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Shukla paksha · Margashirsha · amanta reckoning
Wed, 23 Dec
Dattatreya Jayanti 2026 is on Wednesday, 23 December. In New Delhi the Dattatreya Jayanti muhurat is 5:30 PM to 8:14 PM.
2027: Monday, 13 December 2027
Dattatreya Jayanti muhurat
5:30 PM – 8:14 PM
Also called Datta Jayanti. Those are the same observance and the same date, so they share this page rather than competing with it from a second URL.
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Wednesday, 23 December 2026
Dattatreya Jayanti is not a Gregorian date. It is Shukla paksha tithi 15 of Margashirsha in the amanta reckoning, and the Gregorian day it lands on moves by up to a month between years because twelve lunations fall about eleven days short of a solar year.
Pradosh in New Delhi falls at 6:42 PM on that day, and that is the instant the tithi has to be running at for the day to carry the observance. It is computed for this city rather than assumed, because it is what decides the date.
The two instants above are the astronomy and are not in dispute. The day is an interpretation of them: this observance is decided at pradosh, so it belongs to the day whose pradosh the tithi carries — not simply to the day the tithi begins.
Dattatreya Jayanti (Datta Jayanti) marks the birth of Dattatreya, the son of Atri and Anasuya in whom Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are worshipped together. It is kept on Margashirsha Purnima, most widely in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Gujarat.
Datta Jayanti celebrates the birth of Dattatreya, the child of the sage Atri and his wife Anasuya, who unites Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva in a single form and is honoured as the Adi Guru, the first teacher. It is kept on Margashirsha Purnima, on the day the full moon holds at dusk, because Datta's birth is celebrated in the evening. In New Delhi it falls on Wednesday, 23 December 2026, and the pradosh kaal of the Datta janma is: 5:30 PM to 8:14 PM.
| Muhurat | Time in New Delhi | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Brahma muhurta | 5:20 AM to 6:15 AMThe 14th of the night's fifteen muhurtas, ending one muhurta before sunrise. | Devotees rise in this hour before dawn for the Purnima bath, in a river or temple tank where they can, and many begin the day's naam-jap or Gurucharitra reading. |
| Sunrise | 7:10 AMThe upper edge of the Sun on the horizon, with refraction. | Those who fast take the sankalp after sunrise in New Delhi, and Datta temples open the day with the abhishek of the padukas. |
| Auspicious choghadiya (day) |
| The day's Amrit, Shubh, Labh and Chal choghadiyas, which families use for the abhishek and puja of Datta's image or padukas before the evening's birth celebration. |
| Sunset | 5:30 PMThe upper edge of the Sun leaving the horizon. | Sunset in New Delhi opens the pradosh: have the cradle, flowers, gulal and sunthawada ready before it, since the janma is celebrated as dusk falls. |
| Pradosh kaal: the Datta janma | 5:30 PM to 8:14 PMPradosh kaal on the Purnima evening, while Purnima runs. | The span after sunset in which Datta's birth is celebrated while Purnima runs: the cradle is rocked, the palna is sung, flowers and gulal are showered, and the aarti follows. Temples and homes keep the janma in this window. |
| Moonrise | 4:36 PMThe first moonrise after this sunrise and before the next. | The full moon rises close to sunset on Purnima; those who keep the Purnima vrat offer water to the Moon, and many break the day's fast with the prasad after the janma. |
| Window | Time in New Delhi | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Amrit Kaal | 9:12 PM to 10:36 PM | Most Auspicious |
| Brahma Muhurat | 5:20 AM to 6:15 AM | Auspicious |
These are the spans classical muhurta sets aside for beginnings. They are descriptions of a convention, not warnings: the observance is kept on its day regardless, and nothing here needs to be bought, corrected or remedied.
| Window | Time in New Delhi |
|---|---|
| Rahu Kaal | 12:20 PM to 1:37 PM |
| Yamaganda Kaal | 8:27 AM to 9:45 AM |
| Durmuhurta First | 11:59 AM to 12:40 PM |
| Varjyam | 12:49 PM to 2:13 PM |
Every time above is computed for New Delhi around Wednesday, 23 December 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.
Rise early and bathe, with a Purnima dip in a river where you can, and take the sankalp to worship Datta; those who fast keep it until the evening janma.
Place an image of Dattatreya, three-headed and six-armed with the cow and four dogs, or his padukas, on a chowki spread with a clean cloth; keep audumbar leaves beside it if you can find them.
