Ekadashi 2026 — dates, names and fasting

What Ekadashi is

The lunar month runs thirty tithis. The eleventh tithi of each fortnight is Ekadashi, and it is kept for Vishnu. The Padma, Vishnu and Bhagavata Puranas all describe it as the day on which a devotee’s sankalpa reaches Vaikuntha most directly.

Twelve lunar months of two fortnights give twenty-four Ekadashis in an ordinary year. 2026 is not ordinary: it carries an Adhik Jyeshtha, an intercalary month, which adds Padmini and Parama and makes the year’s full count twenty-six.

The 2026 dates

Twenty-four of the twenty-six are listed below. A year with an adhika masa carries 26 Ekadashis rather than 24, and 2026 has Adhik Jyeshtha. This table lists 24, including the two Adhik Maas Ekadashis, so two ordinary Ekadashis in the Jyeshtha window are missing from it. We have not filled them in from inference: a fast is something a reader acts on, and a guessed festival date is not something this page will publish. The two entries will be added once they are confirmed against a panchanga. Until then, treat May and June as the part of this calendar to cross-check against your own panchanga.

Padmini is the shukla-paksha Ekadashi of the adhika month and Parama the krishna-paksha one, which is the assignment this table follows and which matches the paksha column. Some published 2026 calendars swap them, putting Parama on 27 May and Padmini on 11 June. We have kept the paksha-based assignment and are flagging the disagreement rather than presenting either as settled; check your own panchanga before observing one of the two specifically.

Why your date may differ

These are Sunrise tithi (the Ekadashi current at sunrise for the stated city) dates for Bengaluru, India, compiled on 2026-06-15.

Tithi boundaries shift by one to three days with location and with panchanga tradition — North Indian, South Indian, ISKCON, Vaishnava and Smarta reckonings can differ on the same year. These are one city’s dates. For a fasting decision, and especially for Nirjala, confirm against your own regional panchanga or your family priest.

There is no single national Ekadashi date, and a page that gave you one would be simplifying something real away. Two households in different cities can both be right.

Regional names, including “Mothi Ekadashi”

Several Ekadashis carry different names in different languages, and one of them causes real confusion in search.

Mothi Ekadashi (मोठी एकादशी)

Literally "the big Ekadashi". It is the day Vishnu awakens from the four months of Chaturmas, which is why Maharashtra keeps it as the major one; the same day is called Prabodhini, Devutthana, Devuthani and Kartiki elsewhere, and Tulsi Vivah begins from it.

In 2026 it falls on 20 Nov 2026. It is not Mokshada, which falls in December and is a different observance entirely.

The identification rests on one named Marathi-language source. The day’s other names are corroborated independently, but if your family uses "Mothi Ekadashi" for a different day, follow your family.

Other names carried in the table above:

• Devshayani (25 Jul 2026) — Ashadhi Ekadashi (Maharashtra); Hari Shayani Ekadashi
• Parsva (22 Sep 2026) — Parivartini Ekadashi
• Devutthana (20 Nov 2026) — Prabodhini Ekadashi; Kartiki Ekadashi; Mothi Ekadashi — मोठी एकादशी (Marathi); Devuthani Ekadashi

Fasting — three levels

• Nirjala — No food and no water, from Dashami sunset to Dwadashi sunrise. The strictest form. Tradition holds that keeping Nirjala alone carries the merit of all the year’s Ekadashis.
• Phalahara — Fruit, milk, sabudana and water. Grains, beans, onion and garlic are set aside.
• Saatvik — One light vegetarian meal without grains, beans, onion or garlic.

Health permitting, keep the level you can sustain across the year rather than the strictest one once. The Padma Purana is explicit that the devotee’s sankalpa weighs more than the rigour of the fast.

Parana — breaking the fast

The fast is broken on Dwadashi morning, within a window called parana. Breaking it before the window opens or after it closes is held to forfeit the fast’s merit, and the window depends on sunrise and on the tithi’s end — so it is a per-city time, not a national one.

Open the panchang for your city to see the parana window for a specific date.

Sevas offered on Ekadashi

• Vishnu archana — sahasranama parayana where possible, ashtottara otherwise.
• Tulasi pooja — water, kumkuma and akshata at the tulasi, with lamps at sunset.
• Bhagavad Gita parayana — the whole text, or one chapter each Ekadashi.
• Annadana — offered on Dwadashi morning, at parana.
• Go seva — feeding cows, with jaggery and tulasi leaves.

Offer a Vishnu seva for an Ekadashi · Vratas through the year