Bhadrapada Purnima 2026: 26 September, Purnima Shraddha and the Start of Pitru Paksha
Bhadrapada Shukla Purnima runs from 25 September 2026 at 23:06 to 26 September at 22:18 (Delhi). Purnima Shraddha is offered on 26 September in the aparahna window 13:24-15:48 - the first of the sixteen Mahalaya shraddhas, a day before Pratipada Shraddha on 27 September.
Bhadrapada Purnima 2026 falls on Saturday, 26 September. On a wall calendar it sits between Anant Chaturdashi and Navratri, one more full moon. In the shraddha calendar it is the day the ancestral fortnight effectively opens — a full day before the fortnight technically begins.
The tithi window, precisely
Our panchang engine computes Bhadrapada Shukla Purnima for Delhi as:
- Begins: Friday, 25 September 2026 at 23:06 IST
- Ends: Saturday, 26 September 2026 at 22:18 IST
That settles the date. Purnima is running at sunrise on 26 September, through the whole afternoon, and well past dark. On 25 September the tithi at sunrise is Shukla Chaturdashi, which is why that day belongs to Anant Chaturdashi and Ganesh visarjan, even though the full moon arrives just before midnight that night.
The rest of the day for Delhi: sunrise 06:12, sunset 18:12, moonrise 17:53, moonset 06:36. The nakshatra is Purva Bhadrapada (pada 4), the yoga is Ganda, and Rahu Kaal runs 09:12 to 10:42.
Aparahna kaal is the window that matters
Shraddha is not a sunrise rite. The classical rule places it in aparahna kaal — the fourth of the five equal parts of the daylight span, i.e. the tenth to twelfth muhurta. On 26 September the daylight span in Delhi is exactly twelve hours, so each muhurta is 48 minutes and the divisions land cleanly:
- Kutup muhurta: 11:48 – 12:36
- Rohina muhurta: 12:36 – 13:24
- Aparahna kaal: 13:24 – 15:48
Because Purnima runs until 22:18, the tithi is present across the whole of aparahna. There is no borderline case this year. That is not always true: in years when the tithi lapses before mid-afternoon the day shifts backwards, and families argue about it. In 2026 it does not.
Rahu Kaal sits at 09:12–10:42, well clear of the window. Most authorities do not apply the Rahu Kaal restriction to shraddha at all.
The four days that carry the fortnight
| Date (2026) | Tithi (Delhi/IST) | Sunrise | Aparahna kaal | What falls |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fri 25 Sep | Shukla Chaturdashi until 23:06 | 06:11 | — | Anant Chaturdashi |
| Sat 26 Sep | Shukla Purnima, 25 Sep 23:06 → 22:18 | 06:12 | 13:24 – 15:48 | Purnima Shraddha |
| Sun 27 Sep | Krishna Pratipada, 26 Sep 22:18 → 20:58 | 06:12 | 13:23 – 15:47 | Pratipada Shraddha; fortnight begins |
| Sat 10 Oct | Amavasya, 9 Oct 21:36 → 21:20 | 06:19 | 13:17 – 15:37 | Sarva Pitru Amavasya (Mahalaya) |
Why Pitru Paksha effectively opens here
The formal fortnight is a Krishna Paksha: Pratipada to Amavasya, fifteen tithis, 27 September to 10 October 2026. Yet the shraddha calendar counts sixteen days. The extra one is Bhadrapada Purnima, attached to the front — which is why the period is often called the shodasha shraddha, the sixteen shraddhas.
The reason is mechanical rather than mystical. Shraddha within Mahalaya is performed on the tithi on which the person died. A Krishna Paksha supplies Pratipada through Amavasya; it cannot supply Purnima. So Purnima is borrowed from the Shukla Paksha immediately before and placed at the head of the sequence, so that no death tithi is left without a day. The texts prescribe this without offering a reason beyond completeness, and there is no need to invent one.
A note on names. Our engine labels 27 September onward as Ashwin Krishna Paksha, following the Purnimanta reckoning of north India, in which the month turns at the full moon. In the Amanta reckoning of Maharashtra, Gujarat and much of the south, the same fortnight is Bhadrapada Krishna Paksha. The days are identical; only the label differs. If a calendar in your house disagrees on the month, that is why.
Who performs Purnima Shraddha
Not everyone — and this is the part most often misread. The day belongs to those whose father or mother died on a Purnima tithi: any month's Purnima, not only Bhadrapada's. For them the annual Mahalaya shraddha lands on 26 September 2026, and Pratipada on 27 September is not their day.
Everyone else waits for the tithi matching their own loss, somewhere between 27 September and 10 October. Those who do not know the tithi, or who miss it, are covered by Sarva Pitru Amavasya at the end. Some households also perform a simple tarpan on Purnima to open the fortnight, with no Purnima anniversary in the family. That is custom, and reasonable, but not an obligation the texts impose.
Where practice diverges
Two positions exist here, better stated side by side than resolved silently.
The first, printed by most north Indian panchangs, is that Purnima Shraddha is performed on Bhadrapada Purnima itself, on the tithi-matching rule above. The second, common in several families and regions, is that since the Mahalaya paksha proper is the Krishna Paksha, a Purnima-deceased ancestor is remembered on Sarva Pitru Amavasya, a catch-all day by design.
These are less contradictory than they look. Amavasya covers every ancestor whose tithi is unknown, missed or unplaceable, so a family that uses it for a Purnima death is not doing anything irregular. If your household has a standing practice, keep it. If it has none, the tithi-matching rule is the older and more specific instruction.
What the day looks like
The shape is the same as any Mahalaya shraddha day:
- Bathe in the morning; the rite itself waits for aparahna.
- Tarpan with water, black sesame and darbha grass, offered facing south.
- Pind daan where the family performs it, otherwise tarpan alone.
- Food offered to a brahmin, a guest, or whoever the family customarily feeds — cooked simply, without onion and garlic.
- Panchbali where practised: portions set aside for the cow, dog, crow, deva and ant.
No elaborate outlay is required. In most traditions a lota of water with black sesame, offered with attention, is the accepted minimum — a family that can do no more has done enough.
The Mahalaya connection
Mahalaya is the name the whole sixteen-day span carries; it closes on 10 October 2026 at Sarva Pitru Amavasya. The morning after, 11 October, Shardiya Navratri begins. The fortnight is neatly book-ended: it opens on a full moon, closes on a new moon, and the day after the new moon the calendar turns from the ancestors to the Goddess. For the day-by-day tithi map, see our Pitru Paksha 2026 guide.
What else the day carries
Bhadrapada Purnima is the last day of Bhadrapada in the Purnimanta reckoning, closing a month whose festival load — Hartalika, Ganesh Chaturthi, Rishi Panchami, Anant Chaturdashi — is among the heaviest of the year. Some households observe the Uma-Maheshwara Vrata on it. It is not Sharad Purnima: that is the Ashwin full moon, whose night in 2026 falls on 25 October.
If you are not in Delhi
Every time above is Delhi/IST. Sunrise and sunset differ by city, and aparahna is derived from them, so it moves with them — enough to shift the window by ten to twenty minutes across the country. The moment the tithi begins and ends is the same instant everywhere in India; only the local clock reading changes. If your local sunrise puts a borderline case in play, check it against your own panchang or your family purohit before fixing the hour. You can look up the running tithi for your city on our panchang.