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Krishna paksha · Pausha · amanta reckoning
Tue, 2 Feb
Shattila Ekadashi 2027 is on Tuesday, 2 February. Parana, breaking the fast, is on 3 February, 7:08 AM to 9:18 AM in New Delhi.
2028: Saturday, 22 January 2028
Parana (breaking the fast), 3 Feb 2027
7:08 AM – 9:18 AM
Also called Shat Tila Ekadashi, Sattila Ekadashi, Shatila Ekadashi. 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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Tuesday, 2 February 2027
| Timing | New Delhi | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Parana (breaking the fast), 3 Feb 2027 | 7:08 AM to 9:18 AM | The window is the first fifth of the daylight (pratahkala). |
Shattila Ekadashi is not a Gregorian date. It is Krishna paksha tithi 11 of Pausha 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.
Sunrise in New Delhi falls at 7:08 AM 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 sunrise, so it belongs to the day whose sunrise the tithi carries — not simply to the day the tithi begins.
Shattila Ekadashi is the Ekadashi of the dark (krishna) half of Magha in the purnimanta reckoning used across North India, and of Pausha in the amanta reckoning used in the south and west. It is the same night: the two calendars name the dark fortnight after different months.
Every day above is computed for New Delhi from the same tithi instants. ISKCON temples publish their own calendar for each city and also apply the Mahadvadashi rules, which can move a fast to Dwadashi in some years — where your temple's calendar differs, follow it.
Shattila Ekadashi is the Ekadashi of the dark fortnight of Magha in the purnimanta reckoning — Pausha Krishna in the amanta one — in the cold of January. Shat-tila means "six ways with sesame": sesame is used in the bath water, rubbed on the body as a paste, offered in the fire, mixed in the water given to the ancestors, eaten, and given away. The day is kept for Vishnu, and above all for charity of food.
Retold in brief from the Bhavishyottara Purana, in Krishna's Ekadashi-mahatmya to Yudhishthira.
A brahmin widow lived a life of strict devotion. She kept every vrat, fasted until her body was thin, and gave generously to brahmins and temples — but she never once gave anyone food.
To test her, Vishnu came to her door as a mendicant and asked for alms. Irritated, she dropped a lump of clay into his bowl, and he went away.
When she died, her austerities carried her to heaven, where she was given a beautiful house — and found it completely empty: no grain, no food, nothing. She went to Vishnu in distress, and he told her that she had fasted much but had never fed anyone, and that the only thing she had ever put in a beggar's bowl was the lump of clay that had built her house.
He told her what to do: when the wives of the gods came to see her, she should not open her door until they had told her how to keep the Shattila Ekadashi. She did so, kept the fast with its six uses of sesame, and her house filled with grain and every good thing. Krishna tells Yudhishthira that on this day sesame and food given away return many times over.
Fasting customs are described here as tradition, not as medical advice. Consult a doctor before fasting, particularly if you are pregnant, diabetic, elderly or on medication.
Twenty-four in an ordinary year, two more in a year with an adhika month. Each has its own page with its katha, parana and Smarta and Vaishnava dates.
The next Ekadashi and its parana · every Ekadashi of 2027 with tithi and parana times
Shattila Ekadashi is the Ekadashi of sesame: it is kept for Vishnu with sesame used six ways and with gifts of food, the lesson of its katha. In New Delhi it falls on Tuesday, 2 February 2027: the fast runs from sunrise to parana on Dwadashi, 3 Feb, 7:08 AM to 9:18 AM. It is the Ekadashi of Magha Krishna in North India (Pausha Krishna in the amanta calendar), in the cold weeks around Makar Sankranti.
