The Dev Uthani Ekadashi puja is the Ekadashi fast combined with an evening ceremony in which the family wakes Vishnu from his four-month sleep, under a canopy of sugarcane, with conch, bells and the call "Utho Dev". In outline: fast through the day, draw the Lord's feet and set up the sugarcane mandap in the evening, place seasonal produce under a covered basket, hear the katha, wake the Lord together, offer lamps and bhog, and break the fast the next morning in the parana window.
The date of the fast and the parana time for your city are on the Dev Uthani Ekadashi date page, and every Ekadashi of the year is on the Ekadashi list. This page gives no times; they change with the year and the place.
Samagri: what to keep ready
- A picture or small idol of Vishnu, Krishna or a Shaligram, as your family keeps
- Rice paste (ground soaked rice with water) and/or geru (red ochre) for drawing the Lord's feet and the square
- Five or more sugarcane stalks for the mandap, with a little thread to tie the tops
- Seasonal produce: singhara (water chestnut), shakarkand (sweet potato), ber, amla, radish, new cotton in some homes, guava, and other fruit of the season
- A daliya or bamboo basket, or a large sieve, to cover the produce
- Tulsi leaves (picked the day before if your family avoids plucking on Ekadashi)
- Roli, haldi, akshat, flowers, a yellow cloth for the chowki
- Ghee lamps, including several small diyas for the courtyard and doorways
- A conch if you have one, and a bell or a steel plate and spoon to ring
- Fast-friendly bhog: fruit, makhana kheer, sweets made without grain
- Sweets and fresh cotton clothes for the Lord, if your family offers them
Nothing needs to be bought for the day. A steel plate struck with a spoon is how many village homes have always "rung the bell".
Step by step
- Sankalp in the morning. After bathing, sit before the Lord and say in your own words that you are keeping the Prabodhini Ekadashi fast. Decide at the start whether you will take fruit and water, and keep that decision without strain.
- The day. Avoid rice and grains. Spend the day quietly: many people repeat "Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya", read from the Gita or the Vishnu Sahasranama, and visit a temple.
- Clean and draw. By late afternoon, clean the courtyard, the kitchen floor or the puja corner. With rice paste or geru draw a square (chowk), and draw small feet of the Lord walking from the doorway towards the puja place. Some families also draw the sun, moon, a lamp and household figures on the wall beside it.
- Raise the mandap. Stand the sugarcane stalks around the chowk and tie their tops together so that they form a small canopy. Place the chowki or a low plank under it with the yellow cloth, and set the Lord's picture, idol or Shaligram there.
- Cover the produce. Place the singhara, sweet potato, ber, sugarcane pieces and other produce in the drawn square, and cover them with the basket or sieve. The Lord is said to be asleep beneath it until he is woken.
- Lamps. At dusk light a ghee lamp before the mandap, and small diyas at the doorways, the tulsi and the kitchen.
- Hear the katha. Sit together and hear the Dev Uthani Ekadashi vrat katha, the story of King Bali and the servant who fed the Lord.
- Wake the Lord. Everyone stands. Ring the bells or strike the steel plate, blow the conch, and together call "Utho Dev" in the folk words your family uses, inviting the Lord to rise now that the four months are over. Many families sing a traditional waking song at this point.
- Lift the basket. The eldest, or the person who kept the fast, lifts the basket. Offer roli, akshat, tulsi leaves, flowers and the first lamp to the Lord, then the seasonal produce and sweets as bhog.
- Aarti. Sing the aarti your family knows, often "Om Jai Jagdish Hare", and move the lamp around the mandap.
- Prasad and the night. Share the fruit and sweets as prasad. Those who keep a vigil sing bhajans late into the night.
- Parana the next day. On Dwadashi morning, after bathing and a short prayer, break the fast in the parana window, usually with tulsi water and then simple food including grain.
Checking the time
Two times matter. The evening waking is done after sunset, in the pradosh period, and families who like to start in a good muhurta can look at the panchang for your city. The second is the parana: the fast is broken the next morning, after Hari Vasara (the first quarter of Dwadashi) has passed and before Dwadashi ends. That window is shown on the date page for your city. Smarta and Vaishnava households sometimes keep the fast on different days, which is why the date page also shows the alternate Ekadashi. For weddings and griha pravesh in the weeks that follow, the muhurat page lists suitable days.
Customs families keep
These are customs, not conditions; your family's own way comes first.
- Rice is not cooked in many homes on Ekadashi, even by those not fasting.
- Tulsi leaves are picked the day before, as many avoid plucking them on Ekadashi.
- The sugarcane from the mandap is eaten as prasad over the next days, and the first new sugarcane of the season is tasted only after this day in many villages.
- Many families light lamps at the tulsi every evening through Kartika, and this night is one of its brightest.
- Weddings, mundan and griha pravesh, paused in many families during Chaturmas, are fixed again after this day.
- Pregnant women, older people and anyone unwell keep a light fast with water, milk and fruit, or join the puja without fasting; a doctor's advice comes first.
Regional ways
- Uttar Pradesh and Bihar: the drawn feet, the covered basket of singhara and sweet potato, and women's waking songs at dusk; Tulsi Vivah is often done the same evening.
- Rajasthan and Haryana: the wall drawing in geru and the sugarcane mandap, with the family gathering in the courtyard.
- Maharashtra: Kartiki Ekadashi, when pilgrims gather at Pandharpur for Vithoba; Tulsi Vivah begins from the next day.
- Gujarat: Dev Uthi Agiyaras, with temple festivities and the start of Tulsi Vivah ceremonies.
- South India: Utthana Ekadashi, followed by Ksheerabdhi Dwadashi the next day, when the tulsi is worshipped with a branch of amla.
After the puja
The season of weddings opens. The next celebration is Tulsi Vivah, and if you keep every Ekadashi, the stories for the rest of the year are on the Ekadashi katha page. The four months that close on this day are laid out on the Chaturmas page.