Sayana Ekadashi 2026 Date
Sayana Ekadashi 2026 is on Saturday, 25 July 2026, on Ekadasi tithi.
Dates are for India (IST). Tithi timings for your city are on the Sayana Ekadashi page.
About Sayana Ekadashi
On Ashadha Shukla Ekadashi (June–July), Vishnu lies down on the serpent Shesha in the Ocean of Milk for a four-month sleep. This opens Chaturmas — the season when weddings and new rites pause until he wakes on Prabodhini Ekadashi in Kartika.
The Bhavishyottara Purana ties this day to King Mandhata of the Ikshvaku line. A three-year drought scorched his kingdom; Sage Angira told him the cure was not punishment but the Padma Ekadashi fast. The rains returned, and the vrat entered the calendar. Two regional observances make the day famous. In Maharashtra it is Ashadhi Ekadashi — the climax of the Pandharpur Wari, a 17-day foot pilgrimage of warkaris walking to the shrine of Vithoba, a local form of Vishnu. In Madhva Vaishnava mutts, sannyasis undergo Tapta Mudra Dharana — branding the shoulders with heated metal stamps of Vishnu's conch and discus to mark the start of Chaturmas. The day also falls just after the Jagannath Rath Yatra at Puri, linking it to one of the year's largest Vishnu festivals.
