Pitru Paksha 2026: Full Shradh Date List and Tithi Guide

The 2026 shradh calendar runs from 26 September to 10 October 2026, ending on Sarva Pitru Amavasya, Saturday 10 October. Pitru Paksha itself is the fifteen Krishna Paksha tithis from Pratipada on 27 September through Amavasya on 10 October; Purnima Shraddha on 26 September is an auspicious day for shraddha that is conventionally listed alongside the fortnight but is not part of it. The day a family observes is set by the tithi on which the person died, not by a fixed date, and in 2026 that matters more than usual: sixteen tithi-based shraddhas fall on only fifteen calendar dates, because Chaturthi and Panchami both land on Wednesday 30 September. Counting days forward from the start therefore gives the wrong date from Panchami onward. Two tithis also redirect elsewhere, which the table below sets out. All dates are for India (Lahiri sidereal); tithis begin and end at clock times, so readers outside India should confirm against a local panchang. This is offered as cultural and informational interest, not as advice, and it is a calendar guide rather than a ritual manual.

Quick Facts

Pitru Paksha 2026: the full shradh date list

The table below is the complete 2026 shraddha calendar. The last column marks what belongs to Pitru Paksha proper, what sits alongside it, which two observances are chosen by nakshatra rather than by tithi, and - for the two rows that need it - where the shraddha actually moves to.

The two bold entries are the rows that do not simply mean "the day matching the tithi of death". Both are explained in the next section, because getting either wrong sends a family to the wrong day.

Which day is your ancestor's shradh?

The rule is simple to state: the shraddha for a family member is performed on the tithi on which they died, whichever calendar date that tithi falls on this year. The tithi matters, not the English date of the death and not the position of the day in the fortnight. If a father died on Krishna Saptami, his shraddha in 2026 falls on Friday 2 October, because that is the date Saptami occupies this year. The same applies whether the death was recent or decades ago.

Both Shukla and Krishna Paksha deaths map onto the single Krishna Paksha tithi of the same name. A death on Shukla Navami and a death on Krishna Navami both fall on Navami Shraddha, 4 October 2026.

Three situations do not follow the plain rule, and they are the ones most often got wrong:

The pattern is worth noticing: Sarva Pitru Amavasya is the catch-all day. If there is any doubt at all about which tithi applies, 10 October is the day that covers it.

The 2026 trap. Because Chaturthi and Panchami share 30 September, the fortnight covers one fewer calendar date than the tithi list. Anyone who counts forward - "Pratipada is the 27th, so Shashthi must be the 2nd" - will be a day out from Panchami onward. Shashthi is 1 October, not 2 October. Read the tithi from the table rather than counting days, and if you know the tithi of death but not what it means in this year's calendar, the table above is the lookup.

Why 16 shraddhas fit into 15 calendar dates

A shraddha is performed on the tithi prevailing during aparahna, the fourth of the five equal parts of the daytime. For New Delhi in this season that window runs roughly 13:22 to 15:45. A tithi qualifies for a date if it is running during that window, which is why the answer is not simply "whichever tithi the day starts with".

On Wednesday 30 September 2026, two tithis take a share of that window:

Panchami cannot simply move to the next day, and this is the part most calendars do not explain. Panchami ends at 12:35 on 1 October, which is before aparahna opens at 13:22. On 1 October it has no presence in the window at all; Shashthi holds it for the whole of it. So Panchami's only contact with an aparahna in the entire fortnight is that fifty-minute stretch on 30 September, and that is where its shraddha stays.

This is a normal feature of a lunar calendar rather than an error, and it happens because the tithis are running short in this stretch: each one is ending a little over two hours earlier than the last. It is also why a printed table beats arithmetic. If you have seen a source claiming Pitru Paksha 2026 "lasts sixteen days" or "ends on 8 October", both are wrong: Pitru Paksha runs to Amavasya on 10 October, and 8 October is Trayodashi.

Amanta or Purnimanta: Bhadrapada or Ashwin?