| Muhurat | Time in New Delhi | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Parana: the time to break the fast | 3 Feb, 7:08 AM to 9:18 AMThe morning of Dwadashi (the first fifth of the day), Hari Vasara having ended overnight. | The window on Dwadashi, the morning after the fast, in which Shattila Ekadashi is completed. It opens once Hari Vasara is over and normally closes with the first part of the morning; when Hari Vasara runs late it moves past midday, and it never runs beyond the end of Dwadashi. The time shown is computed for New Delhi. |
| Hari Vasara ends | 5:51 PMThe end of the first quarter of Dwadashi; the fast is never broken inside it. | Hari Vasara is the first quarter of Dwadashi. The fast is not broken inside it, even when it is already morning, so its end in New Delhi is the earliest moment parana can begin. |
| Brahma Muhurta | 5:23 AM to 6:16 AMThe 14th of the night's fifteen muhurtas, ending one muhurta before sunrise. | The hour before dawn on the Ekadashi day, the traditional time to wake, bathe and take the sankalp of the fast. |
| Sunrise | 7:08 AMThe upper edge of the Sun on the horizon, with refraction. | The fast is counted from sunrise on Ekadashi to parana on Dwadashi, and the morning puja begins after it. |
| Auspicious choghadiya (day) |
| The day's Amrit, Shubh, Labh and Chal periods. Families who cannot worship at dawn choose one of them for the main puja. |
| Pradosh Kaal: the evening lamps | 6:01 PM to 8:38 PMFrom sunset for three night muhurtas (a fifth of the night). | The evening after sunset, when lamps are lit before Vishnu and beside the tulsi and the aarti is sung again. |
| Nishita Kaal: the night vigil | 3 Feb, 12:08 AM to 1:00 AMThe 8th of the night's fifteen muhurtas, around the middle of the night. | The middle of the night, the heart of the jagran. Those who keep the night awake give this part of it to kirtan and japa. |
| Rahu Kaal (to avoid)Kept clear of | 3:18 PM to 4:39 PMRahu's eighth of the daylight, fixed by the weekday: a puja, a purchase or a journey is not begun in it. | The weekday's Rahu Kaal on the Ekadashi day in New Delhi. Many families avoid beginning the sankalp or the main puja inside it; it does not change the fast itself or the parana window. |
| Window | Time in New Delhi | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Abhijit Muhurat | 12:13 PM to 12:56 PM | Auspicious |
| Amrit Kaal | 5:13 AM to 7:01 AM | Most Auspicious |
| Brahma Muhurat | 5:23 AM to 6:16 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 | 3:18 PM to 4:39 PM |
| Yamaganda Kaal | 9:51 AM to 11:13 AM |
| Durmuhurta First | 9:19 AM to 10:02 AM |
Every time above is computed for New Delhi around Tuesday, 2 February 2027, 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.
Every Ekadashi is kept the same way: one sattvic meal on Dashami, the sankalp at dawn, Vishnu puja with tulsi, the katha and aarti, lamps at dusk, the night vigil and parana on Dwadashi. Those steps are in the Ekadashi vrat vidhi. Below are the steps Shattila Ekadashi adds or words its own way.
Rise early and rub a paste of sesame (ubtan) on the body, then bathe in water with a few sesame seeds in it: the first two of the day's six uses of sesame. Put on clean clothes; yellow is traditional for Vishnu.
Sit before the altar, hold a little water and a flower in your right hand and resolve to keep the vrat: say your name, that you are keeping Shattila Ekadashi for Vishnu, and how you will fast, whether without water, on water alone, on fruit or with one phalahar meal. Then let the water fall. The Ekadashi sankalpa verse in the mantra section can be said here.
Offer til-gur laddoos or sesame with jaggery, fruit and panchamrit, with a tulsi leaf on each. Sesame is the day's offering; nothing made with grain is offered or eaten.
Read or listen to the Shattila Ekadashi vrat katha below, and the Vishnu Sahasranama or a chapter of the Gita if you can. Then sing Om Jai Jagdish Hare with a ghee lamp or camphor, and ask pardon for any mistake made in the puja.
If you keep a small havan, offer sesame mixed with ghee into the fire 108, 28 or 11 times, chanting Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya and adding svaha at each offering. Homes without a fire leave out the homa; the other five uses of sesame remain.
