Ritual Guides · Sanskar & Life Events
DHARMA · 4/5 · PURANICIndira Ekadashi
The Ekadashi for the Departed
6 October 2026 · Delhi-NCR
Scripturally sourcedRegion awareFear-free
Listen to this guide — coming soon
WHAT BRINGS YOU HERE TODAY?
WHAT COUNTS AS A GRAIN
The rule is about grains and pulses — and several Ekadashi foods are neither
Kuttu is a seed. Singhara is a water chestnut. Sabudana is palm starch. Samak is a millet the tradition classifies separately. The answer is the same wherever you meet it, on any Ekadashi guide.
SOURCE OF TRUTHHow we decide ›
CORE PRACTICE
Fasting and Vishnu worship on Ashwin Krishna Ekadashi, kept on behalf of the departed
DHARMA · 4/5 · PURANICPadma Purana · Uttara-Khanda, Chapter 58
This guide: 1 core practice · 4 scriptural elements · 3 practice conventions · 3 corrections
Indira Ekadashi
Ekadashi ends
Tue 6 Oct
12:35 AM
Sunrise
Tue 6 Oct
6:16 AM
Sunset
Tue 6 Oct
6:01 PM
Rahu Kaal
Tue 6 Oct
3:05–4:33 PM
The Paarana is taken on Dwadashi morning (Wednesday, 7 October 2026) between 06:17 AM and 08:38 AM after Hari Vasara ends; the window shifts by city. Where the tithi also matches your family's Shraddha tithi, Tarpan may be performed alongside. Pitru Paksha runs to Mahalaya Amavasya on 10 October 2026
An Ekadashi kept for someone else
Every other Ekadashi in the year is kept for oneself for purification, for devotion, for the merit that accrues to the one fasting.
Indira Ekadashi is the exception. It falls inside Pitru Paksha, and the merit of the fast is described as transferable, offered on behalf of someone who has died. It is the only Ekadashi in the calendar built around doing something for a person who cannot do it themselves.
Origin
Pitru Paksha is a fortnight of things done for the dead — water poured, food offered, names said aloud. Indira Ekadashi is the one day inside it that borrows a different mechanism.
An Ekadashi fast generates punya for the person keeping it. That is how all twenty-four work, and it is why they are usually described as a discipline rather than a service. What the Padma Purana does on this one tithi is describe that punya as transferable — generated by the living, and assigned to someone who is no longer able to generate any. While regular memorial rites offer direct sustenance, this day uses spiritual merit as a bridge between the living and the departed.
The text explains the Indrasena narrative, and the shape of that story is worth noticing. Nobody tells Indrasena his father is being punished. Narada brings a request, not a diagnosis, and the request is for an action the son is able to perform.
That is what this Ekadashi is for. Shraddha and tarpan give the ancestors something. This day gives the living something to do — which, for anyone who has ever felt that there was nothing left to be done, is a different kind of provision entirely.
The tradition placed it inside the fortnight deliberately, and placed only one there. Twenty-three Ekadashis in the year are for the person keeping them. This one sits in the middle of the fortnight of the dead and points the other way.
Dharma · 4/5 · Padma Purana
Sankalp
The Padma Purana prescribes the vrat and the transfer of merit. It does not give sankalp wording. The standard vrat sankalp with the departed named is paddhati convention rather than scriptural instruction.
Say this — or your own words
Spoken with water in the right hand, then poured out
ॐ विष्णुर्विष्णुर्विष्णुः … मम आत्मनः श्रुतिस्मृतिपुराणोक्तफलप्राप्त्यर्थं अस्मत् पितुः (नाम-गोत्र) अक्षय्यतृप्त्यर्थं इन्दिरा एकादशी व्रतम् अहं करिष्ये ॥
“I (your name) from (gotra) take up the Indira Ekadashi vrat on (date) at (place) for (purpose) and offer its merit to (name of the departed).”
WHO
Your name, and your gotra if your family uses one. Any relative may keep this fast for any departed person — nothing restricts it to a son, and the tradition does not assign remembrance by relationship.
WHEN AND WHERE
Ashwin Krishna Ekadashi, at home. That is sufficient.
FOR WHAT
For what The vrat, the form of fast you are keeping, and the name of the person you are keeping it for. This is the only sankalp in the Ekadashi set that names someone else, and that naming is the observance. If you do not know a gotra, or cannot recall a tithi, or are keeping it for someone whose name is all you have — the sankalp still holds. Say what you know. Nothing here is a test, and nobody's condition depends on your recall.
Listen to the sankalp · EN
0:00 / 0:00
No Sanskrit required. Say it in whatever language you think in — a sankalp said sincerely in Hindi or English is a sankalp.
DHARMA · 4/5Brahma Vaivarta Purana CONVENTIONAL WORDING
Samagri
Samagri7 items
- Fresh tulsi leaves—
- Ganga Jal or clean water—
- Cow’s milk and panchamritFor abhishek
- Black sesameWhere Shraddha is performed the same day
- Flowers, akshat—
- Diya and ghee—
- Food for daan—
Avoided on the fast day: grains, rice, wheat, lentils and pulses, regular salt, onion, garlic and non-vegetarian food. Sendha namak permitted. Phalahar only.
