Samvatsari 2026 falls on Tuesday 15 September for most Shvetambara Murtipujak sanghs, who keep it on Bhadrapada Shukla 4. Many Sthanakvasi and Terapanth sanghs keep it on Shukla 5, which is Wednesday 16 September 2026. Neither is a mistake.
Samvatsari is the last day of Shvetambara Paryushan and the most consequential single day in the Jain year. It is the day the year’s accounts are closed with every living being.
Samvatsari 2026 at a glance
Bhadrapada Shukla 4 (most Murtipujak): Tuesday 15 September 2026.
Bhadrapada Shukla 5 (many Sthanakvasi, Terapanth): Wednesday 16 September 2026.
Paryushan runs: Tuesday 8 September to Tuesday 15 September 2026.
Digambara counterpart: Kshamavani, Sunday 27 September 2026.
Computed from the tithi running at sunrise. Confirm against your own sangh's panchang before fixing a vow or booking leave.
The word
Samvatsara is Sanskrit for a year. Samvatsari is simply the annual one, the yearly instance of a thing done more often. That construction is a clue to what the day actually is: not a unique rite invented for one occasion, but the largest occurrence of a habit kept daily and fortnightly the rest of the time.
The habit is pratikraman, the structured review of conduct against the vows. Samvatsari Pratikraman is the same six avashyaks performed over a year instead of a day, which is why it takes three to five hours instead of forty-five minutes.
In Gujarati usage the day is Samvatsari; you will also see Samvatsari Parva and, in older printed material, Samvatsarika Pratikramana for the rite itself.
Why there are two dates
This is the part every published calendar gets asked about, and the honest answer has two layers.
The first layer is doctrinal history. The tradition’s own account is that Samvatsari was originally kept on Bhadrapada Shukla 5, Panchami, and was moved forward to Shukla 4, Chaturthi, by Acharya Kalaka, at the request of a king whose own festival occupied Panchami that year. That story is preserved in the Kalakacharya Katha, a narrative cycle that survives in illustrated manuscripts many centuries later than the events it describes. It should be read as the tradition’s self-understanding rather than as a documented record, and we present it that way.
What is not in doubt is the outcome. Most Shvetambara Murtipujak sanghs keep Chaturthi. Many Sthanakvasi and Terapanth sanghs keep Panchami, understanding themselves to be keeping the older day. Both positions are old, internally consistent and held in good faith.
The second layer is calendrical. Even within the groups that agree on Chaturthi, the civil day can differ, because a tithi can be lost (kshaya) or doubled (vriddhi) and there is a long-running divergence in the Tapa Gaccha over how to resolve that for a parva tithi. The Ek Tithi position holds that a parva tithi cannot be doubled or dropped and adjusts the neighbouring tithi instead; the Be Tithi position accepts the astronomical result as it comes. In years where this bites, two Murtipujak sanghs in the same city can keep Samvatsari a day apart.
2026 is comparatively simple. Bhadrapada Shukla 4 runs at sunrise on 15 September and Shukla 5 at sunrise on 16 September, so the two positions produce the two dates above without further complication.
| Position | Tithi | 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Most Shvetambara Murtipujak | Bhadrapada Shukla 4 | Tue 15 September |
| Many Sthanakvasi, Terapanth | Bhadrapada Shukla 5 | Wed 16 September |
| Digambara (Kshamavani, not Samvatsari) | Ashvina Krishna 1 | Sun 27 September |
What happens on the day
The morning. In Murtipujak practice the Kalpasutra reading, which has run through the eight days of Paryushan, is completed. Sthanakvasi sanghs commonly read the Antgad Sutra. Many sanghs hold a procession or a public reading; practice varies widely and nothing about it is uniform across the tradition.
The fasting. A great many people keep upvas on Samvatsari itself even if they have kept nothing else, and those who have kept atthai, eight consecutive days of upvas, break it the following morning. The three-day attham culminating on Samvatsari is the commonest serious vow of the season. The graded fasting vocabulary, navkarsi through maskhaman, is set out in full on the Paryushana page, and the Jain Panchang computes the pachkhan times from your own city’s sunrise.