Light a ghee lamp and incense, and worship Ganesh with water, roli, rice and durva.
Bathe the padukas or image with panchamrit and then clean water, apply sandalwood paste, and offer flowers, tulsi leaves, incense and the lamp, chanting Digambara Digambara Shripad Vallabha Digambara.
Read the Gurucharitra, or at least its chapter on Datta's birth to Anasuya; families who began a seven-day reading of it complete it on this day, and many Gujarati homes recite the Datta Bavani.
Before sunset, decorate a small cradle with flowers and lay in it an image of Datta, or a coconut wrapped in a new cloth, as for a newborn.
In the pradosh kaal, rock the cradle and sing the palna, shower flowers and gulal, blow the conch and ring the bell, and call out Shri Gurudev Datta.
Sing the aarti Trigunatmaka traimurti and offer the naivedya: sunthawada, sweets, fruit and a simple sattvik meal.
Give food to the needy or to a sadhu, feed a cow and dogs, Datta's companions, and break the fast with the prasad.
दिगंबरा दिगंबरा श्रीपाद वल्लभ दिगंबरा
Digambara Digambara Shripad Vallabha Digambara
Meaning: O sky-clad one, O Shripad Shrivallabha, O sky-clad one: Datta called by his ascetic name Digambara, clothed only by the directions, and by the name of Shripad Shrivallabha, revered as his first incarnation in this age.
When and how: The best-loved Datta chant, sung in bhajans and repeated on a mala through the day, 108 times or more.
ॐ द्रां दत्तात्रेयाय नमः
Om Dram Dattatreyaya Namah
Meaning: Om, and dram, the seed syllable of Datta: salutation to Dattatreya.
When and how: 108 times on a mala during the puja or in the evening, with a steady mind.
ॐ दिगम्बराय विद्महे अवधूताय धीमहि ।
तन्नो दत्तः प्रचोदयात् ॥
Om Digambaraya vidmahe Avadhutaya dhimahi
Tanno Dattah prachodayat
Meaning: We know the sky-clad one and meditate on the Avadhuta, free of every bond; may Datta inspire and guide our minds. (Many families say 'Yogishvaraya dhimahi', a line from another Datta Gayatri.)
When and how: The Gayatri of the Datta Atharvashirsha; 11 or 108 times in the morning puja.
माला कमण्डलुरधः करपद्मयुग्मे मध्यस्थपाणियुगले डमरुत्रिशूले ।
यन्न्यस्त ऊर्ध्वकरयोः शुभशङ्खचक्रे वन्दे तमत्रिवरदं भुजषट्कयुक्तम् ॥
Mala kamandalur adhah kara-padma-yugme madhyastha-pani-yugale damaru-trishule
Yan-nyasta urdhva-karayoh shubha-shankha-chakre vande tam Atri-varadam bhuja-shatka-yuktam
Meaning: He whose lower lotus hands hold the rosary and water-pot, whose middle pair holds the damaru and trident, and whose upper hands hold the auspicious conch and discus: I bow to the six-armed one who granted Atri his boon. (Some texts read 'yasyasta' for 'yan-nyasta'; the meaning is the same.)
When and how: Said once before the puja, picturing Datta: the rosary and water-pot of Brahma, the damaru and trident of Shiva, the conch and discus of Vishnu.
गुरुर्ब्रह्मा गुरुर्विष्णुः गुरुर्देवो महेश्वरः ।
गुरुः साक्षात् परब्रह्म तस्मै श्रीगुरवे नमः ॥
Gurur Brahma Gurur Vishnuh Gurur Devo Maheshvarah
Guruh sakshat Parabrahma tasmai Shri Gurave namah
Meaning: The guru is Brahma, the guru is Vishnu, the guru is Lord Maheshvara; the guru is truly the supreme Brahman. To that guru, my salutation.
When and how: Said with folded hands on Datta Jayanti, for Datta is the guru in whom Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshvara are one.
त्रिगुणात्मक त्रैमूर्ती दत्त हा जाणा।
त्रिगुणी अवतार त्रैलोक्य राणा।
नेती नेती शब्द न ये अनुमाना।
सुरवर मुनिजन योगी समाधी न ये ध्याना॥
जय देव जय देव जय श्री गुरुदत्ता।
आरती ओवाळिता हरली भवचिंता॥
सबाह्य अभ्यंतरी तू एक दत्त।
अभाग्यासी कैंची कळेल ही मात।
पराही परतली तेथे कैंचा हेत।
जन्ममरणाचाही पुरलासे अंत॥
दत्त येऊनिया उभा ठाकला।
भावे साष्टांगेसी प्रणिपात केला।
प्रसन्न होऊनि आशीर्वाद दिधला।
जन्ममरणाचा फेरा चुकविला॥
दत्त दत्त ऐसें लागले ध्यान।
हरपले मन झाले उन्मन।
मी तू पणाची झाली बोळवण।
एका जनार्दनी श्रीदत्तध्यान॥
Trigunatmak traimurti Datta ha jana.
