Ashwina Month in the Hindu Calendar: Navratri, Dussehra, Diwali and Dates

Ashwina is the busiest month of the Hindu festival year. Within a single amanta month, which runs from one new moon to the next, a family can keep nine nights of the Goddess, the tenth day of victory, the full moon of the harvest, the fast of Karva Chauth and then the five days of Diwali. The name comes from the nakshatra Ashwini, the first of the twenty-seven nakshatras, in which the full moon of the month usually stands.

Ashwini is the nakshatra of the two horse-headed Ashwini Kumaras, the physicians of the gods, and its position at the start of the nakshatra series adds a flavour of beginning to the month.

Ashwina is the seventh month of the lunar year as counted from Chaitra, and the first of the two months of Sharad, the season of autumn. The nakshatra behind the name is Ashwini, the first nakshatra. To see where Ashwina sits between Bhadrapada and Kartika, read the page on the lunar year, and for the year that counts these months see Vikram Samvat.

The first of the autumn months

Ashwina is the first month of Sharad, autumn, and Kartika is the second. The rains withdraw, the skies clear, the nights become cooler, and the harvest comes in. The festivals of the month are, for that reason, festivals of clarity and abundance: lamps, new clothes, sweets, and the arrival of the wedding season only a little later.

The bright half

Sharad Navratri begins on Shukla Pratipada and runs for nine nights. The Navratri ghatasthapana guide and the daily Navratri puja describe the worship, and in Gujarat the nights belong to garba, in Bengal the sixth to tenth days are Durga Puja. Dussehra falls on Shukla Dashami, and the Dussehra puja guide covers it. Shukla Ekadashi is Papankusha Ekadashi. The full moon is Sharad Purnima, also called Kojagiri or Kaumudi Purnima, a night on which, in tradition, the Moon is at its fullest and families sit under it with a bowl of milk and rice.

The dark half: Karva Chauth to Diwali

The dark half of amanta Ashwina is the fortnight that the north calls Kartika Krishna paksha, and that is why a Delhi calendar and a Gujarati calendar disagree on the month. Karva Chauth falls on Krishna Chaturthi, and the Karva Chauth puja page explains the evening worship. Ahoi Ashtami follows on the eighth. Dhanteras, Naraka Chaturdashi and Diwali come in the last days, with Diwali on the new moon that closes the month; see the Diwali Lakshmi puja guide. In Gujarat, where the Vikram year turns the next morning, Diwali is the last night of the year.

Ashwina in 2026 and 2027: dates

These are the instants at which each amanta month named Ashwina begins and ends, taken from a computation of the new moon in Indian Standard Time. In each row the Ashwina bright half (Shukla paksha) opens at the new moon and runs to the full moon about a fortnight later, and the dark half (Krishna paksha) carries on to the next new moon.

In purnimanta reckoning, the month called Ashwina starts at the full moon that falls inside the amanta Bhadrapada, so it begins about two weeks before each date in the Starts column, and it ends at the full moon inside the amanta Ashwina. The bright half is identical in both systems. Only the dark half changes its name: the fortnight that closes each amanta Ashwina in the table is called Kartika Krishna paksha in the purnimanta count. The full moon that splits Ashwina in two is listed for your own city on the Purnima page, and the method page explains how these instants were calculated.

Ekadashis in Ashwina

The bright half of Ashwina has Papankusha Ekadashi, and the dark half of the amanta month has Rama Ekadashi, which printed purnimanta lists place under Kartika. Each Ekadashi name stays fixed in every system, and only the month label moves for the Ashwina dark half. How to keep the fast is in the Ekadashi vrat vidhi, and the Ekadashi festival page gives the Ashwina days for your city.

Ashwina in regional calendars

Marathi calendars write Ashwin and Gujarati calendars Aso. Tamil calendars follow the Sun, and the solar months that usually overlap Ashwina are Purattasi and Aippasi. The overlapping Malayalam months are Kanni and Thulam, the Bengali months are Ashwin and Kartik, and the Punjabi months are Assu and Katak. In Gujarat the month is Aso, and it holds Navratri and every night of Diwali up to the new moon, with the new year starting the next morning. The pairing is approximate: a solar month starts when the Sun enters a sign, so the lunar Ashwina overlaps those months without matching their dates.

Related pages

The month before is Bhadrapada and the month after is Kartika. To see why Ashwina can carry two labels, read the page on amanta and purnimanta, and for today’s tithi and nakshatra open the panchang. All twelve months are on the Hindu calendar hub.

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