Avani Avittam is Yajurveda Upakarma on Shravana Purnima, the day Krishna Yajur households, Taittiriya and Bodhayana among them, and Shukla Yajur households change the poonal and open the Veda again. The year of study that was never formally closed is atoned for with Kamokarshin japa, and water is offered to the sages of the Veda's kandas in Kandarshi tarpanam. The new thread is worn so that the daily shrauta and smarta rites may go on unbroken, and Vedarambham begins the Yajur samhita afresh at ishe tvorje tva. How the day is fixed: The day is Shravana Purnima standing at midday at your place. It is not fixed by Avittam star alone, and it is not the Shravana-star day of Rigveda Upakarma. Keep in mind: Tithis turn by local sunrise, so check on which day Purnima holds at midday in your own town. The full moon of Shravana carries the same name under amānta and pūrṇimānta reckoning. Tamil Nadu calls the day Avani Avittam, Andhra and Telangana Jandhyala Purnima, and Kerala Avittam. This year: The 2026 date shown here is worked out from sunrise at the place you chose, so in another city the same day can fall a day earlier or later. Morning, on the old thread: Morning sandhya is still done on the old thread, and a brahmachari who keeps the fire does samidadhanam and wears the homa bhasma. Seated on darbha, one recites the Kamokarshin japa 108 or 1008 times, then Brahmayajnam with the first lines of the four Vedas and water for the gods, the rishis and the pitrus. Those whose father is alive leave out personal pitru tarpanam. Mahasankalpam and the new thread: The year's mahasankalpam names the place and the time and asks atonement for what was done knowingly or not. After a bath in a river or at home and fresh clothes, the new poonal is worn with yajnopavitam paramam pavitram, and the old thread is given to water. Kandarshi tarpanam and Vedarambham: With the new thread worn as a garland, water mixed with til and akshata goes three times to Prajapati, Soma, Agni, the Vishvedevas and the Kanda rishis. After namaskaram to the gurus, the Yajur samhita opens at ishe tvorje tva, the first mantra of both Taittiriya and Vajasaneyi. A shanti such as bhadram karnebhih may be heard first, but it is not the samhita's first line. Worth remembering: Rakhi often falls on the same full moon, but it is the sibling thread, not the changing of the poonal. Rigveda Upakarma follows Shravana star in Shravana month, Gayatri Japam is the next morning, and Samaveda Upakarma comes later, on Hasta in Sangava in Bhadrapada. Each house keeps upakarma by its own sutra and kulācāra. Taittiriya, Bodhayana and Vajasaneyi families keep the same order but name the Kanda rishis differently, and many pathashalas go on to the Maheshvara sutras and the dharma and brahma jijnasa so that grammar and inquiry begin with the Veda. The paddhati followed and the names recited differ from house to house. Know what the pañcāṅga says, and follow the order the elders of your own house have kept.
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