At midday, facing south, pour water mixed with black sesame from cupped hands in the name of your ancestors, as the tarpan use of sesame, saying the verse to the ancestors in the mantra section.
Next morning bathe, worship Vishnu briefly and give sesame, a sesame sweet, grain or a blanket to someone in need; the katha's lesson is that food given away matters most. Then break the fast in the parana window with a tulsi leaf and water, or a little sesame, saying the parana verse.
The puja samagri every Ekadashi uses (an image of Vishnu, tulsi picked on Dashami, a ghee lamp, yellow flowers, panchamrit, Ganga jal and the rest) is in the Ekadashi samagri list. For Shattila Ekadashi, add:
The verses every Ekadashi uses, from the dhyana and sankalpa verses to the parana verse, and the Om Jai Jagdish Hare aarti are in the Ekadashi guide's mantras and aarti. Shattila Ekadashi's own:
ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय
Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya
Meaning: Om, salutation to the Lord Vasudeva, Vishnu as the one who dwells in all beings. It is the mantra Narada taught the boy Dhruva in the Bhagavata Purana.
When and how: 108 times on a tulsi mala in the puja; for the sesame homa, the same mantra with svaha added at each offering into the fire.
देवताभ्यः पितृभ्यश्च महायोगिभ्य एव च ।
नमः स्वधायै स्वाहायै नित्यमेव नमो नमः ॥
Devatabhyah pitribhyash cha mahayogibhya eva cha
Namah svadhayai svahayai nityam eva namo namah
Meaning: Salutation to the gods, to the ancestors and to the great yogis; salutation to Svadha and to Svaha, always, again and again. A verse widely recited at shraddha.
When and how: Three times at the shraddha offering, with water and black sesame, before the fast's merit is dedicated to the pitrs.
The question this day puts to a devout person is pointed: have you fed anyone? The widow of its katha fasted all her life and found her heavenly house bare, because the only thing she ever put in a beggar's bowl was a lump of clay. So whatever else is done, families make sure someone eats because of them: a meal for a neighbour, til-gur for the children, grain for a temple kitchen. Krishna's word in the katha is that food and sesame given today come back many times over.
It falls in the season of sesame and jaggery that Makar Sankranti opens, a few days before Mauni Amavasya, the great silent bath of the Magh Mela, and some ten days before Basant Panchami. Cold makes the charity practical: a blanket, a warm meal or a sesame lamp for someone who has none is as much the vrat as the fast itself.
Keep all six uses the day is named for: sesame in the bath water, as ubtan, in the homa, in the water for the ancestors, in your phalahar and in your daan. Families who cannot do all six keep as many as they can.
The widow of the katha fasted for years and found her heavenly house empty because she never fed anyone. Give a meal, grain or fruit to someone in need today; it is the heart of Shattila.
Make til-gur laddoos, offer them to Vishnu and give them to family, neighbours and those who work for you; sharing sesame sweets is the season's way of giving.
Shattila comes in the cold of January. Giving a blanket with a packet of sesame and jaggery to someone sleeping out in the cold is a traditional daan of the day.
At midday pour water with black sesame for your ancestors, facing south. Tradition counts sesame water given to the pitrs among the day's six uses.
Light a lamp of sesame oil before Vishnu at dusk, in place of or beside the ghee lamp; sesame oil is the traditional lamp oil of the winter months.
What may be eaten on any Ekadashi, from fruit and sabudana to samak rice and the parana meal, is in the Ekadashi food list. Particular to Shattila Ekadashi:
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 | Tuesday, 6 February 2024 | past |
| 2025 | Saturday, 25 January 2025 | past |
| 2026This year | Wednesday, 14 January 2026 | past |
| 2027 | Tuesday, 2 February 2027 | upcoming |
| 2028 | Saturday, 22 January 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, Shattila Ekadashi falls on Tuesday, 2 February 2027, with Ekadashi tithi running 8:41 AM (1 Feb) to 11:10 AM. It is the dark-fortnight Ekadashi of Magha in the purnimanta calendar of North India, and of Pausha in the amanta calendar, so the same night carries two month names.
