Mauna Ekadashi falls on Margashirsha Shukla 11, which in 2026 is Sunday 20 December. It is kept in silence, and the reason it carries the weight it does is recorded rather than sentimental: five kalyanakas of three Tirthankaras fall on this single tithi, more than on any other day in the Jain year.
In Gujarati it is Maun Agiyaras, from maun, silence, and agiyaras, the eleventh. It is one of the twelve parva tithis of the lunar month, and the only one on which the characteristic observance is the withholding of speech rather than of food, although in practice most people keep both.
Mauna Ekadashi 2026
Sunday 20 December 2026 · Margashirsha Shukla 11 (Magshar Sud 11).
Shukla-paksha dates carry the same month name in both the amanta and purnimanta reckonings, so this is one of the Jain dates that does not suffer the month-naming problem that afflicts, for instance, Posh Dashami. The remaining variable is local sunrise: a tithi names the civil day it is running at at sunrise, so outside India the day can differ. Confirm against your own sangh's panchang.
The five kalyanakas
A kalyanaka is one of the five auspicious events in a Tirthankara’s life: conception, birth, renunciation, omniscience and liberation. There are 120 of them across the twenty-four, and this site has compiled all 120 with their tithis and nakshatras in the kalyanaka calendar.
Five of the 120 land on Margashirsha Shukla 11.
| Tirthankara | Kalyanaka | Nakshatra |
|---|---|---|
| Aranatha (18th) | Diksha, renunciation | Revati |
| Mallinatha (19th) | Janma, birth | Ashwini |
| Mallinatha (19th) | Diksha, renunciation | Ashwini |
| Mallinatha (19th) | Kevala Jnana, omniscience | Ashwini |
| Naminatha (21st) | Kevala Jnana, omniscience | Ashwini |
Three of those five belong to Mallinatha, and they are the reason. Mallinatha is the only Tirthankara recorded as attaining omniscience on the very day of renunciation, so the birth, the diksha and the kevala jnana are compressed onto one tithi in a way that happens nowhere else in the set. In the Shvetambara tradition Mallinatha is a woman; the Digambara tradition holds that all twenty-four were male. The difference is old, both lines are internally consistent, and neither is treated here as an error.
A correction worth making, because it is repeated everywhere. A great many published accounts of Mauna Ekadashi list the third Tirthankara as Neminatha, the twenty-second. The kalyanaka on this tithi belongs to Naminatha, the twenty-first. The names differ by one letter in transliteration and the substitution has propagated widely. Neminatha’s own kalyanakas fall elsewhere in the year.
Where the figure of 150 comes from
The tradition does not usually say five. It says a hundred and fifty, and the arithmetic is worth setting out because it is otherwise baffling.
The five kalyanakas above are the ones falling in this region and this time-cycle. The Jain cosmography holds that Tirthankaras arise across a set of regions, and the chaubisi, the sequence of twenty-four, recurs across the past, present and future half-cycles of time. Multiplying the five through the regions of that cosmography and through the three time-cycles is what produces the traditional figure of 150 kalyanakas on this one tithi.
This site presents that as the tradition’s own reckoning within its own cosmology, in the same way it presents the Jambudvipa model on the Jain astrology page: as sacred cosmography and part of the tradition’s self-understanding, not as a datable count. The five in the table above are the ones the textual record actually assigns.
What silence means here
Mauna is not merely not talking. In the classical framing it is the withdrawal of one of the three yogas, the channels through which karma is bound: activity of body, of speech and of mind. A parva tithi ordinarily restrains the first through fasting and the third through samayik. This one adds the second directly.
That is also why the practice is harder than it sounds. Restraining speech for a day exposes how much of it was unnecessary, which is the intended result. The eighteen papasthanaks, the sites of demerit reviewed in pratikraman, are weighted heavily toward speech and mental states rather than toward dramatic acts, and a day of silence is a direct exercise against that list.
In practice, sanghs differ on how absolute the silence is. Some keep it total from one sunrise to the next. Some permit recitation and reading aloud of scripture while excluding ordinary conversation. Some keep it for the daylight hours. All three are ordinary and none is presented here as the correct version.
What is kept on the day
Posah. Posah, from pausadha, is the day-long vow in which a householder lives as an ascetic does: staying at the upashray, setting aside ordinary occupation, food, adornment and household activity for the duration. Mauna Ekadashi is one of the days on which posah is most widely kept, and the silence is usually held within it.
Upvas. A full day without food, most commonly in the tivihar form with boiled water permitted between sunrise and sunset. The graded vocabulary, and what tivihar and chauvihar actually permit, is on the fasting page. The pachkhan times that govern the day are fractions of your own local sunrise and are computed on the Jain Panchang.
Devavandana and japa. Recitation directed to the Tirthankaras whose kalyanakas fall on the day, and the counts of khamasana, kayotsarga and navkarvali that the sangh prescribes.
Pratikraman. Devasi pratikraman in the evening, as on any day, and in many households with more attention than usual.
The eleven-year vow
Like several Jain observances, Mauna Ekadashi has a long form as well as a single-day one. The traditional undertaking is to keep the day with its full observance for eleven years and eleven months, closed with an udyapan, the completion ceremony. The number is taken from the tithi itself.
The narrative attached to it is that of the merchant Suvrata, who kept the observance without a break and is held up in the tradition as its exemplar. It is presented here as the tradition’s own account, in the same way the Shripal narrative attached to Navpad Oli is.
Keeping the day once is keeping the day once. The long vow is a form available to those who want it and is not a standard anyone is measured against.
A note on the name
Searching for the 2026 date will return this tithi under a different name, because Margashirsha Shukla 11 is also Mokshada Ekadashi in the Vaishnava calendar, and the general ekadashi observance of silence attaches to it there too.
