The shraddha guide
Which day is the shraddha?
The day moves every year, and the question comes up a fortnight too late. Here are the sixteen days, the rules behind them, and how to find the day from a date of death.
Pitru Paksha, the sixteen shraddha days
The fortnight runs from the full moon of Bhadrapada to the next new moon. Each day has its tithi, and a household keeps the day whose tithi matches the one their person died on, not the calendar anniversary.
About the dates
The ladder below is a rule, so it holds in every year. The calendar dates it falls on are not listed here yet. Until they are, take them from your family's panchang.
| Day | Tithi | How it is kept |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | PurnimaProstapadi, Rishi Tarpan | The full moon on which the fortnight opens. Many households treat it as the eve rather than as a shraddha day of its own, and begin counting from the next morning. |
| 02 | Pratipada | Kept by the households whose person died on this tithi. |
| 03 | Dwitiya | Kept by the households whose person died on this tithi. |
| 04 | Tritiya | Kept by the households whose person died on this tithi. |
| 05 | Chaturthi | Kept by the households whose person died on this tithi. |
| 06 | PanchamiBharani Panchami, Kunwara Panchami | In several regions this day is kept for those who died unmarried. Where the Bharani nakshatra falls elsewhere in the fortnight, the Bharani shraddha moves with it rather than with the tithi. |
| 07 | Shashthi | Kept by the households whose person died on this tithi. |
| 08 | Saptami | Kept by the households whose person died on this tithi. |
| 09 | Ashtami | Kept by the households whose person died on this tithi. |
| 10 | NavamiMatru Navami, Avidhava Navami | Kept for the mothers of the line, and in many households specifically for a married woman who died before her husband. |
| 11 | Dashami | Kept by the households whose person died on this tithi. |
| 12 | Ekadashi | Kept by the households whose person died on this tithi. |
| 13 | DwadashiSannyasi Shraddha | Kept for those who had taken sannyasa. Some traditions place this on Ekadashi instead, and a few keep both. |
| 14 | Trayodashi | Kept by the households whose person died on this tithi. |
| 15 | ChaturdashiGhayala Chaturdashi | Kept for those who died by accident, by weapon or by violence. Many traditions hold that an ordinary death belongs elsewhere in the fortnight, so a family is sometimes told that its remembered tithi does not apply here. |
| 16 | AmavasyaSarva Pitru Amavasya, Mahalaya Amavasya | The day the fortnight closes, kept for all the departed of a line together, and for anyone whose tithi went unrecorded. |
The named days
The names above are regional conventions and differ between communities, sometimes between two families on one street. They are printed so you recognise a name when someone uses it. Your own family's purohit has the final word.
If the tithi is not known
Sarva Pitru Amavasya, the last of the sixteen, is kept for all the departed of a line together and for anyone whose tithi went unrecorded. For families two or three generations out of India this is often the day, and the tradition provides it for this case.
Where the timings come from
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.
The muhurat calendar's dates come from these rules and roll forward each morning.
- Source
- Computed here, checked against Drik Panchang
- Ayanamsa
- lahiri
- Ghat coordinates
- Survey pending
Why the date moves
A tithi is one thirtieth of a lunar month, the time the moon takes to gain twelve degrees on the sun. It lasts anywhere from about nineteen to about twenty-six hours. Twelve lunar months come to about 354 days, against 365 in the calendar year.
The eleven-day slip
The lunar year is about eleven days short. A tithi that fell in late September this year falls in mid September next year, and over three years the drift is a month. That is why a father's shraddha and the date on his death certificate are two different things.
The inserted month
About every thirty-two and a half months an extra lunar month, the adhika masa, is added to bring the calendar back in line with the sun. In that year the occasion moves about nineteen days later instead of eleven days earlier. A family that subtracts eleven days by habit is wrong in the one year it matters.
A tithi has its own start and end
A tithi begins and ends at the hour the moon reaches its mark, and the Hindu day turns at sunrise. So a tithi can begin on Tuesday afternoon and end on Wednesday evening. Which of the two days carries the observance is settled by a rule, given below.
Amanta and purnimanta
Two branches of one family often keep the same shraddha a month apart. The two reckonings cut the month at different points, and the name of the dark fortnight moves with the cut.
Amanta
The month ends at the new moon. Amavasya is the last day, and the month opens on the first day of the bright fortnight.
Followed in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and in the lunar reckoning used alongside the solar calendars of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Purnimanta
The month ends at the full moon. Purnima is the last day, and the month opens on the first day of the dark fortnight.
Followed across the north: Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Nepal.
Where they agree
On every bright fortnight. A day in the shukla paksha carries the same month name in both reckonings, which is why Ram Navami, Ganesh Chaturthi and every Purnima are named the same everywhere.
Where they differ
On every dark fortnight, and only in the name. Purnimanta gives a day in the krishna paksha the following month's name, and amanta gives it the current month's, so the purnimanta name runs one month ahead. The days themselves do not move by an hour.