VidhiShowHide
Timing. If you cannot do the full Tarpan: a glass of water with black sesame, poured facing south, with their names said aloud and Swadha after each, is accepted. The Manusmriti allows Nitya Shraddha with water alone.
1
Take the sankalp
Take the vrat sankalp after bathing, naming the person on whose behalf you are keeping it.
2
Getting ready
Rise before sunrise on Ekadashi and bathe.
3
Samagri
Vishnu puja — panchamrit abhishek, tulsi, flowers, akshat, diya.
4
Recite
Chant - Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya
5
Performing Tarpan
Where the tithi coincides with your family's Shraddha tithi, Tarpan may be performed the same day.
6
Fast through the day on phalahar
Nirjala and jagaran are traditional and neither is mandated. Phalahar is fully accepted, and a fast adapted to your health is a complete vrat. [Pratha · 2/5]
7
Paaran
Break the fast in the Paaran window on Dwadashi
8
Donate
Offer food to someone in need in the name of the person you kept it for
Mantra
The twelve-syllable mantra, said through the puja and through the day of the fast.
ॐ नमो भगवते वासुदेवाय ॥
Salutations to the Lord Vasudeva.
"Where the merit is formally offered, the name and gotra of the departed are spoken at the close of the puja, followed by Swadha — the same word used in tarpan through the rest of the fortnight. "
Japa count: 108 · also kept at 11, 21, 51
Japa count - 108, or as many rounds as the day allows. No count is prescribed for this Ekadashi specifically.
DHARMA · 4/5Vishnu Purana
Fasting
The fast runs from the Dashami evening to the Paaran on Dwadashi morning.
Phalahar
Avoid grains, rice, wheat, lentils and pulses, regular salt, onion, garlic and non-vegetarian food. Sendha namak permitted.
Fear-free note. Nirjala and jagaran are traditional and neither is mandated. Phalahar is fully accepted, and a fast adapted to your health is a complete vrat. Nothing that is offered on someone's behalf is diminished by the body of the person offering it.
DHARMA · 4/5Padma Purana
Katha
Padma Purana
A king takes on a sacred fast to save his father's soul
King Indrasena ruled well and was untroubled until the sage Narada came to his court with a message. Narada had seen the king’s father in Yamaloka, and the father had asked him to carry a request: that his son keep Indira Ekadashi, and offer the merit of it on his behalf, so that he might move on. Indrasena kept the fast as Narada instructed, and offered its merit to his father. His father was released from where he had been held, and the king continued to rule. Whoever keeps this Ekadashi and offers its merit to a departed relative is described as providing that relative with what they cannot provide for themselves.
Recite the katha during the puja. Read it aloud or have it read while you listen.
Dharma vs Pratha
Named in text
- Fasting and Vishnu worship on Ashwin Krishna Ekadashi, kept on behalf of the departed.
- The Indrasena katha. The transfer of merit to an ancestor
- Vishnu puja with tulsi and panchamrit
- Grain avoidance
DHARMA · 4/5 · PURANIC
Padma Purana
Scored out of five on how directly the text states it
Cultural, not text
- Nirjala treated as the superior form
- Jagaran through the night
- Performing Shraddha the same day where the tithi coincides
- All three kept widely, and none of them prescribed
PRATHA · 2/5
Scored out of five on how widely it is attested — real and valid, and not scripture
Myths & Facts
BHRANTI
Myth: “If you do not keep Indira Ekadashi, your ancestors stay in torment.”
Fact: Nothing in the tradition makes your relatives’ condition contingent on your calendar. The katha describes an action a son was able to take, not a punishment for a son who did not. If you have never kept this Ekadashi, nobody is suffering because of it — and if you would like to keep it now, that is available to you and always was.
BHRANTI
Myth: “Only a son can keep it on a parent’s behalf.”
Fact: The katha features a son because it features a king with a father. Nothing restricts who may keep a fast for whom. Daughters, grandchildren and other relatives keep it, and a debt of remembrance is not assigned by relationship.
BHRANTI
Myth: “It must be nirjala or it does not count.”
Fact: No text prescribes the waterless form. Phalahar is fully accepted, and a fast adapted to your health is a complete vrat.
There are twenty-four Ekadashis in a year and twenty-three of them are for the person keeping them.
This one is for somebody else, and specifically for somebody who is no longer here to do it themselves. That is an unusual thing for a calendar to make room for, and it is worth noticing that the tradition did.
TAPA INTELLIGENCE LAYEREvery claim on this page, classified and scoredExpand the full Dharma / Pratha / Bhranti table ›
| ELEMENT | TAG | SOURCE | SCORE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core practice (this guide) | DHARMA · 4/5 | Padma Purana · Uttara-Khanda, Chapter 58 | 4/5 |
| Sankalp | DHARMA · 4/5 | Brahma Vaivarta Purana | 4/5 |
| Section 8 | DHARMA · 4/5 | Vishnu Purana | 4/5 |
| Section 9 | DHARMA · 4/5 | Padma Purana | 4/5 |
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Related
Tapa Circle
Opens soon. Reminders on WhatsApp, the evening before.
Kept at home with no priest.
You do not need any of these. The guide is complete on its own.