Shattila Ekadashi 2028: Date, Parana Time & Vrat Vidhi

Parana (breaking the fast) is on Sunday, 23 January 2028, from 7:13 AM to 9:20 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 sixfold use of sesame the day's distinctive act; til-daan and til-tarpana for the ancestors are central.

By its mahatmya it removes poverty and want and the fault of never having given — the daan of sesame, food and cloth is emphasised over the fast alone.

The Padma Purana tells of a devout but miserly Brahmin woman who worshipped Vishnu faithfully yet never gave food or alms. Vishnu came to her door as a mendicant and received only a ball of clay. Her house was then found full of worthless clay pots, which turned to grain and riches only after the sages taught her to keep the Shattila Ekadashi and to give sesame and food freely.

Source: Padma Purana — the Shattila Ekadashi mahatmya

The Shattila mahatmya is given in the Padma Purana; the day-rule, parana and vrat vidhi are those of every Ekadashi (see the Ekadashi page), and it falls in Magha, the month of til-daan and Ganga bathing.

• Padma Purana — the Shattila Ekadashi mahatmya
• Nirnaya Sindhu — the Ekadashi day-rule and parana

1. The grain-free fast is kept from sunrise; sesame is used in the bath, the ubtan, the homa, the pitru-tarpana, the food and the daan, with a Vishnu puja and the Ekadashi katha.
2. Sesame, food, cloth, a lamp and dakshina are given to a Brahmin or to those in need; the parana is within the Dwadashi after the Hari Vasara.

• North and East India. Kept in Magha alongside the Magh Mela bathing and the wider til-daan of the month; a favoured day for shraddha and pitru-tarpana.

• Sesame — Til is used six ways today: in the bath, as paste, in the homa, in tarpan, as food and as gift; til laddoos are part of the phalahar.
• Phalahar — Fruit, milk and sesame sweets; no grains or pulses.

Shattila Ekadashi is kept on the day when Ekadashi of Magha Krishna paksha prevails at sunrise. That day is Saturday, 22 January 2028. Ekadashi holds at sunrise only on this day.

at sunrise

Shattila Ekadashi is the Krishna Ekadashi of Magha — the Moon 120°–132° behind the Sun (sidereal, Lahiri), with the Sun in sidereal Makara. See the Ekadashi page for the day-rule and the Smarta / Vaishnava difference; the Gregorian date drifts about 11 days earlier each year.

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