01What Kamada Ekadashi is
Kamada Ekadashi is the Ekadashi of the bright half of Chaitra, kept in March or April, a few days after Rama Navami. Since the lunar year begins with Chaitra, it is the first Ekadashi of the new year, and it falls in the warm, clear weeks of spring after the Navratri of Chaitra. Kamada means the giver of what is wished for, and the tradition names the day for that: its account is about a wish made for someone else and kept faithfully. The day is given to Vishnu, worshipped in many homes as Vasudeva.
It is the Chaitra Shukla Ekadashi in both ways of naming the lunar months.
02The story told of it
The account is one Krishna tells Yudhishthira, repeating what the sage Vasishtha told King Dilipa. In the city of Bhogipura, ruled by King Pundarika, a gandharva named Lalit sang at court while his thoughts were with his wife Lalita, and his song faltered. The king, offended, cursed him to take the form of a rakshasa. Lalita followed him into the forest and asked the sage Shringi for a remedy. He told her of the Ekadashi of Chaitra's bright half; she kept it, offered its merit to her husband, and the account says Lalit was restored to his own form.
03How the fast is kept
Kamada 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. What the tradition makes particular is the intention: because Lalita kept the day for her husband, many keep Kamada with a sankalpa, a stated purpose, for a member of the family. Worship is offered to Vishnu in the morning with Tulsi leaves, flowers and a ghee lamp, and the evening is often given to kirtan or a reading of the day's account.
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 Dwadashi ends at 07:43, inside Pratahkal, so parana must be finished by then: from 05:53 to 07:43 on 18 April.
- Sunrise05:53 on 18 Apr
- Hari Vasara ends15:02 on 17 April
- Parana window05:53 – 07:43
- Dwadashi ends07:43 on 18 April
05Why this day, and why dates differ
It is kept on 17 April because the Ekadashi tithi is current at sunrise that morning (05:54).
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.
06Kamada Ekadashi in other years
- 2026Sunday, 29 March · parana 06:14 to 07:10
- 2027Saturday, 17 April · parana 05:53 to 07:43
- 2028Wednesday, 5 April · parana 13:39 to 16:11
