Almost everyone reads this as Lord Rama's Ekadashi. It is not. Rama is one of Lakshmi's own names, and she is who the day is named for. Once you know that, the position of the day stops looking like a coincidence: it is the last Ekadashi before Diwali, four days out, and Diwali is hers. The fortnight walks towards Lakshmi and this is the gate it goes through.
The katha is unusually blunt for a fasting day. A prince named Shobhan was staying with his in-laws, whose king kept Ekadashi so strictly that nobody in the city ate that day, not even the animals. Shobhan kept it too, but unwillingly, and he was not strong enough for it. He died of hunger before the next sunrise.
Because he had kept the day, he was given a city of his own in the hills, gold and gems and all of it. But it flickered. It came and went, because the fast behind it had been kept without devotion. Word reached his wife Chandrabhaga, and she gave him the merit of every Ekadashi she had kept in her life. Only then did the city hold. The story is on the side of the fast and it still says, plainly, that the fast alone was not enough.
On 5 November 2026 in Ahmedabad the sun rises at 06:47 and the Ekadashi holds until 10:36. After that the day is Dwadashi. So the morning of the 5th is Agiyaras, kept the way an Ekadashi is kept, from sunrise. The evening of the same 5th is Vagh Baras, which is kept by the tithi that covers dusk. Two festivals, one date, neither of them a mistake. It looks like an error on a calendar and it is simply how the two are reckoned.
This is the last Agiyaras of the stretch, and everything after it is Diwali. Vagh Baras opens the days on the evening of the 5th, Dhanteras is the 6th, Kali Chaudas the 7th, Diwali the 8th, and Bestu Varas with Govardhan Puja the 9th. The parana lands on Dhanteras morning, which is a neat piece of timing: you break the last fast of the old year on the first morning of the buying days.
Rama Ekadashi 2026 falls on Thursday, 5 November. It is fixed by the tithi and not the English calendar: it is always the Ekadashi of the dark fortnight that comes four days before Diwali, which is why the date moves every year.
No, and this is the most common mistake about the day. Rama is one of Lakshmi's names. That is why the Ekadashi sits four days before Diwali, which is her festival. The vrat itself is kept for Vishnu, as every Ekadashi is; the name simply tells you which side of him the day is looking at.
Because they are reckoned differently and 5 November satisfies both. In Ahmedabad the sun rises at 06:47 and the Ekadashi holds until 10:36, so the Ekadashi is there at sunrise, which is what an Ekadashi needs. After 10:36 the day is Dwadashi, so the Dwadashi covers the evening, which is what Vagh Baras needs. Neither is a calendar error.
On Friday, 6 November, which is also Dhanteras. Parana is done on Dwadashi, after sunrise and before the Dwadashi tithi ends, and in Ahmedabad that window is short, roughly from sunrise to mid-morning. Do not leave it late. Open the Panchang for 6 November for your own city to get the exact end.
A prince called Shobhan kept this Ekadashi at his in-laws' house, unwillingly, and died of the fast before the next sunrise. He was still given a city of gold in the hills for having kept the day, but it flickered in and out because the fast behind it had no devotion in it. His wife Chandrabhaga gave him the merit of every Ekadashi of her life, and only then did the city hold.
Yes, and most families do. Nirjala is the strictest form, not the required one. What every version has in common is no grains and no beans. If you are unwell, elderly, pregnant or a child, eat properly: the katha of this very day is about a man who pushed past what his body could hold, and it is not told as a triumph.
Diwali, and quickly. Vagh Baras opens the days on the evening of the 5th itself, Dhanteras is the 6th, Kali Chaudas the 7th, Diwali the 8th, and Bestu Varas with Govardhan Puja the 9th. This is the last Agiyaras before all of it.