Amalaki Ekadashi 2028: Date, Parana Time & Vrat Vidhi

Parana (breaking the fast) is on Wednesday, 8 March 2028, from 6:38 AM to 8:59 AM (New Delhi).

Break with water and tulsi, then fruit, then a light non-grain meal; a full meal after.

It is the grain-free Ekadashi fast (the fasting and parana rules are on the Ekadashi page), with the amla-tree puja — a kalash, a lamp and offerings at its root — the day's distinctive act.

By its mahatmya the fast carries the merit of a thousand cows given, and brings protection and wellbeing to the household.

The mahatmya, from the Brahmanda Purana, is of a low-born hunter who, benighted in the forest, sheltered under an amla tree beside a ruined Vishnu shrine and kept vigil there through the night, hungry and unable to sleep. The unintended fast, on Amalaki Ekadashi, gave him rebirth as King Vasuratha, whom a divine being from the amla tree once shielded from an assassin's arrows.

Source: Brahmanda Purana — the Amalaki Ekadashi mahatmya

The Amalaki Ekadashi mahatmya is given in the Brahmanda Purana; the day-rule, parana and vrat vidhi are those of every Ekadashi (see the Ekadashi page). It falls in Phalguna in the run-up to Holi.

• Brahmanda Purana — the Amalaki Ekadashi mahatmya
• Padma Purana — the Ekadashi mahatmyas

1. The grain-free fast is kept from sunrise; a kalash, a ghee lamp and offerings are placed at the root of an amla tree and Vishnu is worshipped beneath it with the Ekadashi katha.
2. Amla fruit is offered and eaten at the parana; the parana is within the Dwadashi after the Hari Vasara.

• Braj and North India. Kept with the amla-tree puja in the days before Holi; at Mathura and Vrindavan an Amalaki utsav is held.

• Amla — The amla fruit, whose tree is worshipped today, is offered and eaten as part of the phalahar.
• Phalahar — Fruit, milk and sabudana; no grains or pulses.

Amalaki Ekadashi is kept on the day when Ekadashi of Phalguna Shukla paksha prevails at sunrise. That day is Tuesday, 7 March 2028. Ekadashi holds at sunrise only on this day.

at sunrise

Amalaki Ekadashi is the Shukla Ekadashi of Phalguna — the Moon 120°–132° ahead of the Sun (sidereal, Lahiri), with the Sun in sidereal Kumbha, two days before the Phalguna Purnima (Holi). See the Ekadashi page for the day-rule and the Smarta / Vaishnava difference.

A lunar date: Ekadashi of the bright half of Phalguna drifts about 11 days earlier each solar year, then jumps back ~19 days when a leap (Adhika) month is inserted.