Vijayadashami 2026: Date, Vijay Muhurat & Dussehra Vidhi

When Is Vijayadashami 2026?

Vijayadashami 2026, kept across most of India as Dussehra, falls on Tuesday, 20 October. It is kept on the Dashami of Ashwina Shukla Paksha and closes the nine nights that begin with the Ghatasthapana on Sunday, 11 October.

The same Tuesday carries the Navratri parana and, in the reckoning most of Surat follows, the Durga visarjan, so for a household that has kept the nine nights the day works as a conclusion and a beginning at once. The nine days themselves are covered in the guide to Sharad Navratri 2026. This page is about the tenth day.

One thing to settle before anything else. Vijayadashami is an afternoon festival. Not a morning puja that runs late, an afternoon one by rule.

Vijayadashami 2026 Date, Tithi and Muhurat

Two kinds of figure sit in that table. The tithi and the nakshatra each turn at a single astronomical moment, so those times read the same across the country. The two puja windows are worked against your own sunrise and midday, so they move from city to city. Outside Surat and the surrounding towns, use a panchang set to your own location.

Vijay Muhurat or the Longer Aparahna Window

The panchang gives two windows for this day and families are often unsure which one is meant for them. They are not alternatives in competition. One sits inside the other.

The Aparahna Puja window is the broad one, 01:33 PM to 03:52 PM, running 2 hours 19 minutes. This is the part of the day in which Vijayadashami is read, and the whole of the day’s observance belongs inside it. The Vijay Muhurat is the sharper window within that stretch, 02:19 PM to 03:05 PM, and it is the one families choose when they want a single named time for the central act, the sankalp, the first offering, the moment a vehicle is taken out or a new ledger is touched.

So the practical answer is this. Keep the main puja inside the Vijay Muhurat if the household can be ready by 02:19 PM. Use the wider Aparahna window if the puja runs longer, if a Shami puja or an Ayudha puja is kept alongside it, or if people are coming home from work and cannot all be present in a 46 minute stretch. Nothing is lost by using the fuller window. The guide on choosing a shubh muhurat explains how these windows are arrived at.

What you should not do is keep the puja in the morning. Dashami does not begin until 12:50 PM on the 20th, so before that the day is still running on Navami and a Vijayadashami puja offered at nine in the morning is on the wrong tithi. Prepare in the morning by all means, and offer in the afternoon.

Why Vijayadashami Falls on 20 October, and Why Some Calendars Show the 21st

Anyone checking a panchang on Tuesday morning will find Navami still running and may conclude that Dussehra must belong to Wednesday. It does not, and the reason is the same fact read the other way.

Dashami begins at 12:50 PM on Tuesday, 20 October. The Aparahna window that day opens at 01:33 PM and closes at 03:52 PM, so Dashami covers the whole of the afternoon in which Vijayadashami is read. On Wednesday, 21 October, Dashami ends at 02:11 PM, well before the afternoon has run its course. Only one of the two dates carries a complete afternoon of Dashami.

The second date is not an error, though. Bengal Vijayadashami is listed separately as Wednesday, 21 October 2026. Dashami is running at sunrise on the 21st and not at sunrise on the 20th, which is why a reckoning that reads the tithi at sunrise arrives at the later date while a reckoning that reads Vijayadashami in the afternoon arrives at Tuesday. Both are worked correctly under their own rules, so if a relative’s calendar shows the 21st, neither of you needs to change.

Shravana Nakshatra on Vijayadashami

Vijayadashami is traditionally read with Shravana Nakshatra as well as with Dashami, and 2026 is generous on this point. Shravana runs from 03:38 PM on Monday, 19 October to 06:02 PM on Tuesday, 20 October.

Read that against the puja windows and the picture is straightforward. Shravana covers the Aparahna window in full, and therefore the Vijay Muhurat inside it. There is no point on Tuesday afternoon at which you have to weigh the tithi against the nakshatra, because both run throughout, and no reason to move a puja earlier or later to catch one of them.

Shami Puja and Aparajita Puja

Two pujas belong to the afternoon alongside the main observance, and both are older than most of what the day is now known for.

Shami puja is the worship of the shami tree. The katha behind it is from the Mahabharata: the Pandavas, going into their year of disguise, are said to have hidden their weapons in a shami tree and to have taken them up again on this day. The practice is simple. Water is offered at the tree, along with kumkum, akshat, flowers and a lamp, and a prayer is made for the year ahead. In Maharashtra the day carries a separate custom of exchanging apta leaves as a token of gold, given to elders with a pranam and to neighbours as a greeting, and Karnataka does the same with banni leaves from the shami itself. It is not a Gujarati practice, though families with Maharashtrian ties in Surat keep it.

Aparajita puja is the worship of Devi in her undefeated aspect, kept in the aparahna, and in the fuller vidhi Jaya and Vijaya are worshipped alongside her. Where a household keeps it, it is offered before the rest of the day’s observance. Many Surat families do not keep it at all and go straight to the Ayudha puja, which is a settled practice and not an omission.

Ayudha Puja

Ayudha puja is the worship of the tools of one’s work. In Gujarat and across north and west India it is kept on Vijayadashami itself, this year Tuesday, 20 October. In the south the same puja is kept a day earlier, on Mahanavami, so a relative in Bengaluru or Chennai will have done it on Monday the 19th.

The word means weapons, and the original form is the worship of arms. What it became is broader and more useful: whatever a household or a business actually works with is cleaned, set out, marked with kumkum and akshat, offered flowers and a lamp, and left unused for the length of the puja. A tailor’s machine, a carpenter’s tools, a driver’s vehicle, a shopkeeper’s weighing scale. In houses the tools are brought to the family deity, and in shops the puja is kept on the premises.

