Posh Dashami is the janma kalyanak of Parshvanatha, the twenty-third Tirthankara, kept on Paush Krishna 10. It is unusual in shape: most people observing it keep an attham, a continuous three-day fast, across the ninth, tenth and eleventh rather than marking a single day. Outside Paryushan and Mahavir Jayanti, it is the largest annual observance attached to any Tirthankara.
This page does not print a civil date, and the reason is on the page. The tithi is stable. The Gregorian day it corresponds to depends on which of two month-naming conventions a calendar uses, and published sources use both without saying which. Naming a wrong day for a three-day fast is a worse failure than admitting a gap.
The date problem, worked through
This is the most useful thing this page can tell you, so it comes first.
Parshvanatha’s birth tithi is Paush Krishna 10 in the sources, and that is a purnimanta month name: the reckoning in which a lunar month ends at the full moon, used across north India and by Hemachandra throughout the Trishashti-Shalaka-Purusha-Charitra.
Gujarat, Maharashtra and the south count amanta, in which a month ends at the new moon. The two conventions agree exactly on every bright-fortnight date, because a shukla paksha sits in the same named month either way. They disagree by one month name on every dark-fortnight date. So the very same night is filed as:
- Paush Krishna 10 by a purnimanta calendar, and
- Magsar Vad 10 by a Gujarati amanta panchang.
Same sky, same moon, two labels. That is the entire conflict, and it explains why the day is called Posh Dashami while Gujarati sanghs announce it as a Magsar Vad observance. It also explains why some published tables place it a full lunar month away from where others do: they have taken the name at face value and converted it in the wrong system.
The Jain Panchang sets out the amanta and purnimanta rule in full, and the Parshvanatha page works the same translation for all five of his kalyanakas.
What to do about it
The stable value is the tithi: Paush Krishna 10 in the purnimanta reckoning, Magsar Vad 10 in the amanta reckoning, and they are the same day. It falls in the dark fortnight following the Margashirsha full moon, which places it in late December or early January depending on the year. Take the civil day from your own sangh's published panchang, particularly since the fast begins the day before it. The 2026 calendar on this site records the same gap rather than filling it with a guess.
What is observed
The attham. Three consecutive days of upvas, spanning Krishna 9, 10 and 11. This is the characteristic Posh Dashami vow and it is what most people mean when they say they are keeping the day. The graded fasting vocabulary and what an attham actually involves is set out on the fasting page.
There is a reason the fast covers three days rather than one, beyond the general merit of a longer vow. Parshvanatha’s diksha also falls in this fortnight. Hemachandra gives it as Paush Krishna 13; the Kalpasutra gives Paush Krishna 11. On the Kalpasutra’s reading the attham covers the birth and the renunciation together, which is a tidy fit and worth noting as a fit rather than asserting as the origin of the practice.
The vidhi. The observance carries a fixed count, reported for the Shankheshwar observance as twelve swastika offerings, twelve khamasana prostrations, twelve kayotsarga recitations of the Logassa, and twenty navkarvali, twenty rounds of the mantra on the rosary, on each of the days. Counts vary by sangh, as they do for every such observance.
Japa and darshan. Recitation directed to Parshvanatha, and where possible darshan at a Parshvanatha tirtha. The Uvasaggaharam Stotra, traditionally attributed to Bhadrabahu and addressed to Parshvanatha, is widely recited on the day.
The melas. Shankheshwar in Gujarat, which holds the most visited Shvetambara Parshvanatha image in India, runs the largest Posh Dashami gathering. Nageshwar Parshvanath in Rajasthan holds another. Bhelupur in Varanasi, his birthplace, keeps the day as the kalyanaka-bhumi observance.
Who he was, in short
Parshvanatha is the Tirthankara a historian will argue for. The Acharanga Sutra records Mahavira’s own parents as lay followers in Parshva’s lineage, Buddhist sources know his community by its caturyama, the fourfold restraint, and chapter 23 of the Uttaradhyayana Sutra records the meeting at Shravasti between Keshi, a senior monk of Parshva’s order, and Gautama, Mahavira’s chief disciple, at which the four vows and the five were reconciled. Traditional chronology places him 250 years before Mahavira.
He was born at Varanasi to King Ashvasena and Queen Vama, under Vishakha nakshatra in Tula, and attained nirvana at Shikharji, the hill that carries his name in ordinary Hindi to this day. The story that defines him is the serpent in the log: a burning creature nobody else noticed, over which he had the Navkar Mantra recited, and which returned lifetimes later as the canopy of hoods above him.
The full account, the iconography, the historical evidence and the sectarian divergences are on his own page. His five kalyanaka tithis, and all 120 across the twenty-four, are in the kalyanaka calendar.
If Vishakha is your birth star
Parshvanatha’s janma nakshatra is Vishakha, which he shares among the twenty-four with Suparshvanatha, the seventh, and, in Digambara sources, with Vasupujya.
What the tradition offers a person born under the same asterism is a kinship rather than a forecast. His kalyanaka days become days to keep, and his image the one to stand in front of. Nothing about anyone’s life is predicted by it, which is the general position of Jain astrology: a graha or a nakshatra indicates karma already bound, and compels nothing at all.
