01What Devutthana Ekadashi is
Devutthana Ekadashi is the Ekadashi of the bright half of Kartik, kept in late October or in November. Its name means the day the god rises: the tradition holds that Vishnu, asleep since Devshayani Ekadashi in Ashadha, wakes on this day, and the four months of Chaturmas end. It is also called Dev Uthani and Prabodhini Ekadashi, the Ekadashi of awakening. With Vishnu awake, the season of weddings and new beginnings opens again, which makes it one of the most widely kept Ekadashis of the year.
It is the Kartik Shukla Ekadashi in both ways of naming the lunar months.
02The story told of it
The tradition tells two accounts of the sleep that ends today. In one, Vishnu, after long labour in the worlds' protection, rests on the serpent Shesha in the ocean of milk while Lakshmi attends him, and the gods gather on this day to wake him with music and praise. In the other, which goes back to Vamana, Vishnu promised the king Bali to stay with him in the lower realm for four months of each year, and returns from there on Devutthana. Both make the day a joyful homecoming.
03How the fast is kept
Households wake Vishnu in the evening: the image of his feet is drawn in rice flour or chalk, sugarcane is set up in a canopy, seasonal produce is offered, and he is woken with conch, bells and the song Uttho Deva. Chaturmas vows end. In many homes the marriage of Tulsi to Vishnu as Shaligrama, Tulsi vivah, is performed on this day or the next. In Maharashtra it is Kartiki Ekadashi, with a second great gathering at Pandharpur. The fast is the ordinary one, from sunrise to the next day's parana.
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 lasts until 12:08 on 21 November, past the end of Pratahkal, and Madhyahna is avoided, so parana moves to the afternoon: from 13:11 to 15:18 on 21 November.
- Sunrise06:48 on 21 Nov
- Hari Vasara ends12:08 on 21 November
- Parana window13:11 – 15:18
- Dwadashi ends04:57 on 22 November
05Why this day, and why dates differ
This year the Ekadashi tithi begins after one sunrise and ends before the next, so it touches no sunrise at all. Such a tithi is kept on the day it begins, 20 November.
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.
06Devutthana Ekadashi in other years
- 2026Friday, 20 November · parana 13:11 to 15:18
- 2027Wednesday, 10 November · parana 06:40 to 08:50
- 2028Saturday, 28 October · parana 13:11 to 15:25
