July 2009
The year as Sanatan keeps it — every month behind you and every month ahead. Each day is computed for where you stand, and each festival carries what it is for and one act.
This is a default, not your place. Set it so the tithi and the muhurtas are your own.
Every tithi here turns at sunrise where you are, so this calendar is yours rather than a Delhi almanac reprinted.
This month crosses out of Ashadha and into Shravana.
Ashadha — The rains are awaited. The Rath Yatra rolls here, and Guru Purnima falls at its full moon.
Shravana — The month of listening. Shiva's month — its Mondays are kept, and Raksha Bandhan falls at its full moon.
The days this month keeps
Whose year is this?
Bharat does not keep one calendar. Pongal, Onam, Bihu, Baisakhi and Poila Boishakh are all real new years, and none of them is a variant of another. VEDAUM will not guess yours from a birthplace — a Malayali family in Delhi still keeps Onam.
This list is not complete, and a region missing from it is VEDAUM's gap, not yours. You keep the whole pan-Indian year either way.
Devshayani Ekadashi
Chaturmasya begins: four months in which the tradition asks for restraint rather than expansion. Historically the monsoon retreat, when travel stopped and study deepened.
The actChoose one thing to give up for four months. Write it down and tell one person.
Matched in Ashadha. Both reckonings name this month alike, so there is nothing to choose between them here. A krishna-paksha day carries two month names — purnimanta runs a month ahead of amanta — so each festival is matched by the reckoning its own name uses. This is shown so you can check it.
Devshayani Ekadashi
Chaturmasya begins: four months in which the tradition asks for restraint rather than expansion. Historically the monsoon retreat, when travel stopped and study deepened.
The actChoose one thing to give up for four months. Write it down and tell one person.
Matched in Ashadha. Both reckonings name this month alike, so there is nothing to choose between them here. A krishna-paksha day carries two month names — purnimanta runs a month ahead of amanta — so each festival is matched by the reckoning its own name uses. This is shown so you can check it.
Guru Purnima
For Vyasa, and for every teacher since. The full moon of the month that turns toward learning.
The actContact a teacher who changed you and say specifically what changed. Then teach one thing to someone who cannot repay you.
Matched in Ashadha. Both reckonings name this month alike, so there is nothing to choose between them here. A krishna-paksha day carries two month names — purnimanta runs a month ahead of amanta — so each festival is matched by the reckoning its own name uses. This is shown so you can check it.
Karka Sankranti
The Sun turns south and Dakshinayana opens — the inward half of the year. The tradition treats these months as the time for practice rather than enterprise, and the monsoon enforces it.
The actBegin one inward practice you will keep until Makar Sankranti. Say it out loud to one person so it is real.
Matched by the Sun's entry into Karka, not by a lunar month. Regional almanacs may place the observance a day either side.
Nag Panchami
The serpents honoured — the tradition's oldest ecological instinct, protecting the creature everyone else kills.
The actProtect something people find easy to destroy. Feed the animals nobody feeds.
Matched in Shravana. Both reckonings name this month alike, so there is nothing to choose between them here. A krishna-paksha day carries two month names — purnimanta runs a month ahead of amanta — so each festival is matched by the reckoning its own name uses. This is shown so you can check it.
The days that return
Ekadashi, pradosh, purnima, amavasya — these come round every fortnight or every month. They are set out in full here rather than folded away.
Ekadashi
The eleventh tithi, twice a month — the tradition's regular fast. Physiologically a rest for the body, and structurally a rehearsal in wanting something and not taking it.
The actFast as your health allows, and only as it allows. If you cannot fast, then give up one thing you would ordinarily take.
Matched in Ashadha. Both reckonings name this month alike, so there is nothing to choose between them here. A krishna-paksha day carries two month names — purnimanta runs a month ahead of amanta — so each festival is matched by the reckoning its own name uses. This is shown so you can check it.
Ekadashi
The eleventh tithi, twice a month — the tradition's regular fast. Physiologically a rest for the body, and structurally a rehearsal in wanting something and not taking it.
The actFast as your health allows, and only as it allows. If you cannot fast, then give up one thing you would ordinarily take.
Matched in Ashadha. Both reckonings name this month alike, so there is nothing to choose between them here. A krishna-paksha day carries two month names — purnimanta runs a month ahead of amanta — so each festival is matched by the reckoning its own name uses. This is shown so you can check it.
Pradosh
The thirteenth tithi at dusk — the twilight window sacred to Shiva.
The actAt dusk, a lamp and stillness. Fifteen minutes is enough.
Matched in Ashadha. Both reckonings name this month alike, so there is nothing to choose between them here. A krishna-paksha day carries two month names — purnimanta runs a month ahead of amanta — so each festival is matched by the reckoning its own name uses. This is shown so you can check it.
Purnima
The full moon. The mind is at its most expanded and least contained — the tradition's month-long high tide.
The actCharity, and something collective. Do not make a large decision tonight; you will feel more certain than the evidence warrants.
Matched in Ashadha. Both reckonings name this month alike, so there is nothing to choose between them here. A krishna-paksha day carries two month names — purnimanta runs a month ahead of amanta — so each festival is matched by the reckoning its own name uses. This is shown so you can check it.
Sankashti Chaturthi
The fourth tithi after the full moon, for Ganesha — the day for obstacles specifically.
The actName one obstacle plainly. Do the smallest possible thing about it today rather than the largest.
Matched in Ashadha. Both reckonings name this month alike, so there is nothing to choose between them here. A krishna-paksha day carries two month names — purnimanta runs a month ahead of amanta — so each festival is matched by the reckoning its own name uses. This is shown so you can check it.
Ekadashi
The eleventh tithi, twice a month — the tradition's regular fast. Physiologically a rest for the body, and structurally a rehearsal in wanting something and not taking it.
The actFast as your health allows, and only as it allows. If you cannot fast, then give up one thing you would ordinarily take.
Matched in Ashadha. Both reckonings name this month alike, so there is nothing to choose between them here. A krishna-paksha day carries two month names — purnimanta runs a month ahead of amanta — so each festival is matched by the reckoning its own name uses. This is shown so you can check it.
Pradosh
The thirteenth tithi at dusk — the twilight window sacred to Shiva.
The actAt dusk, a lamp and stillness. Fifteen minutes is enough.
Matched in Ashadha. Both reckonings name this month alike, so there is nothing to choose between them here. A krishna-paksha day carries two month names — purnimanta runs a month ahead of amanta — so each festival is matched by the reckoning its own name uses. This is shown so you can check it.
Masik Shivaratri
The fourteenth tithi of the dark fortnight — Shivaratri, every month. The great one in Phalguna is this same night at its strongest.
The actKeep the evening quiet. Om Namah Shivaya, for as long as you can hold it.
Matched in Ashadha. Both reckonings name this month alike, so there is nothing to choose between them here. A krishna-paksha day carries two month names — purnimanta runs a month ahead of amanta — so each festival is matched by the reckoning its own name uses. This is shown so you can check it.
Amavasya
The new moon. The month's lowest point and the day given to the ancestors.
The actOffer water to the pitris with their names said aloud. Rest. Begin nothing; the tradition asks for silence here rather than effort.
Matched in Ashadha. Both reckonings name this month alike, so there is nothing to choose between them here. A krishna-paksha day carries two month names — purnimanta runs a month ahead of amanta — so each festival is matched by the reckoning its own name uses. This is shown so you can check it.
A guide to the rhythm of the year, not a replacement for your family's own panchang. Where a tithi spans two sunrises, regional convention decides which day keeps the festival, and VEDAUM shows the day its own reckoning gives.
VEDAUM draws the years 1900 to 2100.