Samvatsari Pratikraman. The afternoon and evening. The whole assembly sits together and works through the six avashyaks at annual length: the twelve vows and their standard transgressions, the eighteen papasthanaks, the long kayotsargas, the recitation asking forgiveness of every class of living being. It runs long and it is meant to.
The exchange. At the close, the assembly says Michhami Dukkadam to one another, and then to everyone else, by phone, message and visit, for the rest of the day and the days after.
Michhami Dukkadam does not mean "sorry"
The Prakrit means "may my misdeed be fruitless". It is a request about karma, not a report of a feeling, and the full Khamemi Savve Jiva verse asks you to forgive before you ask to be forgiven. The word order is deliberate.
What the day asks that a greeting does not
The phrase travels well and the practice does not, and it is worth being blunt about the gap.
Samvatsari asks for specific forgiveness from specific people. The tradition’s expectation is that you approach the person you actually wronged, name the thing, and ask. A broadcast message to a contact list is not forbidden and is not worthless, but it discharges the easy part. If your list of recipients contains no uncomfortable name, the day has probably gone past you.
It also asks you to give forgiveness, and the verse puts that first. Khamemi savve jive, I forgive all living beings, precedes savve jiva khamantu me, may all living beings forgive me. In practice the giving is the harder half, and the doctrine explains why: anger is one of the four kashayas, the passions that make karmic matter adhere in the first place. Releasing a grievance is not a courtesy done for someone else. It removes the mechanism in you that binds.
And it does not ask you to pretend an injury did not happen, to restore a relationship that harmed you, or to declare that what was done was acceptable. Kshama is release of the anger you are carrying. It is not a verdict on the other person’s conduct. Using the day to press someone into a reconciliation they have good reason to refuse inverts it.
Samvatsari 2026 to 2030
Computed on the same basis as the rest of this site: the tithi running at local sunrise names the day, the lunar month is anchored on the new moon that began it, sunrise taken at Ahmedabad.
| Year | Shukla 4 (most Murtipujak) | Shukla 5 (many Sthanakvasi, Terapanth) |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Tue 15 September | Wed 16 September |
| 2027 | Sat 4 September | Sun 5 September |
| 2028 | Wed 23 August | Thu 24 August |
| 2029 | Tue 11 September | Wed 12 September |
| 2030 | Sun 1 September | Mon 2 September |
Two of those years carry footnotes worth knowing: in 2028 and 2029 Bhadrapada Shukla 3 is lost, beginning and ending between two sunrises, so no civil day carries it. Samvatsari still lands on Shukla 4, but the bright fortnight is a day shorter than the arithmetic suggests. The full working, including Das Lakshana and Kshamavani for the same years, is on the Paryushana page.
Samvatsari and Kshamavani are not the same day
They are counterparts, not variants. Samvatsari closes the eight-day Shvetambara Paryushan on Bhadrapada Shukla 4 or 5. Kshamavani is the Digambara day of forgiveness, kept on Ashvina Krishna 1, which in 2026 is Sunday 27 September, twelve days after Samvatsari and two days after Das Lakshana ends on Ananta Chaturdashi.
Published calendars merge these constantly. They are distinct observances, on distinct dates, closing distinct festivals. A Digambara Jain who has been told that Samvatsari is “the” Jain forgiveness day has been handed someone else’s calendar.
The sky on Samvatsari
Since this is an astrology site, the honest statement: Samvatsari is not astrologically elected. No one chose Bhadrapada Shukla 4 for a favourable configuration. It is a calendrical rule, fixed to a tithi within a named lunar month, and it lands wherever the grahas happen to be that year.
What the classical framework does say is that Choth is not itself one of the five parva tithis of the fortnight, the days of intensified restraint being Bij, Pancham, Aatham, Agiyaras and Chaudas. The weight of Samvatsari comes from the festival, not from the lunar day. That is the Jain position on auspiciousness stated as clearly as the calendar ever states it: a day is auspicious because of what is done on it. The grahas indicate karmic weather; they do not compel anyone to do anything, and nothing in a chart makes forgiveness easier or harder than the person’s own resolve makes it.
