Masa 9 of 12

Margashiraమార్గశిరం

Krishna's own month, and the one Vaikuntha Ekadashi falls in.

Named for

Mrigashira

Ritu

Hemanta (pre-winter)

Sun crosses

Vrischika into Dhanus

Roughly

November-December

About Margashira

Margashira is the month Krishna names as his own in the Gita — 'among months I am Margashira' — and Gita Jayanti falls within it on the eleventh tithi of the bright fortnight, the same day as Vaikuntha Ekadashi. That is the largest single day of the year at Srirangam and Tirumala, when the vaikuntha dwaram is opened and the queues run through the night. Dhanurmasam begins as the sun enters Dhanus.

Festivals and observances

• Vaikuntha (Mokshada) Ekadashi and Gita Jayanti — shukla ekadashi
• Dattatreya Jayanti — Margashira purnima
• Subrahmanya Shashti — shukla shashthi, in the Telugu states
• Kalabhairava Ashtami — krishna ashtami
• Dhanurmasam begins — at Dhanus Sankranti

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.