🌿 Dev Uthani Ekadashi (Tulsi Vivah) Puja Vidhi — step by step
This is the household vidhi — the day's fast, waking the Lord in the evening and Tulsi Vivah (same day or on Dwadashi).
How to do Dev Uthani Ekadashi (Tulsi Vivah) — the steps
- Sattvik food from the evening of Dashami; on Ekadashi bathe before sunrise and take the sankalp — 'I keep the Devotthan Ekadashi vrat to please Vishnu and for the family's welfare.' No grain during the day; fruit and milk or waterless, as your strength allows.
- In the morning worship Vishnu/Shaligram and Lakshmi in the home temple — yellow flowers, Tulsi leaves, panchamrit, incense and lamp; chant Vishnu Sahasranama or 'Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya'.
- Plaster or wash the courtyard/terrace and draw a chowk with geru and rice paste; on it draw the Lord's footprints and figures of the sun, moon, Tulsi, conch and chakra (many homes call this 'the Lord's feet').
- In the evening (Pradosh Kaal, time above) build a sugarcane canopy over the chowk — tie 4-5 canes bent together; in the centre the Tulsi pot and the Shaligram/Vishnu picture; around it lamps, water chestnut, radish, sweet potato, ber, amla, sugarcane and the new harvest (jaggery and puffed rice).
- Waking the Lord: blow the conch, ring the bell, beat a thali/winnowing fan and sing — 'Utho Dev, baitho Dev, paanv pasaro Dev… haldi-kumkum lagao Dev'; bathe the Lord, offer new clothes, turmeric-kumkum and tilak.
- Tulsi Vivah: dress Tulsi with a red chunari, bangles, bindi and sindoor; yellow cloth for the Shaligram; hold a curtain between them while singing the mangalashtak/wedding songs, then remove it for the garlands, seven rounds (circling the pot), kanyadaan (by a woman or a couple of the house), sindoor-daan; prasad of puffed rice and sweets.
- Aarti — 'Om Jai Jagdish Hare' and the Tulsi aarti; keep the lamps of the house and mandap burning through the night.
- Paran (breaking the fast): on Dwadashi after sunrise, in the paran window given above — first water/food with a Tulsi leaf, food-donation to a Brahmin/the needy, then yourself; the Ekadashi paran must be within the Dwadashi.
Puja samagri checklist
The Tulsi Vivah samagri is like that of a daughter's wedding — in miniature.
- Sugarcane 4-5 (for the canopy), Tulsi pot, Shaligram or Vishnu picture/idol
- Geru, rice flour (chowk and footprints), mauli, roli, turmeric, kumkum, akshat
- For Tulsi: red chunari, bangles, bindi, sindoor, small shringar; yellow cloth for the Shaligram
- 2 garlands, a curtain (white/yellow cloth), aasan
- Lamps (11/21), ghee/oil, incense, camphor, conch, bell
- Seasonal fruit and harvest — water chestnut, radish, sweet potato, ber, amla, sugarcane, carrot; puffed rice, jaggery, lava
- Panchamrit, Tulsi leaves, yellow flowers, sweets (laddoo/kheer)
- Coin, cloth and grain for kanyadaan/donation; items for feeding a Brahmin
- Vishnu Sahasranama / Ekadashi katha book
Ekadashi fasting food and Tulsi Vivah prasad
Rice and grain are forbidden on Ekadashi — the fast allows sabudana, water-chestnut and buckwheat flour, fruit, milk, makhana. For Tulsi Vivah the new harvest — sugarcane, water chestnut, radish, sweet potato, ber, amla — is offered in the mandap and becomes prasad.
- On the fast day: fruit and milk in the morning; sabudana khichdi or singhara halwa at noon; fruit after the evening puja — rock salt
- Mandap bhog: puffed rice-lava-jaggery, ber, water chestnut, sugarcane, boiled sweet potato, radish, amla, kheer or laddoo
- Wedding feast (in many homes): poori, pumpkin-potato sabzi, kheer, dahi-bada — for family and neighbours after the paran on Dwadashi
- Paran: on Dwadashi, water with a Tulsi leaf, then a light meal (khichdi/dal-rice); no rice on Ekadashi, but rice on Dwadashi
- Pregnant or unwell women keep the fast with milk and fruit — no insisting on a waterless fast
Rules — do's and don'ts
✅ Do
- Restraint from Dashami evening and paran on Dwadashi — the three-day frame of an Ekadashi fast
- Tulsi Vivah in Pradosh Kaal; the sugarcane canopy and the new-harvest offering without fail
- Paran within the Dwadashi, after the Hari Vasar — time above
- Wedding muhurats open from this day — see the muhurat page for a wedding date
- Offer all the suhag items to Tulsi; a daily lamp after the wedding
❌ Don't
- No rice/grain on Ekadashi; do not pluck Tulsi leaves (pluck a day earlier)
- Sleeping in the day, anger, lies — avoided on the fast day
- No paran after the Dwadashi has passed — the vrat is considered broken
- The mandap's sugarcane and fruit never in the garbage — share as prasad or give to a cow
- The unwell should not keep a waterless fast
Vrat katha
In a king's realm everyone kept the Ekadashi fast — so strictly that even animals and birds got no grain that day. Lord Vishnu decided to test him: taking the form of a beautiful woman he sat by the royal road. The king … Read the full katha →
Frequently asked questions
When is Dev Uthani Ekadashi in {Y}?
The date at the top is this year's Kartik Shukla Ekadashi — from panchang calculations; the Dwadashi (paran and, in many homes, Tulsi Vivah) is shown too. In a year when the Ekadashi touches no sunrise (tithi kshaya), it is observed on the day the tithi is present.
Tulsi Vivah on Ekadashi or Dwadashi?
Both are common — usually Ekadashi evening in North India; Dwadashi (Kshirabdhi Dwadashi) or any day up to Purnima in Maharashtra-Gujarat-South. Follow your family's custom.
When to do the Ekadashi paran?
On Dwadashi after sunrise, once the Hari Vasar (first quarter of Dwadashi) has passed and before the Dwadashi ends — usually around 7-9 am. The Dwadashi date is above; the exact span is on the panchang page.
Why do weddings begin after Dev Uthani?
During Chaturmas (Devshayani to Dev Uthani) Vishnu is in sleep, so auspicious works pause; as soon as the Lord wakes, Tulsi Vivah is the first wedding and the wedding season opens.
What is Bhishma Panchak?
The five days from Dev Uthani Ekadashi to Kartik Purnima — Bhishma Pitamah gave his teaching to the Pandavas from the bed of arrows in these days; fasting and charity in these five days is held to be specially fruitful.
🏠 Dev Uthani Ekadashi (Tulsi Vivah) 2026 — date, muhurat, full page · All vrat & festivals