Bhadrapada Mahalaya Amavasya 2026 Date
Bhadrapada Mahalaya Amavasya 2026 is on Saturday, 10 October 2026, on Amavasya tithi.
Dates are for India (IST). Tithi timings for your city are on the Bhadrapada Mahalaya Amavasya page.
About Bhadrapada Mahalaya Amavasya
The closing day of the fortnight Hindus reserve for ancestors. The Garuda Purana names this new moon as the one occasion when a single Shraddha appeases every forefather — known and unknown, named and forgotten — which is why it is also called Sarvapitri or Sarvapitra Moksha Amavasya.
By tradition the pitrus descend to earth at the start of Pitru Paksha and leave on this Amavasya, so the day is treated as their farewell. Tarpan is offered with water mixed with black sesame, barley and kusha grass, and food is set out for crows, cows, dogs and a Brahmin before the family eats. Regional colour varies sharply. In Bengal the same dawn opens Durga Puja with the Mahishasura Mardini recitation. In Maharashtra households cook Puran Poli and other festive dishes for the meal. Along the Ganga, Godavari and Kaveri, riverbanks fill with men performing tarpan waist-deep in water. In parts of Mumbai, Dhora and Kathkari families place an unpeeled coconut on the household altar — it stands in for the ancestor being honoured.