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.
Shattila Ekadashi is the Ekadashi of the dark fortnight of Magha in the purnimanta reckoning — Pausha Krishna in the amanta one — in the cold of January. Shat-tila means "six ways with sesame": sesame is used in the bath water, rubbed on the body as a paste, offered in the fire, mixed in the water given to the ancestors, eaten, and given away. The day is kept for Vishnu, and above all for charity of food.
It is told in the Bhavishyottara Purana, in Krishna's Ekadashi-mahatmya to Yudhishthira. The katha is retold in full above.
Not this year — both keep Tuesday, 2 February 2027. The Vaishnava rule reads Ekadashi at arunodaya, and Ekadashi already holds that day's arunodaya.
Either. Shattila always falls between the second week of January and the second week of February, so in some years it comes before Makar Sankranti and in some well after it. The date for New Delhi this time is Tuesday, 2 February 2027, and the table of years on this page shows the others.
Parana is on Dwadashi morning: in New Delhi, 3 Feb, 7:08 AM to 9:18 AM, after Hari Vasara ends (5:51 PM). In keeping with the katha, give sesame, a sesame sweet or food to someone first, then break the fast with water and a tulsi leaf or a little sesame.
A devout widow kept every vrat and gave generously to temples, but never gave anyone food. When Vishnu came to her door as a mendicant, she dropped a lump of clay in his bowl. After death her austerities won her a house in heaven, but it was empty. Vishnu told her why, and how to keep Shattila with its six uses of sesame; she kept it, and her house filled with grain and every good thing. The full katha is above.
It is the Ekadashi of Magha Krishna, named for six (shat) uses of sesame (tila): in the bath water, as ubtan, in the homa, in the tarpan to the ancestors, as food and as daan. Sesame is sacred in Vishnu worship and in the rites for the ancestors, and the katha ties the day above all to giving food, so sesame and charity run through the whole vrat.
On Shattila, yes: eating sesame is one of its six prescribed uses, so til-gur laddoos and sesame chikki made without flour are the day's own phalahar. Sesame is a seed, not a grain. Some Vaishnava households leave sesame out on other Ekadashis, so follow your tradition on those days.
The name is written in several ways, Shat-tila, Sattila and Shatila Ekadashi, all meaning six sesames. By month it is Magha Krishna Ekadashi in the purnimanta calendar of North India and Pausha Krishna Ekadashi in the amanta calendar of Maharashtra, Gujarat and the South.
Sesame first: black or white sesame, til-gur laddoos or sesame oil. With it go grain, a meal, warm clothes or a blanket for someone in the cold, and a lamp. Tradition says what is given on this day returns many times over; give what you can without strain, before your own parana.
Eat one meal on Dashami. On Ekadashi bathe with sesame ubtan and sesame water, take the sankalp and worship Vishnu with tulsi, yellow flowers and sesame, then read the katha. Offer sesame in a homa if you keep one, pour sesame water for the ancestors at midday, eat only phalahar with sesame, feed someone and keep part of the night awake. Break the fast in the parana window on Dwadashi.
Phalahar with sesame at its centre: til-gur laddoos, sesame chikki made without flour, fruit, milk, curd, sweet potato and makhana, with rock salt. Families whose custom allows them also make sabudana or singhara dishes. No rice, wheat or dal, and no onion or garlic, until the parana.
Yes; giving water with sesame to the ancestors is one of the day's six uses of sesame. At midday, facing south, pour water mixed with black sesame from cupped hands in their names, saying the verse to the ancestors from the mantra section. It is a simple remembrance, not a full shraddha.
They are separate days, one fixed by the Moon and one by the Sun's entry into Makara, but they share a season and a custom: both are kept with sesame and jaggery and with gifts of sesame to others. Shattila falls within a few weeks of Sankranti, before it in some years and after it in others.
