Mahalaya Amavasya

Date in 2026

Saturday, 10 October 2026

Masa

Bhadrapada

Tithi

Krishna Pournami

Duration

1 day, closing a 15-day fortnight

Observed in

All India; Telugu states, Bengal and the south particularly

Significance

Mahalaya Amavasya closes Pitru Paksha, the fortnight of the ancestors, and it is the most important day of the year for shraddha. The fortnight is the one period in the calendar given wholly to the dead, and the amavasya that ends it is the day on which offerings may be made for anyone in the line — including those whose date of death is unknown, those who died away from home, and those with no one left to remember them.

That last provision is the substance of the day. It is called Sarva Pitru Amavasya for exactly this reason: sarva, all. A household that has missed a tithi during the fortnight, or does not know one, performs the rite here and it stands for all of them. The tradition is explicit that no one should go without an offering because the record was lost.

The fortnight is treated as inauspicious for beginnings — no weddings, no housewarmings, no new ventures — and this is often read as superstition. It is more straightforwardly a fortnight set aside: a period the calendar deliberately empties of celebration so that something else can occupy it. Navratri begins the very next day, which is not a coincidence but a sequence.

When it falls, and why

Mahalaya Amavasya is the new moon of Bhadrapada in the amanta reckoning — the last day of Pitru Paksha, which runs from the purnima of Bhadrapada to this amavasya. In purnimanta states the same fortnight sits at the start of Ashwina; the days are identical, only the month label differs. In Gregorian terms it falls in September or early October.

The rite is performed during aparahna, the afternoon period, which is the window prescribed for shraddha — unlike almost every other observance, which prefers the morning. Where amavasya spans two afternoons, the day on which it prevails during aparahna is taken. Sharad Navratri begins the following day, on the padyami of Ashwina.

Pooja vidhanam, step by step

1. 1

   Bathe and prepare in the morning

   Bathe at dawn, preferably in a river. The person performing the rite fasts until it is complete. Wear a fresh unstitched cloth if the household keeps that practice.

2. 2

   Prepare the offerings

   Cook the food to be offered before the rite — rice, ghee, and the dishes the departed liked. Nothing is tasted before the offering is made.

3. 3

   Perform tarpanam

   Facing south, with the sacred thread over the right shoulder, offer water mixed with black sesame through the pitru tirtha — the space between thumb and forefinger — naming three generations of the paternal line, and the maternal line where the tradition includes it.

4. 4

   Offer pinda

   Where the household keeps the full rite, offer pinda — balls of cooked rice with sesame and ghee — on darbha grass, with the sankalpa naming those for whom the offering is made.

5. 5

   Feed brahmins and the poor

   The offering reaches the ancestors through those who are fed. This is not symbolic in the tradition's own understanding of it: the feeding is the rite.

6. 6

   Set aside portions for the crow, cow and dog

   A portion is placed outside for the crow especially, which is held to carry the offering. Where a crow takes it the rite is considered accepted.

7. 7

   Then eat

   The household eats only after the offering and the feeding are complete.

Samagri checklist

What to gather beforehand. Where something is not available, offer what you have — the intention carries.

• Black sesame (til) and raw rice
• Darbha (kusha) grass
• Water vessel and a plate for tarpanam
• Ghee, cooked rice, and the dishes the departed liked
• Banana leaves
• White flowers, sandal paste
• New unstitched cloth, where the household keeps it
• Food to be given away

The vrat katha

The account given is Karna's. Having given away gold all his life, he died and was offered gold to eat in the next world — because he had never given food, and had never made offerings to his ancestors, not knowing who they were. He asked to return, and was granted fifteen days.

In those fifteen days he gave food and water in his ancestors' name, and the fortnight he was given is Pitru Paksha. The story is unusually pointed for a vrat katha: the failing it describes is not impiety but ignorance, and the remedy offered is a period long enough to make up for a lifetime of not knowing.

This is why Sarva Pitru Amavasya provides for the unknown dead. The whole fortnight exists because someone did not know whom to offer to, and the last day of it is reserved for exactly that case.

How it differs by region

• In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana the fortnight is Mahalaya Paksham, kept carefully, with the amavasya as the day for anyone whose tithi is unknown or was missed.
• In Bengal, Mahalaya morning is when the Mahishasura Mardini radio broadcast is heard before dawn, and it marks the start of the Durga Puja season — the ancestors are seen off and the goddess invited in.
• In Tamil Nadu and Kerala the day is kept with tarpanam at rivers and at the sea, with large gatherings at Rameswaram and at the Papanasam ghats.
• In the north the fortnight is Shraadh or Kanagat, and Gaya in Bihar draws pilgrims through the whole of it for the Gaya shraddha.
• In Maharashtra it is Sarvapitri Amavasya, and the crow's acceptance of the offering is watched for particularly.

Common questions

Slokas