Two practical notes. Clean the tools the day before, because the window does not open until 01:33 PM and the morning is short. And the implements are genuinely left idle through the afternoon, which for a running workshop means telling people in advance. A puja at business premises is often kept as a fuller business puja with a sankalp for the year.

Starting a Venture, a Vehicle or a New Set of Books

Vijayadashami is one of a small number of days in the Hindu year treated as auspicious in itself, without a separate muhurat having to be worked out for the particular act. That is why showrooms fill up on this date and why a shop fitted out for weeks opens on this specific Tuesday.

The usual acts are a new venture or shop opened, a vehicle bought or taken home, a new set of account books begun, a new post started, and equipment put into service. Where you can, keep the moment inside the Aparahna window of 01:33 PM to 03:52 PM, and inside the Vijay Muhurat of 02:19 PM to 03:05 PM if the act is short enough to be done in one go, as taking delivery of a vehicle usually is.

If the date cannot be managed, nothing is lost. A muhurat can be worked out for another day against your own particulars, as is done for a house or a marriage. The reasoning is set out for property in the guide to griha pravesh muhurat, and our Choghadiya timings cover the auspicious windows across an ordinary day.

Dussehra Puja Vidhi at Home

Most families keep this puja themselves. A pandit is called where a full sankalp is wanted, where the puja is at business premises, where a havan is held, or where the day marks a new venture.

Prepare everything in the morning. The window opens at 01:33 PM and the puja should not begin with someone still returning from the market.

1. Bathe, wear clean clothes and clean the puja space. Where the Navratri ghat has been kept, the same place is used.
2. Once the Aparahna window opens at 01:33 PM, take the sankalp, stating your name and gotra and what the puja is being kept for.
3. Place the image or murti of the deity your household keeps for the day and light the deep.
4. Where Aparajita puja is kept, offer it first, to Devi Aparajita with Jaya and Vijaya, with flowers, kumkum, akshat and a lamp.
5. Set out the tools, instruments, books or vehicle for the Ayudha puja, cleaned beforehand. Apply chandan and kumkum, place akshat, offer flowers and show the lamp.
6. Offer the naivedya your household prepares and light the dhoop.
7. Perform the aarti, keeping the central act inside the Vijay Muhurat of 02:19 PM to 03:05 PM where the timing allows.
8. Keep the Shami puja at the tree afterwards, still inside the afternoon window, and exchange the leaves with elders and neighbours on returning.
9. Distribute the prasad, and give dakshina and daan according to your means.

Where the Navratri parana is taken on the same day, it follows your household’s own practice for concluding the nine nights rather than being folded into this puja.

Dussehra Puja Samagri

• Image or murti of the deity your household keeps for the day, and a chowki with a clean cloth
• Chandan, kumkum, haldi, akshat and abir
• Fresh flowers, a garland and durva
• Deep, ghee or oil, cotton wicks, dhoop and camphor
• Supari, paan leaves, moli, a coconut and a kalasha where the fuller vidhi is kept
• Fruit, sweets and the naivedya your household prepares
• Cleaning cloths for the Ayudha puja, and marigold garlands for vehicles and machinery
• Dakshina and items for the daan

Your pandit may add items specific to your family tradition, so confirm the list beforehand.

Ravana Dahan and What the Day Marks

Ravana dahan is the part of Dussehra everyone recognises and the part least tied to a muhurat. The effigies of Ravana, Kumbhakarna and Meghnad are lit after sunset at a maidan or a society ground, and the time is set by whoever runs the event rather than by the panchang. It is a public observance, not a household one, and it does not replace the afternoon puja.

Vijayadashami carries two victories, Rama’s over Ravana and Devi’s over Mahishasura, and both are read the same way: not as a war won once, but as the point at which something long endured is finally finished with. That is also why the day is used for beginnings. Something is put behind you, and the next thing starts the same afternoon.

Dussehra in Surat and Gujarat

In Surat, Vijayadashami closes nine nights of garba. The grounds have been going late since the 11th, the house has been on a night schedule for a fortnight, and Tuesday is the morning everyone finally sleeps. An afternoon festival suits that better than it might elsewhere.

Three things are worth planning around. The Navratri parana and the Durga visarjan fall on this same Tuesday, so a household keeping the nine nights has all of it on one date. The whole city wants the same two hours and nineteen minutes, so a pandit’s Tuesday afternoon is spoken for early. And the evening belongs to the Ravana dahan grounds, with the roads filling before the effigies are lit.

One point for businesses, because it causes confusion every year. New account books are opened on Vijayadashami in many parts of India, but Gujarati businesses keep chopda pujan at Diwali, for the Gujarati new year. Dussehra here is more often the day for opening a shop, starting a venture or taking delivery of a vehicle. That part of the calendar is covered separately.

Booking a Pandit for Vijayadashami

Most Surat households keep the Dussehra puja themselves, and the vidhi above is within reach of a family that has the samagri ready and the afternoon clear.

A pandit is called for the occasions that ask for more. A full sankalp and puja on the day, an Ayudha puja at a shop, a workshop or an office, a puja for a new vehicle or a new venture, a havan, and the Navratri parana and visarjan where a household wants those done properly rather than improvised at the end of a long fortnight. Pandit Ramkishan Joshi performs all of these across Surat and the surrounding areas.

Festival dates are usually taken about a month in advance, and this one is tighter than most, because demand is concentrated into the stretch from 01:33 PM to 03:52 PM rather than spread across a day. To fix a time, get in touch with your location and whether the puja is at home or at business premises, and the samagri list will be shared beforehand.