra niyams, by sannyasis who stay in one place from Guru Purnima, and by Jain monks and nuns, for whom the season of staying put also holds Paryushan.
Choose one food or habit you will give up for the four months, and give its value or the thing itself to someone in need at the end. Tradition counts the restraint itself as the offering.
Light a lamp at the tulsi plant each evening, and above all through Kartika, the season's last month.
Read a chapter of the Ramcharitmanas, the Bhagavata or the Gita each day. Finishing a whole text across the season is an old practice.
Chant Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya 108 times each morning through the four months.
Fast, or eat simply, on the nine Ekadashis of the season.
Give food, grain and clothes through the season; tradition holds charity in Chaturmas especially fruitful.
Two years back, this year, and two ahead. Past years are kept rather than dropped so you can check the engine against a calendar you already have.
| Year | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Wednesday, 17 July to Tuesday, 12 November 2024 | past |
| 2025 | Sunday, 6 July to Sunday, 2 November 2025 | past |
| 2026This year | Saturday, 25 July to Friday, 20 November 2026 | upcoming |
| 2027 | Wednesday, 14 July to Wednesday, 10 November 2027 | upcoming |
| 2028 | Sunday, 2 July to Saturday, 28 October 2028 | upcoming |
Every row is computed for New Delhi from the same ephemeris, not looked up. Sunrise decides which day a tithi names, and sunrise differs across India by more than an hour, so a date computed for Delhi can be a day out elsewhere.
There is no single authority that settles a Hindu festival date, and the divergence is genuine rather than sloppy. Three causes account for almost all of it.
So this page shows its working. If your pandit or your family almanac gives a different day, the instants above will usually show you exactly why — and that is more useful than a date asserted without one.
In New Delhi, Chaturmas begins on Saturday, 25 July 2026, Devshayani Ekadashi, and ends about four months later on Dev Uthani (Prabodhini) Ekadashi in Kartika. In a year with an adhik maas inside it, it lasts five months. The opening and closing Ekadashis have their own pages with their parana times.
Three honest reasons. The tithi can be running at the deciding moment on two days or on none. North India reckons the month purnimanta and the south and west amanta, which names the same krishna fortnight differently. And almanacs differ on which moment of the day decides an observance. The instants above are the astronomy; the day is an interpretation of them.
Chaturmas, the four months, is the season of Vishnu's yogic sleep, from Devshayani Ekadashi to Dev Uthani Ekadashi. It is an observance rather than a puja: families give up certain foods, hold weddings over until it ends, and add japa, reading, fasting and charity to their days.
Take a sankalp on Devshayani Ekadashi; keep food sattvik; follow the month-by-month restraints as far as you can; keep the Ekadashis; read, chant and give; and keep weddings, the sacred thread, mundan and griha pravesh for after Dev Uthani Ekadashi. Festivals inside the season are celebrated as usual.
Meat and alcohol, for all who keep it; for many, onion, garlic, brinjal and radish too. Those keeping the full vow give up leafy greens in Shravana, curd in Bhadrapada, milk in Ashwin, and urad and most dals in Kartika.
Traditionally, no: weddings and the other samskaras that open a new chapter of life are held over until Vishnu wakes on Dev Uthani Ekadashi, when the wedding season begins. Some communities and many families today are flexible; follow your family's custom and your priest.
On Dev Uthani Ekadashi, Kartika Shukla Ekadashi, about four months after it begins on Saturday, 25 July 2026. Vishnu is woken with conch and bells, Tulsi Vivah follows, and the wedding season opens.
Ashadha Shukla Ekadashi, the day Vishnu lies down to his four months of yogic sleep and Chaturmas begins: it is also called Ashadhi or Padma Ekadashi, and Hari Shayani. In New Delhi it falls on Saturday, 25 July 2026; its own page gives the fast and the parana.
Kartika Shukla Ekadashi, Prabodhini, when Vishnu wakes and Chaturmas ends. Homes draw the gods' feet on the floor, set up a canopy of sugarcane, and wake him with conch, bells and song; Tulsi Vivah and the wedding season follow. Its own page gives the date and the parana.
For Jain monks and nuns, the four months of the rains when they stop travelling and stay in one place, so as not to harm the life that fills the earth in the wet season, and teach the community. It begins around Ashadha's full moon and holds Paryushan within it.
As Chaturmasya, with the month-by-month fasts: no leafy greens in the first month, no yogurt in the second, no milk in the third, and no urad dal in the fourth, Kartika, which closes the season with lamps offered to Damodara each evening. Temples publish their own start and end dates.
A daily practice of japa, prayer and reading; the Ekadashi fasts; simpler food; and charity in food, grain, clothes and, in Kartika, lamps. Many give up one food or habit for the four months and give it away at the end.
No. It is a season of restraint, not of ill luck: Raksha Bandhan, Janmashtami, Ganesh Chaturthi, Navratri and Diwali all fall within it. Only the samskaras that begin a new chapter of life, like weddings and moving into a new home, are traditionally held over.
Popular belief says Shiva does, which is why Shravana, the first month of Chaturmas, is given to Shiva's worship. Vishnu's sleep is yoga nidra, a meditative rest, not neglect; the world is never left unattended.
Nine, counting Devshayani Ekadashi that opens it and Dev Uthani Ekadashi that closes it; eleven in a year with an adhik maas. Many keep these fasts even if they keep no other Ekadashi.