Where the traditions differ
Posh Dashami as a three-day attham with the Shankheshwar and Nageshwar melas is characteristically Shvetambara, and this page describes that observance.
| Shvetambara | Digambara | |
|---|---|---|
| The day | Kept as Posh Dashami, with the attham across Krishna 9, 10 and 11 | Parshvanatha’s janma kalyanak is honoured; the three-day attham is not the characteristic form |
| Diksha tithi | Paush Krishna 13 in Hemachandra, Krishna 11 in the Kalpasutra | Recorded within the Digambara textual line |
| His marriage | Married Prabhavati, daughter of Prasenajit | Never married |
| Attendant in art | Often an elephant-headed yaksha | Dharanendra |
The Digambara position that Parshva and Mahavira taught the same dharma follows from a doctrine of unvarying dharma across all twenty-four; the Shvetambara position preserves the difference between four vows and five and then explains it, which is why the Keshi and Gautama chapter sits in their canon. Both are internally consistent and this site chooses neither.
Practical notes
- The fast begins the day before the day. If you intend to keep the attham, you need the civil date for Krishna 9, not for Krishna 10. This is the practical reason the date question on this page is not academic.
- An attham is a three-day upvas. It is taken under guidance and it is not a decision to make on the strength of a web page. See the fasting levels.
- Winter dating. The observance falls in the coldest part of the north Indian year, which is a real consideration for older people keeping three days without food.
- Tirtha travel. Shankheshwar at Posh Dashami is extremely crowded. Sanghs book months ahead.
Frequently asked questions
↳ What is Posh Dashami?
It is the janma kalyanak of Parshvanatha, the twenty-third Tirthankara, kept on Paush Krishna 10. Most observants keep an attham, a continuous three-day fast, across Krishna 9, 10 and 11 rather than marking a single day, and the largest gatherings are at Shankheshwar in Gujarat and Nageshwar in Rajasthan. Outside Paryushan and Mahavir Jayanti it is the largest annual observance attached to any single Tirthankara.
↳ Why do calendars disagree about the Posh Dashami date?
Because of month naming, not astronomy. Paush Krishna 10 is a purnimanta month name, from the reckoning in which a month ends at the full moon. Gujarat and Maharashtra count amanta, in which a month ends at the new moon, and the identical night is filed there as Magsar Vad 10. Both conventions agree on every bright-fortnight date and differ by one month name on every dark-fortnight date. Sources that convert the name without noticing which system it came from land a full lunar month away.
↳ What civil date does Posh Dashami fall on?
This site does not print one, because published sources disagree and the divergence is a reckoning problem rather than a rounding one. What can be said is that the day falls in the dark fortnight following the Margashirsha full moon, which places it in late December or early January. Since the attham begins the day before, the civil date for Krishna 9 is the one actually needed, and it should be taken from your own sangh's panchang.
↳ Why is Posh Dashami kept as a three-day fast?
The attham spans Krishna 9, 10 and 11. Parshvanatha's diksha also falls in the same fortnight, given as Paush Krishna 13 by Hemachandra and as Krishna 11 by the Kalpasutra; on the Kalpasutra's reading the three days cover his birth and his renunciation together. That is offered here as a fit worth noticing rather than as the documented origin of the practice, which the sources do not state.
↳ What is recited on Posh Dashami?
Japa directed to Parshvanatha, and widely the Uvasaggaharam Stotra, which is traditionally attributed to Bhadrabahu and addressed to him. The observance also carries a fixed count, reported for Shankheshwar as twelve swastika offerings, twelve khamasanas, twelve kayotsarga recitations of the Logassa and twenty navkarvali on each of the days. Counts vary by sangh, as they do for every observance of this kind.
↳ Do Digambara Jains keep Posh Dashami?
Parshvanatha's janma kalyanak is honoured across the tradition, and he is among the most widely venerated Tirthankaras in both lines. The three-day attham with the Shankheshwar and Nageshwar melas is characteristically Shvetambara, and this page describes that form. The two traditions also differ on details of his life, including whether he married and which attendant figure appears beside him in art, and this site sets those side by side rather than choosing.
Related
- Parshvanatha: the 23rd Tirthankara
- The Kalyanaka Calendar: all 120 sacred days
- Mauna Ekadashi: the day five kalyanakas fall on
- Paryushan fasting: every level, explained properly
- Jain Panchang: tithi, parva days and pachkhan times for your city
- Jain festivals 2026: the complete calendar
Sources. The tithi, Paush Krishna 10, and the nakshatra Vishakha 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 diksha divergence, Krishna 13 against Krishna 11, is printed rather than resolved. No civil date is given, deliberately. Published sources disagree because they convert a purnimanta month name in an amanta system or the reverse, and inventing a plausible date for a three-day fast would be worse than showing the gap; the same position is taken on the 2026 festival calendar. The historical evidence for Parshvanatha, the Acharanga Sutra 2.15 note on Mahavira's parents and the Keshi and Gautama dialogue at Uttaradhyayana Sutra chapter 23, is set out with its citations on his own page. The vidhi counts are reported for the Shankheshwar observance and are not uniform across sanghs. Corrections are seva: tell us.