Das Lakshana Parva 2026 runs from Wednesday 16 September to Friday 25 September, ten days, Bhadrapada Shukla 5 to Shukla 14, ending on Ananta Chaturdashi. It is the principal annual observance of the Digambara tradition, and it is not a longer version of Shvetambara Paryushan. It is a different festival with a different structure.
The name says what it is. Das is ten, lakshana is characteristic or defining mark. Ten characteristics of dharma, one contemplated on each of ten days.
Das Lakshana 2026 at a glance
Runs: Wednesday 16 September to Friday 25 September 2026 (10 days).
Tithis: Bhadrapada Shukla 5 to Bhadrapada Shukla 14.
Ends on: Ananta Chaturdashi, Friday 25 September 2026.
Forgiveness exchanged at: Kshamavani, Sunday 27 September 2026, two days later.
Computed from the tithi running at sunrise. Confirm against your own sangh's panchang before fixing a vow or booking leave.
Where the ten come from
They are not a devotional list assembled over time. They are a sutra, and it is one of the few the whole Jain tradition shares.
The Tattvartha Sutra, chapter nine, enumerates the ten: uttama kshama, mardava, arjava, shaucha, satya, samyama, tapa, tyaga, akinchanya, brahmacharya. The Tattvartha Sutra is the single text accepted as authoritative by Shvetambara and Digambara alike. Its recensions differ in wording at a number of points and the traditions read it through different commentaries, but both give these ten and both give them in this order.
That matters for a reason beyond scholarship. The ten dharmas are not a Digambara innovation. What is distinctively Digambara is the festival built on them: ten days, one virtue each, in sequence.
The prefix uttama, supreme, is carried by the whole list rather than by the first item alone. The commentarial tradition reads it strictly: these are the ten as practised by one settled in right belief, not the ordinary social versions of the same words. Forgiveness offered to look magnanimous is not uttama kshama.
The ten dharmas, day by day
| Day | Date 2026 | Tithi | Dharma | What it names |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wed 16 Sep | Shukla 5 | Uttam Kshama | Supreme forgiveness |
| 2 | Thu 17 Sep | Shukla 6 | Uttam Mardava | Humility, the absence of pride |
| 3 | Fri 18 Sep | Shukla 7 | Uttam Arjava | Straightforwardness, no crookedness of speech or act |
| 4 | Sat 19 Sep | Shukla 8 | Uttam Shaucha | Purity, understood as freedom from greed |
| 5 | Sun 20 Sep | Shukla 9 | Uttam Satya | Truth |
| 6 | Mon 21 Sep | Shukla 10 | Uttam Samyam | Restraint of the senses and of activity |
| 7 | Tue 22 Sep | Shukla 11 | Uttam Tapa | Austerity |
| 8 | Wed 23 Sep | Shukla 12 | Uttam Tyaga | Renunciation, and giving |
| 9 | Thu 24 Sep | Shukla 13 | Uttam Akinchanya | Non-possession, owning nothing inwardly |
| 10 | Fri 25 Sep | Shukla 14 | Uttam Brahmacharya | Chastity, dwelling in the self |
Kshama is first, and the ordering is doctrinal. Anger is one of the four kashayas, the passions that make karmic matter adhere to the soul. A mind holding a grievance is not actually humble, straightforward, truthful or restrained, whatever it says. The other nine cannot be practised honestly on top of an unforgiven injury, so forgiveness is placed at the gate.
Mardava is the opposite of mada, intoxication with one’s own standing. The classical treatment lists eight kinds of pride, including pride of caste, family, learning, wealth, physical power and appearance, and the day is spent on whichever is actually yours rather than on humility in the abstract.
Arjava means straightness. Its opposite, maya, is not lying but crookedness: the arranged impression, the technically true statement designed to mislead, the useful omission.
Shaucha is translated as purity and glossed by the tradition as freedom from lobha, greed. Not ritual cleanliness. The gloss is worth knowing because the English word points somewhere else entirely.
