01What Aja Ekadashi is
Aja Ekadashi is the Ekadashi of the dark half of Shravana in the amanta calendar, which purnimanta calendars place in Bhadrapada. It is kept in August or early September, in the late monsoon, a few days after Janmashtami. Aja means the unborn, a name of Vishnu as the one without beginning. The day is also called Annada Ekadashi, the giver of food. Its account, told by Krishna to Yudhishthira, belongs to King Harishchandra, the king the tradition remembers above all for never breaking his word.
Calendars that end the month at the new moon (amanta, used in the south and west) name it the Krishna Ekadashi of Shravana; those that end it at the full moon (purnimanta, used in the north) name it the Krishna Ekadashi of Bhadrapada. It is the same day.
02The story told of it
Harishchandra gave away his kingdom to keep a promise to the sage Vishvamitra, and to pay what he still owed he sold himself and his family into service. He worked for years as a servant far from his own city, never leaving his post and never complaining, though he grieved for all he had lost. The sage Gautama, passing by, saw his state and told him of the Ekadashi of this fortnight. Harishchandra kept it, and the account says his trials ended: his kingdom and his family were given back to him.
03How the fast is kept
Aja is kept in the ordinary Ekadashi way, a fast from sunrise to the next day's parana, with grains and beans left out even in the lighter forms, and the day given to Vishnu. Because the account is about truthfulness kept through hardship, the tradition stresses honesty in speech on the day, and many families tell Harishchandra's story aloud. The second name, Annada, gives the day its particular charity: food given to those who need it. Night kirtan before Vishnu is common, since the day falls inside Chaturmas.
04When to break the fast
The fast is broken on the morning after, the Dwadashi, and the tradition sets three limits on when. It must be after sunrise. It must not fall in Hari Vasara, the first quarter of Dwadashi. And it must be inside Dwadashi itself, ideally in Pratahkal, the first fifth of the daylight, and not in Madhyahna, the middle fifth. This time Hari Vasara ends at 17:56 on 28 August, before sunrise, so parana runs from sunrise at 05:57 to the end of Pratahkal at 08:31 on 29 August.
- Sunrise05:57 on 29 Aug
- Hari Vasara ends17:56 on 28 August
- Parana window05:57 – 08:31
- Dwadashi ends09:36 on 29 August
05Why this day, and why dates differ
It is kept on 28 August because the Ekadashi tithi is current at sunrise that morning (05:57).
Two things move an Ekadashi. The first is your city: the day is decided by sunrise, and sunrise in India differs by more than an hour from Kolkata to Ahmedabad, so a city can keep an Ekadashi a day apart from another when the tithi changes near dawn. Change the city above to see yours. The second is the tradition: the dates here are the Smarta ones most households follow. Vaishnava calendars, ISKCON's among them, judge the day from arunodaya, about an hour and a half before sunrise, and sometimes keep the fast a day later.
06Aja Ekadashi in other years
- 2026Monday, 7 September · parana 06:03 to 08:33
- 2027Saturday, 28 August · parana 05:57 to 08:31
- 2028Wednesday, 16 August · parana 13:44 to 16:21
