Prabodhini Ekadashi 2026: date, parana time and vrat katha

When it falls

Next for Washington DC: Friday, November 20, 2026. Parana: Saturday, November 21, 2026, 6:57 AM – 8:56 AM. Other cities can differ. Every Ekadashi of 2026 by city.

Dev Uthani Ekadashi 2026: date and parana time by city

The story

The Narada Purana tells this tale. The sage Vasishtha tells it to King Mandhata. King Rukmangada ruled from the city of Vidisha. He loved Vishnu, and before each Ekadashi he had a drum beaten through his kingdom so that everyone would keep the fast. So many people kept it and went to Vishnu's world that Yama, who judges the dead, had almost no work, and he went to Brahma with his complaint. Brahma made a woman of wonderful beauty, Mohini, to test the king.

One day the king's horse carried him to Mount Mandara, where he heard Mohini sing. He wished to marry her. She agreed on one condition: he must give her whatever she asked. He gave his word and sealed it with his right hand.

Years later, in the month of Kartika, the drum sounded again for Prabodhini, the Ekadashi on which Vishnu wakes. Now Mohini asked the king to eat on that day. He refused. He offered her anything else: his kingdom, his treasure, even his own life. She held him to his word, and she named the one other thing she would take: the life of his son, Dharmangada. The prince placed the sword before his father and asked him to keep both his promise and his fast, and Queen Sandhyavali agreed. With a heavy heart the king lifted the sword. At that moment Vishnu himself caught the king's hand. He said that he was pleased, and he took the king, the queen and the prince to his own world.

The Padma Purana praises the same day. There, in words Krishna repeats, Brahma tells Narada that the night's vigil burns up old wrongdoing as fire burns a heap of cotton. This is the text's claim, not a promise. He asks for a joyful night before Vishnu, with songs, music and his stories, and for worship with flowers, fruits, incense and tulsi leaves.

About this telling

The tale of Rukmangada is in the Narada Purana; the printing read for this page (Bombay, 1923) sets its test on Prabodhini. The Padma Purana's chapter on this Ekadashi has only praise of the day. Some present-day tellings leave out the month or end the tale another way. Many families also tell a folk tale for Dev Uthani, about a simple man whose plain meal God came to share; it was not found in a printed Purana, so it is not retold here.

Where the story comes from

• Narada Purana (Brihannaradiya Mahapurana), Uttara Bhaga, the story of Mohini and Rukmangada, in the Shri Venkateshwar Steam Press edition (Shrinaradiya Mahapurana, Bombay: Khemraj Shrikrishnadas, Samvat 1980, Shaka 1845, that is 1923; colophon on leaf n717). An anonymous Sanskrit text: public domain. Read on the page images and retold in our own words. (Uttara Bhaga chapter 7 (folio 253, leaves n515–n516), chapter 23 (folio 269, leaf n547), chapters 33–34 (folios 284–285, leaves n578–n579))
• Padma Purana, Uttara Khanda, chapter 63, in the Anandashrama Sanskrit Series edition (Padmapuranam, part 4, Uttara Khanda, edited by V. N. Mandlik; Poona: Anandashrama Press, 1894; title page, leaf n5). An anonymous Sanskrit text: public domain. Read on the page images and retold in our own words. (chapter 63, pp. 1374–1376 (leaves n156–n158))

Sources

• Ekadashi name and month: the Pujadeep calendar's table of Ekadashi names.
• Padma Purana, Uttara Khanda, Anandashrama edition (Poona, 1894), chapter 63. (pp. 1374–1376 (leaves n156–n158))
• Narada Purana, Uttara Bhaga, Shri Venkateshwar Steam Press edition (Bombay: Khemraj Shrikrishnadas, Samvat 1980, Shaka 1845, that is 1923), chapters 7, 23, 33 and 34. (folios 253, 269 and 284–285 (leaves n515–n516, n547, n578–n579))

More Ekadashis

• Rama Ekadashi
• Utpanna Ekadashi
• All Ekadashis and their stories
• Ekadashi 2026: all dates
• Ekadashi 2027: all dates