Satya in the Jain treatment is bounded by non-violence rather than absolute. A truth spoken to cause harm is not the dharma being contemplated. The classical position is that speech should be true, and also measured, timely and beneficial.
Samyama covers restraint of the five senses and the mind, and restraint of activity that causes injury to living beings. It is the day on which the ordinary conduct of a life gets examined rather than the exceptional acts.
Tapa is austerity, and the Jain enumeration is precise: six external forms, mostly concerning food and the body, and six internal ones which include prayashchitta, vinaya, vaiyavritya, swadhyaya, vyutsarga and dhyana. The internal six carry more weight in the doctrine than the external six, which inverts the popular impression of Jain austerity.
Tyaga is giving, and the classical fourfold dana is food, medicine, shelter and instruction. It is renunciation stated as a transfer rather than as a deprivation.
Akinchanya is often rendered non-possession, but a-kinchana is literally “having not a thing”. The distinction from aparigraha is that akinchanya is the inward state rather than the outward limit. A householder can hold property without holding it inwardly, and can hold nothing while grasping at everything.
Brahmacharya is chastity, and the etymology, moving in brahman, the self, points at the broader sense: not merely continence but the withdrawal of attention from the sensory outward.
What is observed
Reading. In many Digambara temples the Tattvartha Sutra is read across the ten days, which fits the structure exactly: the ten dharmas are a sutra in chapter nine, and the festival is that sutra taken at walking pace.
Vidhan and puja. The Das Lakshana Vidhan is performed, along with daily abhisheka and shanti dhara. Practice varies considerably between regions and sanghs.
Fasting. Graded as everywhere in Jain practice, from ekasana to full upvas. Some keep upvas on all ten days. The vocabulary, navkarsi through maskhaman, is set out on the Paryushana page, and the Jain Panchang computes the pachkhan times from your own city’s sunrise, which matters outside India.
Sugandha Dashami, Bhadrapada Shukla 10, Monday 21 September 2026, falls on the sixth day and is kept as a distinct observance in many Digambara communities, with incense offered at the temple. It is not universal.
Ratnatraya Vrat, over Shukla 12 to 14, Wednesday 23 to Friday 25 September 2026, is kept by many for the three jewels: right belief, right knowledge, right conduct. Also not universal.
Ananta Chaturdashi, Friday 25 September 2026, closes the ten days on Uttam Brahmacharya and is the largest day of the festival. Note that the same tithi carries an unrelated Hindu observance of the same name; the coincidence is calendrical.
Das Lakshana is not Paryushan
Related festivals, adjacent in the calendar, structurally different. Flattening them serves nobody.
| Digambara Das Lakshana | Shvetambara Paryushan | |
|---|---|---|
| Length | 10 days | 8 days |
| 2026 | 16 to 25 September | 8 to 15 September |
| Begins | Bhadrapada Shukla 5 | Bhadrapada Krishna 12 |
| Ends | Bhadrapada Shukla 14, Ananta Chaturdashi | Bhadrapada Shukla 4, Samvatsari |
| Organising text | The ten dharmas, Tattvartha Sutra 9 | The Kalpasutra, read across the eight days |
| Structure | One virtue contemplated per day | A narrative read to a conclusion |
| Forgiveness day | Kshamavani, Ashvina Krishna 1 | Samvatsari itself |
| Forgiveness said | Uttam Kshama, and Michhami Dukkadam | Michhami Dukkadam |
Note what falls out of the table. In 2026 Das Lakshana begins the day after Paryushan ends. The two run consecutively, 8 to 25 September, so the whole span is a season of restraint rather than a single week. That is a feature of this year’s tithi arrangement, not a fixed relationship.
Note also that the Digambara festival does not end with the forgiveness. The ten days contemplate kshama on the first day and then close on brahmacharya; the public exchange of forgiveness happens afterwards, at Kshamavani on Ashvina Krishna 1, Sunday 27 September 2026. Ananta Chaturdashi and Kshamavani are two days apart. Published calendars merge them routinely and they are not the same day.