Triguni avatar trailokya rana.
Neti neti shabda na ye anumana.
Survar munijan yogi samadhi na ye dhyana.
Jai dev jai dev jai Shri Gurudatta.
Aarti ovalita harli bhavchinta.
Sabahya abhyantari tu ek Datta.
Abhagyasi kainchi kalel hi maat.
Parahi paratli tethe kaincha het.
Janmamaranachahi puralase ant.
Datta yeuniya ubha thakla.
Bhave sashtangesi pranipat kela.
Prasanna houni ashirvad didhla.
Janmamaranacha phera chukavila.
Datta Datta aise lagle dhyan.
Harpale man jhale unman.
Mi tu panachi jhali bolvan.
Eka Janardani Shri Dattadhyan.
Sant Eknath's Marathi aarti as it is commonly sung. It is not in the Gita Press Aarti Sangrah; the printed Marathi Aarti Sangrah linked here reads 'shabde' for 'shabda', 'janmamaranacha' for 'janmamaranachahi' and 'sadbhave sashtange' for 'bhave sashtangesi'. Printed text
Anasuya, wife of the sage Atri, was famed through the three worlds for her devotion to her husband. The popular telling says Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva came to test it: while Atri was away they arrived at the hermitage as ascetics and asked for food on a condition no devoted wife could accept, that she serve them unclothed.
Anasuya would not turn away a guest. By the power of her devotion, the three gods became infants before her; she fed them and rocked them to sleep as a mother would, and they stayed in her hermitage as her children.
When Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati came searching for their husbands and begged Anasuya to return them, she restored the gods to their own forms. Pleased, they offered her a boon, and she asked that they be born as her sons. In the form most loved in Maharashtra, the three were born together as Dattatreya, with three heads and six arms. In the Bhagavata Purana, after Atri's long penance, Brahma's portion was born as the Moon, Vishnu's as Datta and Shiva's as the sage Durvasa.
His name carries the story: the Lord told Atri, who longed for a son like him, that he had given (datta) himself to him, so he became Datta, and Atreya, the son of Atri. The Bhagavata counts him among Vishnu's avatars, the teacher of self-knowledge to Prahlada, King Alarka and others.
In the Bhagavata, an avadhuta, a free wandering ascetic whom tradition identifies with Datta, tells King Yadu that he learned from twenty-four gurus in nature: the earth taught him patience, the ocean calm, the honeybee to take a little from many flowers, and the spider how the Lord spins out the world and draws it back into himself. So Datta is honoured as the guru who learns from all of creation.
Datta Jayanti honours the guru. Dattatreya unites Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, creation, preservation and dissolution, in one form, and is worshipped as the Adi Guru, the lord of yogis and the model of the avadhuta, free of every bond. The Avadhuta Gita is ascribed to him, and the Tripura Rahasya is told as his teaching to Parashurama.
His image is itself a teaching: the cow behind him is read as the earth or the wish-granting Kamadhenu, the four dogs as the four Vedas, and the audumbar tree as his dwelling. Thursday is his day of the week, and his birthday falls on the full moon of Margashirsha, the month Krishna names as his own in the Gita.
In the Datta tradition of the Deccan, Shripad Shrivallabha of Pithapuram and Narasimha Saraswati of Karanja and Ganagapur are revered as his incarnations, their lives told in the Marathi Gurucharitra, and devotees see later saints such as Swami Samarth of Akkalkot in the same light.
Read the Gurucharitra, or its chapter on Datta's birth; families who keep the seven-day reading follow its traditional rules of purity and simple food.
Datta's cow and four dogs make feeding them a natural offering on his day; give rotis or grain with care, as tradition does.
Datta is the wandering ascetic who lives on alms, so giving food to a mendicant or a hungry person is counted as an offering to him.
Water an audumbar tree and walk around it chanting Datta's name; devotees hold that he dwells in its shade.
