01What Apara Ekadashi is
Apara Ekadashi is the Ekadashi of the dark half of Vaishakha in the amanta calendar, which purnimanta calendars place in Jyeshtha. It is kept in May or early June, in the hottest part of the year, about a fortnight before Nirjala Ekadashi. Apara means boundless or without limit, and the tradition uses the name for the merit it ascribes to the day. It is also called Achala Ekadashi, the unmoving one. The form of Vishnu worshipped on it is Trivikrama, Vamana in the three strides that measured the worlds.
Calendars that end the month at the new moon (amanta, used in the south and west) name it the Krishna Ekadashi of Vaishakha; those that end it at the full moon (purnimanta, used in the north) name it the Krishna Ekadashi of Jyeshtha. It is the same day.
02The story told of it
The account Krishna gives Yudhishthira concerns King Mahidhwaja, a just ruler whose envious younger brother Vajradhwaja did him a grave wrong in secret. The sage Dhaumya, learning what had happened, kept Apara Ekadashi himself and offered its merit to the king, and the account says Mahidhwaja found peace through it. The tradition takes two things from the story: that the day's merit is boundless, as its name says, and that an Ekadashi may be kept on behalf of someone else, which is why some families still keep Apara for a relative who cannot keep it.
03How the fast is kept
Apara is kept as a fast from sunrise to the next day's parana, with grains and beans left out even in the lighter forms, and worship of Vishnu as Trivikrama. Because the sage in the account kept the day for another, the tradition sees nothing unusual in offering an Ekadashi's merit to someone else, and some families do so on Apara. In the heat of late Vaishakha, the tradition commends giving water and cooling food. Families keep a lighter form when age, pregnancy or a doctor's advice calls for it.
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 15:23 on 1 June, before sunrise, so parana runs from sunrise at 05:24 to the end of Pratahkal at 08:10 on 2 June.
- Sunrise05:24 on 2 Jun
- Hari Vasara ends15:23 on 1 June
- Parana window05:24 – 08:10
- Dwadashi ends08:29 on 2 June
05Why this day, and why dates differ
It is kept on 1 June because the Ekadashi tithi is current at sunrise that morning (05:24).
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.
06Apara Ekadashi in other years
- 2026Wednesday, 13 May · parana 05:31 to 08:14
- 2027Tuesday, 1 June · parana 05:24 to 08:10
- 2028Saturday, 20 May · parana 05:27 to 08:11