Live positions for the day, and any kalyanaka falling on the same tithi, are on the Jain Panchang.
Practical notes
- It falls on a Tuesday in 2026. If you intend to keep Samvatsari Pratikraman, block the afternoon and evening.
- Outside India the date can shift. Tithis are computed from local sunrise, so the civil day can differ by one between India and North America or Europe. Your local sangh’s calendar governs.
- Partial attendance is attendance. A four-hour rite is a real obstacle for people with young children, health limits or shift work, and treating full attendance as a test of piety pushes in the wrong direction.
- Send the difficult message first. Everything else on the day is easier than that, which is a reasonable indication of where the practice actually is.
Frequently asked questions
↳ When is Samvatsari 2026?
Tuesday 15 September 2026 for most Shvetambara Murtipujak sanghs, who keep Samvatsari on Bhadrapada Shukla 4. Many Sthanakvasi and Terapanth sanghs keep it on Shukla 5, which is Wednesday 16 September 2026. Both are old and deliberate positions. Digambara Jains do not keep Samvatsari at all; their day of forgiveness is Kshamavani on Sunday 27 September 2026.
↳ Why do some Jains keep Samvatsari a day later?
The tradition's own account, preserved in the Kalakacharya Katha, is that the day was moved from Bhadrapada Shukla 5 to Shukla 4 by Acharya Kalaka at a king's request. Groups keeping Panchami understand themselves to be keeping the older day. Separately, within the Tapa Gaccha the Ek Tithi and Be Tithi positions resolve lost and doubled tithis differently, which can move the civil date by one even where both agree on Chaturthi. None of these positions is a mistake.
↳ What do you do on Samvatsari?
Most observant Jains keep upvas, attend the completion of the Kalpasutra reading in the morning, and sit Samvatsari Pratikraman in the afternoon and evening. That rite runs three to five hours and works through the twelve householder vows, their standard transgressions and the eighteen papasthanaks. It closes with the whole assembly exchanging Michhami Dukkadam, after which the asking of forgiveness continues by phone, message and visit.
↳ Is Samvatsari the same as Kshamavani?
No. Samvatsari closes the eight-day Shvetambara Paryushan on Bhadrapada Shukla 4 or 5, which is 15 or 16 September in 2026. Kshamavani is the Digambara day of forgiveness on Ashvina Krishna 1, which is Sunday 27 September 2026, two days after Das Lakshana ends on Ananta Chaturdashi. They are counterparts in different traditions, not two names for one day, and published calendars merge them constantly.
↳ Do you have to fast on Samvatsari?
There is no compulsion, and Jain fasting is graded rather than binary. Many people keep a full upvas on the day, others keep ekasana or ayambil, and those who have kept atthai across the whole of Paryushan break it the morning after. The level you keep is a specific vow taken under guidance rather than a personal target, and there is no doctrinal merit in a fast that produces resentment or damages health.
Related
- Paryushana 2026: dates, practice and what actually happens
- Pratikraman: turning back, and what happens in one
- Michhami Dukkadam: what the words actually mean
- Kshamavani Parva 2026: the Digambara day of forgiveness
- Jain festivals 2026: the complete calendar
Sources. Civil dates are computed from the tithi running at local sunrise, sunrise taken at Ahmedabad, with the lunar month anchored on the new moon that began it; the same computation underlies the Paryushana page and cross-checks against published Jain panchangs for 2026. The Chaturthi and Panchami divergence is reported from the Kalakacharya Katha narrative tradition, which survives in manuscripts far later than the events described, and is labelled here as the tradition's self-understanding rather than as documented history. The Ek Tithi and Be Tithi positions are described as a live divergence within the Tapa Gaccha and no adjudication is offered. Where the traditions differ, none of them is wrong; follow your own sangh's published panchang. Corrections are seva: tell us.