Three examples
| Occasion | Purnimanta name | Amanta name |
|---|---|---|
| Pitru PakshaThe same sixteen days under two month names. A family that remembers its shraddha tithi as a month plus a tithi, and reads it in the other reckoning, lands a whole month out. | Ashwin Krishna paksha | Bhadrapada Krishna paksha |
| Krishna JanmashtamiThe easiest one to check at home. North and west India name the same night differently every year. | Bhadrapada Krishna Ashtami | Shravana Krishna Ashtami |
| MahashivratriOne night, named for two different months. Everyone keeps it on the same night, and only the month name differs. | Phalguna Krishna Chaturdashi | Magha Krishna Chaturdashi |
The reckoning at each ghat
Four of the six waters are in purnimanta regions and two in amanta regions. The month name printed beside a tithi follows the region.
- Ganga, Har Ki Pauri, HaridwarPurnimanta
- Triveni Sangam, Sangam, PrayagrajPurnimanta
- Yamuna, Vishram Ghat, MathuraPurnimanta
- Godavari, Ram Kund, NashikAmanta
- Shipra, Ram Ghat, UjjainPurnimanta
- Kaveri, Talakaveri, KodaguAmanta
Four reasons two households differ
If your uncle in Pune and your mother in Lucknow have never agreed on the day, one of these four is the reason. Both of them are usually right.
The month name
Amanta and purnimanta give the same dark fortnight different month names, one month apart. A tithi remembered as a month plus a tithi, and read in the other reckoning, is a month out. This is the usual cause.
Where the day is cut
The Hindu day runs from sunrise to sunrise. A death at two in the morning belongs to the panchang day that began at the previous dawn, not to the date on the hospital certificate. A family that converts the certificate date is often one day out from the start.
Which part of the day decides
A tithi that spans two mornings has to be given to one of them. Ordinary observances take the tithi in force at sunrise, udaya vyapini. Shraddha takes the tithi in force at aparahna, the fourth of five equal parts of the daylight. Two panchangs applying the two rules name two different days, and both follow a rule.
Where sunrise is taken, and how it is computed
A tithi ends at one instant everywhere on earth, but sunrise does not, so the day it lands on depends on the place the panchang is computed for. Drik siddhanta panchangs use observed positions and vakya panchangs use older tables, and at the edges the two can differ by a day. Ask which place and which system your family's panchang uses.
Finding the tithi from a date
You need a panchang for the year and place of the death, not a converter for this year. It takes about ten minutes.
- 01
Write down the moment
Write down the date, the time of day and the place of death. All three matter. If the death fell between midnight and sunrise, the panchang day is the previous calendar day.
- 02
Read the tithi for that moment
Look up a panchang for that place and year and read the tithi and paksha in force at that moment, for example krishna paksha, navami. That pair is what the family keeps, not the calendar date.
- 03
Note which reckoning the panchang uses
If the panchang gives a month name with the tithi, find out whether it is amanta or purnimanta, and write down both names if you can. A tithi recorded without its reckoning is the commonest way a shraddha day is lost between generations.
- 04
Find that tithi in the fortnight
In any later year, the day of Pitru Paksha that carries that tithi is the day. That is the whole rule, and it is why the calendar date moves and the observance does not. If the tithi falls outside the fortnight, or the death was by accident or violence, the named days above apply.
If your family already keeps a day, keep it. This page is for households that lost the thread.
This morning's tithi, in your city
The tithi at sunrise in the sixteen largest cities. The rest are on the panchang page.
- New YorkUnited States
- EdisonUnited States
- San JoseUnited States
- ChicagoUnited States
- HoustonUnited States
- TorontoCanada
- BramptonCanada
- VancouverCanada
- LondonUnited Kingdom
- LeicesterUnited Kingdom
- BirminghamUnited Kingdom
- DubaiUnited Arab Emirates
- SingaporeSingapore
- SydneyAustralia
- MelbourneAustralia
- DurbanSouth Africa
The occasions in the calendar
The days a shraddha family keeps most. Each has a page.
- Pitru PakshaSixteen days for the departed of one's line.
- AmavasyaThe dark moon, when the departed are remembered.
- PurnimaThe full moon, once every lunar month.
- EkadashiThe eleventh tithi, twice a month.
- Somvati AmavasyaThe Diwali new moon falls on a Monday.
- Kartik PurnimaDev Deepawali, the ghats set with lamps.
- Mauni AmavasyaThe silent new moon, the largest snan of Magha.
- Magh MelaA month on the sands at the Sangam, with six great snans.
- Somvati AmavasyaThe Phalguna new moon on a Monday, two days after Mahashivratri.
The waters kept for the ancestors
Tarpan and pind daan have their places. Each of the six has a page.
Bookmark this page for next year.
Tithi, nakshatra, sunrise and the four windows are computed here with astronomy-engine and the Lahiri ayanamsa. On 11 September 2026 they were checked against Drik Panchang for Haridwar on eight days between September 2026 and March 2027: every tithi and nakshatra matched, every end time agreed within two minutes, and sunrise agreed within a minute. The method and the table are in docs/panchang-check.md. The calendar day an occasion falls on is still given as a month, and stays labelled provisional until each occasion's day rule has been checked the same way.