Dashami Tithi: The Tenth Day, Vijayadashami and Ganga Dussehra

Dashami is the tenth tithi, when the Moon is between a hundred and eight and a hundred and twenty degrees from the Sun. In the bright half the Moon is well past the quarter and nearly three-quarters lit, and in the dark half it is a waning Moon that rises in the small hours.

The name means the tenth, and the number has long been tied to completion in Indian tradition. It is the second of the Purna tithis, the fulfilling ones, and it is the day on which several of the most widely kept festivals of victory and purification fall.

The tithi at a glance

Group and deity

The Purna group is Panchami, Dashami and the closing tithi of each half. Purna means full or complete, and muhurat summaries describe these days as favourable for ceremonies of all kinds and for work one wants to bring to a good conclusion. Dashami is the middle of the group, a gentle, steady day.

A common list gives Yama, the god of dharma and of the dead, as the deity of Dashami, which can sound severe. In the tradition Yama is the keeper of order and of justice, and the connection is to the tenth tithi as a point of reckoning and completion. Where another list differs, your family’s custom takes precedence.

Festivals on Shukla Dashami

Vijayadashami, or Dussehra, falls on Ashvin Shukla Dashami, the tenth day after the first of Sharad Navratri. It celebrates the victory of Rama over Ravana in much of north India and the victory of Durga over Mahishasura in the east, and it is the day for starting learning and for new ventures. The festival is on the Dussehra page, and its worship is in Dussehra Vijayadashami Puja.

Ganga Dussehra falls on Jyeshtha Shukla Dashami and honours the descent of the Ganga to the earth, with a bath in the river and gifts. Many families in Maharashtra and some other regions treat Vijayadashami as one of the three and a half most auspicious days of the year, on which a new beginning needs no separate muhurat; this is a regional tradition and not a rule everywhere.

The Dashami of Chaitra Navratri is a lesser observance in the families that keep a full Navaratri, marked by concluding the fast and offering the closing prayers.

Festivals on Krishna Dashami

Krishna Dashami has few major festivals. Some regional calendars note observances for local deities, and in a number of families the monthly Krishna Dashami is a day for quiet worship of the family deity, but no single festival is common to all regions.

Dashami does have an importance of its own as the day before Ekadashi. Many families that keep the Ekadashi fast eat their last grain meal early in the day on Dashami, and Vaishnava calendars apply a rule called Dashami viddha, which says that an Ekadashi touched by Dashami just before sunrise is set aside for the next day. The Ekadashi page explains the link and the vrat vidhi gives the steps.

What muhurat practice says

Shukla Dashami is among the tithis most often recommended in almanacs for marriage, a housewarming, starting construction, buying a vehicle and beginning a business, and it is described in many lists as a trustworthy day. It is not Rikta, and it falls in the Purna group.

Krishna Dashami is considered acceptable, and in some lists is among the better dark-half tithis, but the bright half is usually preferred when there is a choice. The preference is generally for the days in the bright half between Dwitiya and Trayodashi that are not Rikta.

The weekday, nakshatra and birth charts are checked too, and a family astrologer should confirm any date. The muhurat section shows how the factors combine.

A simple way to observe the day

On Vijayadashami, a simple observance is to worship the books, tools or instruments you use in your work, light a lamp, and begin a small piece of learning, which is the origin of the custom of starting a child’s lessons on the day. On Ganga Dussehra the traditional act is a bath at the river, or a prayer to the Ganga at home with a little water in a vessel.

If you plan a fast around Ekadashi, remember that it is a personal choice, and that a doctor should be consulted if you have a health condition, are pregnant, nursing, elderly or take regular medicine.

Reading the tithi in the calendar

Dashami is the tithi where Vijayadashami shows the rule of the afternoon. The festival is kept on the day on which Dashami is in force in the Aparahna, the afternoon, with a further preference for the Shravana nakshatra, so the date can differ from the sunrise tithi. Ganga Dussehra uses a morning rule.

As with other tithis, Dashami can be shortened or doubled. A kshaya Dashami runs between two sunrises and does not appear as a civil day, and a vriddhi Dashami appears twice. For Vijayadashami the afternoon test is the one that decides.

To see whether Dashami is the tithi running today in your own city, open the daily panchang. Dashami follows Navami in the cycle and is followed by Ekadashi; the whole set is described in the guide to the thirty tithis.

Related pages

• Dussehra and Dussehra Vijayadashami Puja: the Ashvin festival.
• Sharad Navratri: the nine nights before Vijayadashami.
• Ekadashi: the tithi that follows Dashami.
• Ekadashi Vrat Vidhi: how the fast begins on Dashami.
• Muhurat: how favourable tithis are used.
• The sixteen samskaras: ceremonies for which families look for a good tithi.

Frequently asked questions