Masa 7 of 12
Ashwinaఆశ్వయుజం
Nine nights and a victory — the month Sharad Navratri runs in.
- Named for
- Ashwini
- Ritu
- Sharad (autumn)
- Sun crosses
- Kanya into Tula
- Roughly
- September-October
About Ashwina
Ashwina opens the day after Pitru Paksha ends, and the transition is deliberate: the ancestors are seen off and the goddess invited in. Sharad Navratri fills the first nine nights and closes at Vijayadashami, a day treated as needing no muhurta, on which anything begun is held to succeed. The sky is clear after the rains, which is the season's own name — sharad.
Festivals and observances
- Sharad Navratri — shukla padyami to navami
- Durga Ashtami and Maha Navami — shukla ashtami and navami
- Vijayadashami (Dussehra) — shukla dashami, in aparahna
- Papankusha Ekadashi — shukla ekadashi
- Sharad Purnima — Ashwina purnima
- Karva Chauth — krishna chaturthi, in the north
How the month gets its name
The month is named for the nakshatra in which its full moon falls. Because a lunar month is about 29.5 days and the moon returns to the same nakshatra in about 27.3, the match is close rather than exact — the full moon lands in the named nakshatra most months and in a neighbouring one occasionally. The name does not change when it does; the rule fixed the names long ago and they stay put.
Everything here follows the amanta convention used across the Telugu country and the south, in which the month ends at the new moon. In the purnimanta reckoning of the north the month ends at the full moon instead, so every waning-fortnight day carries the following month's name. The days are identical; only the label differs.