Choose your town or city and a date above (today is filled in), and this free tool tells you the Hindu season, the ritu, on that day. It gives the season by the lunar month, as a panchang prints it, and by the Sun’s sign, as the Surya Siddhanta and the Ayurveda seasonal routine count it, with the day each season began and the next one. A second table gives the dates of all six ritus of the year, counted each way.
How it works
The year has six ritus of two months each: Shishira (late winter), Vasanta (spring), Grishma (summer), Varsha (the rains), Sharad (autumn) and Hemanta (early winter). There are two ways to count the two months, and this tool shows both.
- By the lunar month. Magha and Phalguna are Shishira, Chaitra and Vaishakha are Vasanta, Jyeshtha and Ashadha Grishma, Shravana and Bhadrapada Varsha, Ashwina and Kartika Sharad, and Margashirsha and Pausha Hemanta. This is how the Sushruta Samhita lists them (Sutrasthana, chapter 6, where Tapas and Tapasya, that is Magha and Phalguna, make Shishira, and so on), and how panchangs and the Hindu calendar pages of this site give the ritu. The months are the amanta months the festival dates on this site use. An Adhika month counts with the month whose name it carries, so in such a year one season runs three months.
- By the Sun’s sign. The Surya Siddhanta (chapter 14, verses 9 and 10) counts the seasons from the Sun’s entry into Makara, two signs to each: Makara and Kumbha are Shishira, Meena and Mesha Vasanta, Vrishabha and Mithuna Grishma, Karka and Simha Varsha, Kanya and Tula Sharad, and Vrishchika and Dhanu Hemanta. The seasonal routine tool on our Ayurveda site counts the ritus this way. The tool takes the Sun’s sidereal sign (Lahiri ayanamsa) and changes the season at the moment our Sankranti calculator gives.
A third column gives the seasons by the Sun’s tropical sign, which ties Shishira to the winter solstice, Varsha to the summer solstice and so on. A widely used online almanac prints its season dates this way.
All positions come from the NASA JPL DE440 tables on this site. For today the tool reads the moment you press the button; for another date it reads the season at that day’s sunrise, as a daily panchang does.
Reading the result
The first line names the ritu. When the two counts agree it gives one name; when they differ it gives both, with the lunar month and the Sun’s sign. The first table shows the season on your date by each count, the day it began and the next season. The second table lists the six ritus that begin in the year, with the dates by each count; the lunar months and the signs of each ritu are under the dates. Each ritu name links to its page on our Ayurveda site, which describes the seasonal routine the tradition gives for it.
Where traditions differ
The two counts are never far apart, but they do not change on the same day. A lunar month begins at the first new moon after the Sun enters a sign, so each lunar season begins up to 30 days after the solar one: from 0 to 29.6 days later at New Delhi over 1900 to 2074. For those days a panchang and the Ayurveda routine name different seasons, and both are right by their own count. The seasons by the tropical signs begin 22 to 26 days before the sidereal ones.
The same chapter of the Sushruta Samhita also gives a second list, which it attributes to some authorities: the rains in Bhadrapada and Ashwina, with Pravrit, the early rains, in Ashadha and Shravana. This tool uses the first list.
The ritus describe the climate of northern India, where the texts were written. In the southern hemisphere the weather runs about six months apart, and near the equator the year may be wet and dry instead. The tool gives the calendar ritu for every place; the Ayurveda site’s seasonal routine has a weather option for such places.
How we checked it
We recomputed the season at 504 moments (the 1st and 15th of every month at the eight places of our test charts, for the year of each chart and for 2026, and for 1900, 2074 and Tromso in the Arctic) with the Swiss Ephemeris (pyswisseph, sidereal Lahiri) and lunar months built independently from its new moons: all 504 matched by all three counts. The season start dates agreed within 9 seconds for the Sun’s sign and within 7 seconds for the tropical sign. On 37 daily pages of a widely used published panchang for New Delhi, from 6 November to 12 December 2026, the ritu by the lunar month matched on every day, and its tropical season dates for 2026 matched ours within one minute.
What it does not do
It does not give seasonal advice on food or health. For that, read the season pages on the Ayurveda site, such as Sharad and Hemanta, and see a doctor for any health concern. It does not forecast the weather. To see when the extra month falls, which stretches a lunar season, use the Adhik maas finder.
Frequently asked questions
↳ Which ritu is it now?
It depends on the date and on how you count. On 6 November 2026 at New Delhi it is Sharad by both counts: the lunar month is Ashwina and the Sun is in Tula. Hemanta begins by the Sun on 16 November 2026 and by the lunar month on 9 December 2026. Press the button above for today.
↳ What are the six ritus?
Vasanta (spring), Grishma (summer), Varsha (the rains), Sharad (autumn), Hemanta (early winter) and Shishira (late winter), each two months long.
↳ Why does my panchang name a different season from the Ayurveda site?
A panchang names the ritu by the lunar month, and the Ayurveda seasonal routine names it by the Sun's sign. The lunar seasons begin up to 30 days after the solar ones, so for part of each season the two names differ.
↳ When does Vasanta begin in 2026?
At New Delhi, Vasanta begins by the Sun on 15 March 2026, when it enters Meena, and by the lunar month on 19 March 2026, when Chaitra begins. By the tropical signs it began on 18 February 2026.
↳ Does the ritu change in the southern hemisphere?
The calendar ritu is the same everywhere, but the weather is about six months apart south of the equator, so a southern spring falls while the calendar says Sharad. The Ayurveda site's seasonal routine has a weather option for this.
↳ Why does the ritu matter?
The ritu is named in the sankalpa at the start of a puja, with the year, the month and the tithi, and Ayurveda arranges its seasonal routine, ritucharya, by it.