Yam Dwitiya
Also called Bhai Dooj
Brother and sister bathe together in the Yamuna.
When it falls
Wednesday, 11 November 2026
By the sunrise at Har Ki Pauri, Haridwar
- The rule
- Kartika Shukla Dwitiya, tithi 2 of the waxing fortnight
- Which day
- Sunrise (udaya-vyapini)
- The day on which the tithi is running at sunrise. Where the tithi spans two sunrises the bathing is customarily kept on the first.
- Weight
- A major occasion
- Returns
- Once a year
What it is
Yam Dwitiya falls two days after the new moon of Diwali, on the second tithi of the bright fortnight of Kartika, the day also kept as Bhai Dooj. The story is of Yamuna receiving her brother Yama at her house. The observance that follows is a brother and sister bathing together in the Yamuna at Mathura. The crowd at Vishram Ghat that morning is the largest of that ghat's year. It is one of the few days in the calendar built around a sibling, and a family spread across three countries can keep it on the same morning.
Where it is kept
One water only.
Yamuna
Vishram Ghat, Mathura
Purnimanta reckoning
Vishram Ghat, where the observance happens. Yam Dwitiya belongs to this river and this ghat alone.
The windows
Pratah Snan
about 96 minutes
From sunrise
- Definition
- Sunrise, until two muhurtas of the day after it. A day muhurta is a fifteenth of the daylight, about 48 minutes at the equinox and longer in summer.
This window sits after sunrise, so its panchang day and its Gregorian date agree.
Every time is given at the ghat first, and in your own zone beside it. How the clock is read
Where the timing comes from
- Source
- Computed here, checked against Drik Panchang
- Ayanamsa
- Lahiri (Chitrapaksha)
- Ghat coordinates
- Har Ki Pauri, Haridwar: 29.9457, 78.1642
Textual basis
The Yamuna and Yama narrative and the Mathura bathing custom are attested in the Puranic literature around Kartika and in the living usage of Vishram Ghat. A citable edition and passage is still to be added.
Every date here is computed: the tithi at the ghat's sunrise, the month named by the sankranti it holds, and the sun's entry into each sign under the Lahiri ayanamsa. Tithi, nakshatra, sunrise and windows were checked against Drik Panchang for Haridwar on eight days between September 2026 and March 2027, to the minute. The dates roll forward each morning.