Tulsi Vivah 2026 Date

About Tulsi Vivah

Tulsi Vivah stages a full Hindu wedding between the courtyard Tulsi plant and a Shaligram stone — the ammonite fossil that stands in for Vishnu. Held at dusk on Kartika Shukla Dwadashi, it ends Chaturmas and opens the year's marriage season.

The backstory explains the strange pairing. Vrinda's devotion to her husband, the asura Jalandhara, made him unbeatable in war. To kill him, Vishnu took Jalandhara's form and tricked her — she cursed Vishnu to become a black stone (the Shaligram) and was reborn as the Tulsi plant, with the promise that he would accept no offering without her leaves. The wedding repays that promise each year. In Maharashtra a white cloth, the Antahpata, is held between plant and stone while the priest chants the Mangalashtaka; on the last verse the cloth drops, guests shower coloured rice, and the crowd cheers as at any human wedding. Couples without a daughter often sponsor the rite and play the bride's parents, giving Tulsi away in Kanya Daan. Prasada is the season's first harvest — sugarcane, coconut sweets, peanuts.