Rishi Panchami 2026 Date
Rishi Panchami 2026 is on Tuesday, 15 September 2026, on Panchami tithi.
Dates are for India (IST). Tithi timings for your city are on the Rishi Panchami page.
About Rishi Panchami
A women's vrat the day after Ganesh Chaturthi, kept to wash away Rajaswala Dosha — the ritual lapse of having touched people or kitchen objects during menstruation. Observers bathe at dawn, fast, and worship the seven sages alongside Arundhati, Vasishtha's wife.
The vrat is anchored in a katha that Brahma narrates to King Sitashva. A Brahmin named Uttanga of Vidarbha had a daughter who, in a past life, ignored the menstrual restrictions and touched cooking vessels — the resulting Rajaswala Dosha followed her into her next birth, and only the Rishi Panchami fast cleared it. So the day is less about generic sage-worship and more a specific atonement vrat. The puja is unusual in that Arundhati is invoked beside the seven sages — she is the faint companion star to Vasishtha in the Big Dipper, and the only woman placed in that constellation. The festival is especially big in Nepal, where it doubles as the closing day of the three-day Hartalika Teej fast. Note: Vyasa Purnima belongs to Ashadha Guru Purnima, not this day.
