Ekadashi tithi is the eleventh lunar day of each fortnight and, for many Hindu families, the most familiar tithi of all, because it is the day of the Ekadashi fast. Astronomically, the Moon is 120 to 132 degrees ahead of the Sun on Shukla Ekadashi, three-quarters lit or more, and 300 to 312 degrees ahead on Krishna Ekadashi, a slim waning crescent in the dawn sky. The Muhurta Chintamani gives the tithi to the Vishvedevas, the gods taken all together, while devotional practice gives it to Vishnu; it is the last of the three Nanda tithis, and Mars is its planet when the tithi lords are counted in weekday order. Some twenty-four named Ekadashis are kept through the year. Covered here: the significance of being born on ekadashi tithi, the Moon on either side of the month, what the classical sources attach to the day, the calendar rules behind differing fast dates, and why the birth tithi is only a small part of any chart the kundali calculator draws.
Dashami precedes Ekadashi, and Dwadashi, on which the fast is broken, follows it.
Conventions used. A person’s birth tithi is the lunar day running at the moment of birth, one tithi per twelve degrees of separation between the Moon and the Sun. Signs are sidereal (Lahiri). The shares quoted are from random birth moments over 1950 to 2010, Swiss Ephemeris positions.
Born on Ekadashi? Read what the chart itself says.
A consultation reads your Moon's sign and nakshatra, Mars and the lagna, and the dasha you are running, and places the Ekadashi birth in the context of the whole chart.
In this article
- The eleventh day: Ekadashi tithi in context
- Shukla Ekadashi: a bright Moon in trine
- Krishna Ekadashi: a crescent before dawn
- The Vishvedevas, and Vishnu’s day
- The last of the Nanda tithis
- Mars as the tithi’s planet
- Jupiter’s signs dimmed: Sagittarius and Pisces
- Why Ekadashi fast dates differ
- The fast and the birth are different things
- Ekadashi and KP
- Two Ekadashi births
- Frequently asked questions
The eleventh day: Ekadashi tithi in context
Ekadashi means eleven. Its deities in the Muhurta Chintamani are the Vishvedevas; its class is Nanda, with Pratipada and Shashthi; some lists call it Anandaprada, the giver of delight; its planet in the weekday count is Mars; and its burnt signs are Sagittarius and Pisces. The sample put 3.3 percent of births on Shukla Ekadashi and 3.3 percent on Krishna Ekadashi. The ekadashi tithi meaning for a birth therefore draws on the universal gods, the joy of the Nanda tithis, the energy of Mars and, for most families, the association with Vishnu and the discipline of the fast.
Shukla Ekadashi: a bright Moon in trine
On Shukla Ekadashi the Moon is three-quarters to five-sixths lit, a fat gibbous Moon that is up for most of the night and sets in the early morning. In 80 percent of shukla ekadashi births it is in the fifth sign from the Sun, in trine to it, and otherwise in the sixth. It is strong and benefic by phase, only four tithis from full. The tradition reads this as a warm, generous and devotional temperament, someone who enjoys ritual and celebration and gives freely of their time.
Krishna Ekadashi: a crescent before dawn
On Krishna Ekadashi the Moon has shrunk to a sixth to a quarter lit, a crescent that rises a few hours before the Sun and fades into the morning. Eight krishna ekadashi births in ten find it eleven signs round from the Sun, the rest twelve, and by phase it counts as weak. The traditional reading is of a more inward nature, capable of restraint and quiet discipline, often more at ease with simplicity than with display. The Moon’s sign and aspects decide how much of that appears in a particular life.
The Vishvedevas, and Vishnu’s day
The Vishvedevas are the gods considered as a whole, the collective of divine powers that the Vedic hymns invoke together. As a tithi deity they give Ekadashi a broad, inclusive character: the day belongs to no single faction of the heavens. In living practice, though, Ekadashi is Vishnu’s day. The Puranas tell of a goddess born from Vishnu on this tithi to defeat a demon, and of the merit of fasting on it, and the named Ekadashis of the year, from Devshayani, when Vishnu begins his four months of sleep, to Prabodhini, when he wakes, are among the most widely kept observances in Hindu life. The four months between those two Ekadashis, Chaturmas, are kept as a season of restraint, when many households avoid weddings and other new beginnings. A person born on the day inherits that association, and families often describe an Ekadashi child as having a devotional or idealistic streak.
The last of the Nanda tithis
Ekadashi completes the Nanda class, after Pratipada and Shashthi. Nanda means joy, the class suits festive and pleasurable undertakings in muhurta, and a Nanda tithi on a Friday counts as Siddha. The name Anandaprada, giver of delight, sits oddly at first with a day of fasting, but the tradition sees no contradiction: the fast is kept for the sake of a deeper contentment. As a birth quality the Nanda thread usually shows as cheerfulness and a capacity to enjoy simple things.
Mars as the tithi’s planet
In the weekday count of tithi lords, Mars takes Tritiya and Ekadashi. It is the energetic, self-disciplined side of the planet that fits Ekadashi best: the will to keep a fast, to hold a commitment, to push through. In an Ekadashi chart the natal Mars is worth a close look, its dignity, house and aspects in particular. A strong Mars makes the tithi’s discipline come easily; an afflicted one can show as impatience with restraint, or restraint pushed too far.
Jupiter’s signs dimmed: Sagittarius and Pisces
Ekadashi’s burnt signs are Sagittarius and Pisces, Jupiter’s pair, the same two that Dwitiya burns. The tradition expects the houses holding them to fall slightly short and Jupiter to act with less force as their lord. It exempts a Jupiter sitting in a dusthana or moving retrograde, and it treats a natural malefic lodged in either sign as doing well there. There is a certain irony in a tithi so closely tied to devotion dimming Jupiter, the planet of dharma, which is one more reason to treat the rule as a light refinement rather than a verdict.