Chant Digambara Digambara Shripad Vallabha Digambara or Shri Gurudev Datta on a mala or in bhajan; it is kept as a prayer for guidance and peace, not as a promise of any outcome.
Datta learned from twenty-four gurus: touch your teacher's feet, thank someone who taught you, or begin learning something new on his birthday.
Many devotees take this day to begin a weekly Thursday worship of Datta, with his name and a simple offering.
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 | Saturday, 14 December 2024 | past |
| 2025 | Thursday, 4 December 2025 | past |
| 2026This year | Wednesday, 23 December 2026 | upcoming |
| 2027 | Monday, 13 December 2027 | upcoming |
| 2028 | Friday, 1 December 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, Datta Jayanti 2026 is on Wednesday, 23 December 2026, Margashirsha Purnima. Purnima runs 10:47 AM to 6:58 AM (24 Dec), and the Datta janma is celebrated in that evening's pradosh kaal: 5:30 PM to 8:14 PM.
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.
5:30 PM to 8:14 PM on 23 Dec 2026. That is the overlap of pradosh — the moment this observance is decided at — with Purnima itself, computed for New Delhi. Both halves matter: the window moves with your city's sunset, and the tithi can end inside it.
Datta is remembered as born at dusk, so the Jayanti is kept on the day Margashirsha Purnima holds at pradosh, after sunset. When Purnima begins during the day, that evening is the Jayanti, while calendars that count the tithi at sunrise may give the following day for the Purnima vrat and snan.
Tradition celebrates Datta's birth at dusk on Margashirsha Purnima, so temples and homes hold the janma in the pradosh kaal after sunset. In New Delhi that window is: 5:30 PM to 8:14 PM.
Dattatreya is the son of the sage Atri and Anasuya, worshipped as Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva in one form with three heads and six arms. He is honoured as the Adi Guru and the lord of yogis, and the Bhagavata counts him among the avatars of Vishnu.
Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva came to test Anasuya's devotion and asked her to serve them unclothed; by the power of her devotion she turned them into infants and cared for them as a mother. When the goddesses begged for their husbands, the gods were restored, and they granted Anasuya her wish that they be born as her sons.
The naam-jap Digambara Digambara Shripad Vallabha Digambara, the mantra Om Dram Dattatreyaya Namah, the Datta Gayatri and the dhyana verse of his six arms, with Gurur Brahma for the guru in whom the three gods are one. The texts and meanings are in the mantra section.
Trigunatmaka traimurti Datta ha jana, Sant Eknath's Marathi aarti with the refrain Jaya deva jaya deva jaya Shri Gurudatta, is sung in Datta temples and homes; it is given in full above.
Bathe and take the sankalp, worship Ganesh, then bathe Datta's image or padukas with panchamrit, offer sandalwood, flowers and tulsi, and read the Gurucharitra. At dusk, cradle the image or a coconut, sing the palna, shower flowers, sing the aarti and offer sunthawada, then feed a cow, dogs and the needy.
The Gurucharitra, the Marathi life of Shripad Shrivallabha and Narasimha Saraswati, is the central text: many families complete a seven-day reading on the Jayanti, and others read the chapter of Datta's birth. Many Gujarati homes recite the Datta Bavani, and those drawn to his teaching read the Avadhuta Gita.
Many devotees fast from sunrise until the evening janma, taking fruit, milk or sabudana if they need to, and break it with the prasad after the aarti. The fast is a devotion rather than a rule; follow your family's custom.
The palna is the cradle song sung at the moment of the janma, as Datta's image or a coconut is rocked in a decorated cradle. Marathi palnas for Datta are sung in temples and homes, and their words differ from one family and tradition to another.
Ganagapur in Karnataka; Narsobawadi, Audumbar, Karanja, Mahur and Akkalkot in Maharashtra; Pithapuram in Andhra Pradesh; and the Guru Dattatreya peak of Girnar in Gujarat are among the best-known places of Datta worship, and all draw pilgrims for the Jayanti.
Devotees of Swami Samarth of Akkalkot regard him as an incarnation of Datta, so his maths and temples celebrate Datta Jayanti with special worship, readings and prasad.
His three heads show Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva united, and his six hands carry their emblems. The cow is read as the earth or the wish-granting Kamadhenu, and the four dogs as the four Vedas, the knowledge that follows the guru wherever he goes.
No. The Jayanti follows Margashirsha Purnima, so its weekday changes from year to year. Thursday, Guruvar, is Datta's weekly day, and devotees worship him every Thursday as well.