The sky during Das Lakshana
The honest note, on an astrology site: Das Lakshana is not astrologically elected. It is fixed to tithis within Bhadrapada by calendrical rule. Nobody chose Shukla 5 to Shukla 14 for a configuration.
What the classical framework does observe is that the span contains four of the five parva tithis of the bright fortnight, Pancham, Aatham, Agiyaras and Chaudas, which are the days on which restraint is traditionally intensified anyway. The festival is therefore built on a run of days the calendar already marks, which is closer to an argument from convenience than from election.
This fits the Jain reading of the grahas generally: they indicate the karmic weather, they do not cause it, and no configuration compels anyone to contemplate anything. A day is auspicious because of what is done on it. See what Jain astrology actually is for the doctrine underneath that, and the Jain Panchang for live positions and any kalyanaka falling on the same tithi.
Frequently asked questions
↳ When is Das Lakshana 2026?
Wednesday 16 September to Friday 25 September 2026, ten days running from Bhadrapada Shukla 5 to Shukla 14 and ending on Ananta Chaturdashi. In 2026 it begins the day after Shvetambara Paryushan ends, so the two observances run back to back across 8 to 25 September. Kshamavani, when forgiveness is formally exchanged, follows on Sunday 27 September.
↳ What are the ten dharmas of Das Lakshana?
Uttam Kshama (forgiveness), Mardava (humility), Arjava (straightforwardness), Shaucha (purity, glossed as freedom from greed), Satya (truth), Samyam (restraint), Tapa (austerity), Tyaga (renunciation and giving), Akinchanya (non-possession) and Brahmacharya (chastity). They are enumerated in chapter nine of the Tattvartha Sutra, a text accepted by Shvetambara and Digambara Jains alike, and one is contemplated on each of the ten days in that order.
↳ Is Das Lakshana the same as Paryushan?
No. Das Lakshana is the Digambara observance, ten days, organised around the ten dharmas and ending on Ananta Chaturdashi. Shvetambara Paryushan is eight days, organised around the reading of the Kalpasutra and ending on Samvatsari. They are two distinct festivals that happen to sit adjacent in the calendar. Where you see Paryushan described as ten days, it is Das Lakshana being described.
↳ Why does Uttam Kshama come first?
Because anger is one of the four kashayas, the passions that make karmic matter adhere to the soul in the first place. A mind holding a grievance is not genuinely humble, straightforward, truthful or restrained, whatever it professes, so the remaining nine dharmas cannot be practised honestly on top of an unforgiven injury. Forgiveness is placed at the gate for structural reasons rather than sentimental ones.
↳ Does Das Lakshana end on Kshamavani?
No, and this is the commonest error in published Jain calendars. Das Lakshana ends on Ananta Chaturdashi, Friday 25 September 2026. Kshamavani Parva falls on Ashvina Krishna 1, Sunday 27 September 2026, two days later, after the intervening full moon. The ten days contemplate forgiveness on the first day; the public exchange of it happens at Kshamavani afterwards.
Related
- Kshamavani Parva 2026: the Digambara day of forgiveness
- Paryushana 2026: both traditions, dated day by day
- Samvatsari 2026: the Shvetambara annual day
- Pratikraman: turning back, and what happens in one
- Jain festivals 2026: the complete calendar
Sources. The ten dharmas follow the enumeration in chapter nine of the Tattvartha Sutra, whose Shvetambara and Digambara recensions differ in wording at many points but agree on this list and its order; glosses follow the standard commentarial readings, including shaucha as freedom from greed and akinchanya as the inward state distinguished from aparigraha. The eight kinds of pride under mardava, the fourfold dana under tyaga and the twelve-fold division of tapa into six external and six internal forms follow the classical enumerations. Civil dates are computed from the tithi running at local sunrise, sunrise taken at Ahmedabad, and cross-check against published Jain panchangs for 2026. Sugandha Dashami and Ratnatraya Vrat are reported as observances kept in many Digambara communities rather than as universal practice, because they are not universal. Where the traditions differ, none of them is wrong. Corrections are seva: tell us.