Why Ekadashi fast dates differ
Many families notice that two calendars, or two temples, can list the Ekadashi fast on different days. The difference is not usually a mistake. It comes from rules that decide which civil day gets the fast, and they are worth knowing, because the same rules explain why a calendar’s Ekadashi and a chart’s Ekadashi do not always match.
| Rule | What it says | How it can move the date |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise rule (Smarta) | The fast is kept on the day Ekadashi is running at sunrise | Most household calendars follow this, so it sets the usual date |
| Dashami-viddha (Vaishnava) | An Ekadashi touched by Dashami before sunrise is avoided | The Vaishnava fast can fall one day after the Smarta fast |
| Parana on Dwadashi | The fast is broken after sunrise on Dwadashi, before Dwadashi ends | When Dwadashi is short, the window for breaking the fast narrows |
| Hari Vasara | The first quarter of Dwadashi is avoided for breaking the fast | The ekadashi parana can be pushed later into the morning or beyond |
Some calendars add further exceptions, known as the Mahadvadashi rules, under which particular conjunctions move the fast onto Dwadashi itself. The practical advice given by most panchang makers is simple: follow the tradition your family or temple already keeps. For smarta and vaishnava ekadashi observers alike, a difference of a day is expected, not an error. Children, older people, pregnant women and anyone who is unwell or on medication usually keep a lighter form of the fast, and nobody should give up food, water or prescribed medicine against medical advice for the sake of one.
The fast and the birth are different things
Because Ekadashi is so strongly tied to the fast, families sometimes assume that a child born on the fast day is an Ekadashi birth, or that a child born on Ekadashi must keep the fast. Neither follows. The fast day is a civil day chosen by the rules above, while the birth tithi is the tithi in force at the minute of birth. A baby born in the evening of a fast day can easily be born on Dwadashi, and one born before dawn can be born on Ekadashi when the calendar still shows Dashami. Keeping the fast is a matter of devotion and family practice. It is not something a birth chart asks of anyone.
Ekadashi and KP
KP takes no account of the birth tithi, and it takes none of the day’s tithi in horary either. A KP horary chart is built from a number between 1 and 249 chosen by the person asking, as the site’s guide to the horary number system explains, and the question is answered from that chart’s cusps and sub-lords. A question asked on Ekadashi is judged exactly as one asked on any other day. Many people do choose a sacred day to ask a question that matters to them, and there is nothing wrong with that; KP simply does not give the day any weight in the answer. In a natal chart, the Moon’s star and sub-lord matter to KP; its tithi does not.
Two Ekadashi births
A man born in the morning on Ashadhi Ekadashi, the Devshayani Ekadashi, details altered, as the Pandharpur pilgrims were arriving at the temple of Vitthal. Gemini is rising with the Sun at 15 degrees Gemini in the lagna, and the Moon, at 21 degrees Libra in the fifth house, is 126 degrees ahead: Shukla Ekadashi, with a strong Moon in trine to the Sun. The Moon’s sign, described in the page on the Moon in Libra, brings grace and a feeling for harmony, and its house is the house of creativity and devotion. He sings abhangs, the devotional songs of the Varkari tradition, and leads a group that walks to Pandharpur every year.
The second is a woman, particulars changed, born in the last dark hour before sunrise with Leo on the ascendant, the Sun at 20 degrees Virgo in the second house and the Moon at 26 degrees Cancer in the twelfth, a thin crescent just risen: Krishna Ekadashi, with the Moon 306 degrees ahead of the Sun and weak by phase. The same Moon is in its own sign, as the page on the Moon in Cancer describes, in the twelfth house of giving, with the Sun in the second house of food. Her family has always kept the Ekadashi fast. She runs a community kitchen that feeds several hundred people a day, which is a fair translation of a fasting day, a nurturing Moon and a twelfth-house generosity into a life’s work.
Frequently asked questions
What is Ekadashi tithi?
The eleventh lunar day of each fortnight: the Moon 120 to 132 degrees ahead of the Sun on Shukla Ekadashi, or 300 to 312 degrees on Krishna Ekadashi. It is the day of the Ekadashi fast.
Is it lucky to be born on Ekadashi?
Families often think so because of its association with Vishnu. As a birth tithi it is neither lucky nor unlucky; it adds a devotional, disciplined colour, and the chart decides the rest.
How do Shukla and Krishna Ekadashi differ?
Shukla Ekadashi has a bright, strong Moon, most often five signs on from the Sun. Krishna Ekadashi has a thin crescent in the dawn sky, weak by phase, most often eleven signs on.
Why do Smarta and Vaishnava calendars show different Ekadashi dates?
Smarta calendars keep the fast on the day Ekadashi is running at sunrise. Vaishnava calendars avoid an Ekadashi touched by Dashami before sunrise, which can move their fast a day later.
Does someone born on Ekadashi have to fast?
No. Fasting is a devotional practice keyed to the calendar, not a requirement of any birth chart, and people with health conditions should follow medical advice.
Which planet rules Ekadashi?
Mars, in the weekday scheme of tithi lords. Its deities in the Muhurta Chintamani are the Vishvedevas, though in practice it is Vishnu’s day.
What are the burnt signs of Ekadashi?
Sagittarius and Pisces, ruled by Jupiter, the same pair as Dwitiya. The rule is a small refinement in a birth chart, never a verdict.
The fast is devotion. The chart is information.
A consultation reads your Moon, Mars and lagna, the houses they rule and the dasha you are running, and places your Ekadashi birth where it belongs in the whole picture.