That is worth knowing for a practical reason: it is how you cross-check the civil date against a general panchang. It is not a shared festival. The Jain observance rests on the five kalyanakas recorded on the tithi, which is a reason internal to the Jain calendar, and the two traditions arrive at the same day from different places. The wider structure of the Jain year, and which of its dates are genuinely Jain rather than borrowed, is set out on Jain festivals 2026.
Where the traditions differ
Mauna Ekadashi in this form is characteristically Shvetambara.
| Shvetambara | Digambara | |
|---|---|---|
| The observance | Mauna Agiyaras kept with silence, posah and upvas | Not the characteristic observance of the day |
| Mallinatha | The nineteenth Tirthankara was a woman | All twenty-four were male |
| Parva structure | Agiyaras among the twelve parva tithis of the month | Fasting concentrated on ashtami and chaturdashi, as proshadhopavasa |
| Nearby observance | Mauna Ekadashi | The Ashtahnika Parvas at the close of Phalguna, Ashadha and Kartika |
The kalyanaka data itself is largely common ground, since both lines record the same tithis for Aranatha, Mallinatha and Naminatha. What differs is the observance built on it and, in Mallinatha’s case, a substantial point of doctrine.
Practical notes
- Tell people in advance. A day of silence kept without warning creates exactly the friction it is meant to remove. Most households announce it the day before.
- Silence and work. For anyone who cannot take the day off, sanghs differ on partial observance and generally treat it sympathetically. Keeping the silence outside working hours is keeping something.
- Children. Graded participation applies here as it does to fasting, and a child keeping silence for a morning has kept a vow.
- Winter. In north India the day falls near the solstice, so the daylight interval is at its shortest and the pachkhan times move accordingly. This is the point at which computing from your own sunrise stops being a technicality.
Frequently asked questions
↳ When is Mauna Ekadashi 2026?
Sunday 20 December 2026, on Margashirsha Shukla 11, which Gujarati calendars write as Magshar Sud 11. Because it is a bright-fortnight date, it carries the same month name in both the amanta and purnimanta reckonings and does not suffer the naming ambiguity that affects dark-fortnight festivals. The remaining variable is local sunrise, since a tithi names the civil day it is running at at sunrise, so outside India confirm against your own sangh's panchang.
↳ Why is Mauna Ekadashi important in Jainism?
Because five kalyanakas fall on this single tithi, more than on any other day of the year: Aranatha's diksha, Mallinatha's birth, renunciation and omniscience, and Naminatha's omniscience. Three of the five belong to Mallinatha, who is the only Tirthankara recorded as attaining omniscience on the very day of renunciation. The traditional reckoning multiplies those five through the regions of the Jain cosmography and the three time-cycles to give the figure of 150.
↳ Is the third Tirthankara on this day Naminatha or Neminatha?
Naminatha, the twenty-first. A great many published accounts write Neminatha, the twenty-second, and the substitution has propagated widely because the names differ by a single letter in transliteration. Neminatha's own kalyanakas fall elsewhere in the year. The five kalyanakas on Margashirsha Shukla 11 belong to Aranatha, Mallinatha and Naminatha.
↳ What exactly is observed on Maun Agiyaras?
Silence, most commonly held within posah, the day-long vow in which a householder lives as an ascetic does, setting aside ordinary occupation and household activity. Most people keeping the day also keep upvas, usually in the tivihar form with boiled water permitted in daylight. Devavandana, japa and the sangh's prescribed counts follow, with devasi pratikraman in the evening. How absolute the silence is varies by sangh, and total, scripture-only and daylight-only forms are all ordinary.
↳ Is Mauna Ekadashi the same as Mokshada Ekadashi?
They fall on the same tithi, Margashirsha Shukla 11, which is why a general panchang search returns the other name. They are not a shared festival. The Jain observance rests on the five kalyanakas recorded on that tithi, which is a reason internal to the Jain calendar, and the two traditions arrive at the same day from different starting points. The overlap is useful only as a way to cross-check the civil date.
↳ What is the eleven-year Mauna Ekadashi vow?
The long form of the observance: keeping the day with its full practice for eleven years and eleven months, closed with an udyapan ceremony. The number is taken from the tithi, the eleventh. The narrative attached to it is that of the merchant Suvrata, who is held up in the tradition as the exemplar of the vow. Keeping the day once is a complete observance in itself, and the long form is available rather than expected.
Related
- The Kalyanaka Calendar: all 120 sacred days
- Posh Dashami: Parshvanatha’s birth, and the three-day fast
- Paryushan fasting: every level, explained properly
- Pratikraman: turning back, and what happens in one
- Navpad Oli: nine days of ayambil, twice a year
- Jain Panchang: parva days and pachkhan times for your city
- Jain festivals 2026: the complete calendar
Sources. The civil date of Sunday 20 December 2026 for Margashirsha Shukla 11 was checked against two independent published panchangs and agreed; the tithi is the stable value. The five kalyanakas and their nakshatras are from this site's own kalyanaka dataset, compiled from Hemachandra's Trishashti-Shalaka-Purusha-Charitra in Johnson's translation and read against Jacobi's Kalpasutra; the Naminatha and Neminatha correction follows directly from that dataset. Mallinatha's attainment of omniscience on the day of renunciation, and the Shvetambara and Digambara divergence on her gender, are recorded in the same source. The figure of 150 is the traditional reckoning across the regions of the Jain cosmography and the three time-cycles, and is presented as the tradition's self-understanding rather than as a datable count, on the same basis this site treats the Jambudvipa model. The eleven-year vow and the Suvrata narrative are reported as the tradition's own account. Descriptions of how absolute the silence is kept are reported practice and vary by sangh. Corrections are seva: tell us.