When is Dussehra (Vijayadashami)?

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Timings on this page are computed for Varanasi.

The whole table below is recomputed for the city you pick. That is not cosmetic: an observance decided at moonrise, such as Karwa Chauth, can genuinely fall on a different day in two cities, and the moment the fast ends differs by more than an hour across India.

Computed for Varanasi

The date in Varanasi

Tuesday, 20 October 2026

Tithi

Dashami, Shukla paksha

Lunar month

Ashwin (amanta)

Tithi begins

20 Oct, 12:51

Tithi ends

21 Oct, 14:13

Decided at

Aparahna (afternoon)

Aparahna in Varanasi

20 Oct, 14:00

Aparahna in Varanasi falls at 14:00 on that day, and that is the instant the tithi has to be running at for the day to carry the observance. It is computed for this city rather than assumed, because it is what decides the date.

The two instants above are the astronomy and are not in dispute. The day is an interpretation of them: this observance is decided at aparahna, so it belongs to the day whose aparahna the tithi carries — not simply to the day the tithi begins.

Muhurat · Varanasi

Dussehra (Vijayadashami) muhurat

12:51 to 15:09

That window is aparahna overlapped with Dashami — the moment this observance is decided at, intersected with the tithi that defines it. Neither half is the answer on its own: the anchor window alone would give you a time at which the tithi may already have ended, and the tithi alone would give you most of a day.

Aparahna window

12:51 to 15:09

Dashami runs

20 Oct, 12:51 to 21 Oct, 14:13

Aparahna is the fourth fifth of the daylight — the afternoon division, not the whole afternoon.

Auspicious windows that day

Windows usually worked around

These are the spans classical muhurta sets aside for beginnings. They are descriptions of a convention, not warnings: the observance is kept on its day regardless, and nothing here needs to be bought, corrected or remedied.

Every window above is computed for Varanasi on Tuesday, 20 October 2026, from that day's sunrise, sunset and the following sunrise. The Vedic day runs sunrise to sunrise, so a window whose clock time falls after midnight still belongs to the date named above rather than to the one the wall clock has turned over to.

• Choghadiya windows for today
• Rahu Kaal for your city
• Hora — the planetary hours

Dussehra (Vijayadashami) across five years

Two years back, this year, and two ahead. Past years are kept rather than dropped so you can check the engine against a calendar you already have.

Every row is computed for Varanasi from the same ephemeris, not looked up. Sunrise decides which day a tithi names, and sunrise differs across India by more than an hour, so a date computed for Delhi can be a day out elsewhere.

Why calendars disagree about this date

There is no single authority that settles a Hindu festival date, and the divergence is genuine rather than sloppy. Three causes account for almost all of it.

1. A tithi rarely starts at sunrise. One that is running at the deciding moment on two days — or on none — is claimed by both days under different rules.
2. Month reckoning. North India runs purnimanta, the south and west amanta. The same dark fortnight carries different month names in the two, so an observance defined as "krishna X of month Y" can land a full lunation apart.
3. Which moment decides. Most vratas belong to the day whose sunrise carries the tithi, but not all: this one is decided at aparahna. Almanacs that apply the sunrise rule to everything move several festivals by a day.

So this page shows its working. If your pandit or your family almanac gives a different day, the instants above will usually show you exactly why — and that is more useful than a date asserted without one.

Related timing

• The full vrat and tyohar calendar
• Panchang for your city — tithi, nakshatra, yoga, karana
• Choghadiya windows for the day
• Free kundli — see what this period touches in your own chart