Jayā Ekādaśī is the bright-fortnight Ekādaśī of Māgha. The Padma Purāṇa (Uttara-khaṇḍa 43) tells of the gandharvas Mālyavān and Puṣpadantī, who faltered in their song and dance before Indra and were cursed to wander as piśācas. Shivering beneath a tree in a Himalayan forest, they passed this Ekādaśī without food or sleep, never meaning to keep a vrata, and at dawn the merit of that fast restored their gandharva forms. The name is read as the victory the day grants, even over a curse. How the day is fixed: Jayā Ekādaśī is kept on the day when Māgha Śukla Ekādaśī prevails at local sunrise. Keep in mind: In the Tamil calendar the day falls in Tai or Māsi, and in the Malayalam calendar in Makaram or Kumbham. Pāraṇa the next morning must fall within the Dvādaśī window shown in a local pañcāṅga. 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. The fast: Those keeping the vrata give up grains and beans from Daśamī evening and live on fruit and milk (phalāhāra) through the Ekādaśī. Names and prayers by region: Telugu and Kannada homes call the day Bhīṣma Ekādaśī and recite the Viṣṇu Sahasranāma, Bengal and Odisha list it as Bhaimī Ekādaśī, and Maharashtra keeps it as Māghī Ekādaśī with the Pandharpur vārī. Pāraṇa: The fast is broken on Dvādaśī morning within the usual pāraṇa window, confirmed against a local pañcāṅga. Worth remembering: Bhīṣmāṣṭamī falls a few days earlier and is a separate observance. The story echoes Lumpaka's in Saphalā Ekādaśī, another vrata that bears fruit even when kept unknowingly. How the day is kept follows family and regional custom. Some households spend it in Sahasranāma pārāyaṇa, others in nāmakīrtana, Bhāgavata reading or abhaṅgas to Viṭhobā, and the strictness of the fast differs from home to home. The surest guide is the practice the elders of one's own house have followed.
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