01What Shattila Ekadashi is
Shattila Ekadashi is the Ekadashi of the dark half of Pausha in the amanta calendar, which purnimanta calendars place in Magha. It is kept in January or early February, in late winter, near Makar Sankranti, when sesame is the food of the season. Shat means six and til is sesame: the name records the rule of the day, which is to use sesame in six ways. The account is told by Krishna to Yudhishthira, who asks the sage Pulastya's teaching on the day as it was given to Dalbhya.
Calendars that end the month at the new moon (amanta, used in the south and west) name it the Krishna Ekadashi of Pausha; those that end it at the full moon (purnimanta, used in the north) name it the Krishna Ekadashi of Magha. It is the same day.
02The story told of it
The account tells of a devout brahmin woman who kept every fast and vow but never gave food to anyone. Vishnu came to her door as a mendicant to test her, and she put a lump of clay in his bowl. The account says that, in time, her merit earned her a beautiful house, but one with nothing in it. When she asked why, she was told it was the fruit of her clay. On the counsel she was given, she kept Shattila Ekadashi, giving sesame and grain, and her house was filled.
03How the fast is kept
The six uses of sesame are the heart of the day: a bath in water with sesame, rubbing the body with a paste of sesame, offering sesame into the sacred fire, offering water mixed with sesame, eating sesame, and giving sesame in charity. Because sesame is a seed and not a grain, til laddus and other sesame sweets suit even those who keep the fast with food. The fast runs from sunrise to the next day's parana, and the story gives the day its lesson: that giving belongs with fasting.
What is eaten on the fast
Commonly eaten- Fruit
- Milk, curd and paneer
- Nuts and dry fruit
- Sabudana
- Kuttu and singhara flour
- Potato and sweet potato
- Sendha namak (rock salt)
Commonly left out- Rice
- Wheat and other grains
- Dal and beans
- Onion and garlic
- Ordinary salt, in many homes
Families choose the strictness that suits them. Anyone who is unwell, pregnant or elderly keeps a lighter form.
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 5:51 PM on 2 February, before sunrise, so parana runs from sunrise at 7:05 AM to the end of Pratahkal at 9:19 AM on 3 February.
- Sunrise7:05 AM on 3 Feb
- Hari Vasara ends5:51 PM on 2 February
- Parana window7:05 – 9:19 AM
- Dwadashi ends1:51 PM on 3 February
05Why 2 February
- In Indore: It is kept on 2 February because the Ekadashi tithi is current at sunrise that morning (7:06 AM).
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.
06Shattila Ekadashi in other years
- 2026Wednesday, 14 January · parana 7:09 – 9:20 AM
- 2027Tuesday, 2 February · parana 7:05 – 9:19 AM
- 2028Saturday, 22 January · parana 7:09 – 9:21 AM