A reader in Chennai and a reader in Lucknow can open two panchangs and see the same fortnight placed in two different months. Both are right.

In the South Indian Amanta calendar, where a lunar month ends on the new moon, this period falls in Bhadrapada. In the North Indian Purnimanta calendar, where a month ends on the full moon, the same period falls in Ashwin. Only the naming of the lunar month differs, and North Indian and South Indian families perform the shraddha rituals on the same days. There is nothing to reconcile and no need to choose between the two lists.

One caveat on the dates themselves. A tithi begins and ends at a clock time, not at midnight, so a tithi that just clears the aparahna window in one city can miss it in another far enough east or west. The dates in this guide were checked against panchangs cast for northern, western and southern Indian cities and came out identical, which is the usual outcome; but for a year or a tithi that falls close to the boundary, and for readers outside India, a locally cast panchang is the one that governs.

Mahalaya, Mahalaya Paksha and Pitru Paksha: what differs?

These three are used loosely and are not interchangeable, which is worth untangling because the confusion is most acute where the terms matter most.

The distinction that catches people out is between the fortnight and its closing day. Mahalaya Paksha is a name for the whole fortnight, while Mahalaya Amavasya is the single day that ends it. In West Bengal that closing day carries particular weight, because Mahalaya Amavasya marks the beginning of the Durga Puja festivity: the day the ancestral fortnight closes is the day the festival season opens. So a shortened "Mahalaya" may mean the fortnight or that one day depending on who is speaking, and it is worth checking which is meant before assuming.

The fortnight travels under several other regional names as well: Sorah Shraddh (the sixteen shraddhas) and Kanagat across the Hindi belt, and Pitru Pandharvada in Maharashtra. They all denote the same set of days in the table above.

The days that carry a special name

Five dates in 2026 are singled out in the tradition beyond their tithi.

Maha Bharani, Tuesday 29 September. This one is chosen by nakshatra rather than tithi: it is the day the Moon occupies Bharani during the fortnight. It falls on the same date as Tritiya Shraddha this year.

Navami Shraddha, also called Matra Navami, Sunday 4 October. Navami is described as the most suitable day for a mother's shraddha and is particularly associated with departed female members of the family - mother, grandmother, or sister. It is also known as Naumi Shraddha and Avidhava Shraddha. It may still be observed for a male ancestor who died on Navami.

Magha Shraddha, Wednesday 7 October. The second nakshatra-based observance, on the day the Moon occupies Magha. It coincides with Dwadashi Shraddha in 2026.

Chaturdashi Shraddha, Friday 9 October. This day is set aside for those who died by weapon, accident, violence, or suicide. For a death from ordinary causes on Chaturdashi tithi, the shraddha is not performed on this day; it moves to Amavasya. This is the second of the two redirects noted earlier, and it is easy to miss because the tithi name appears on the calendar as normal.

Sarva Pitru Amavasya, Saturday 10 October. The closing and most significant day, when all ancestors are honoured together. It carries the forgotten tithi, the missed observance, the Purnima death, the ordinary-cause Chaturdashi death, and the household that could not observe on any other day.

Pitru Paksha is not Pitra Dosha

These two are constantly mixed up, and the names are similar enough that it is easy to see why. They are unrelated ideas.

Pitru Paksha is a fortnight in the calendar. It comes round every year, for everyone alike, and nothing about your birth chart decides when it begins or ends.

Pitra Dosha (also spelled Pitru Dosh) is a claimed condition in an individual birth chart, read from indicators involving the Sun and the ninth house. It is a natal reading, not a calendar event. Observing shraddha does not create it and does not remove it, and the arrival of Pitru Paksha does not give anybody Pitra Dosha.

If you want to see how the chart-based claim is actually assessed, our calculator walks through each indicator and shows how common the result really is. It classifies and explains only, and deliberately prescribes no remedies.

Bottom line

The 2026 shradh calendar runs 26 September to 10 October, with Pitru Paksha proper covering the fifteen tithis from 27 September to Sarva Pitru Amavasya on 10 October. Find your family's day by the tithi of death rather than by counting forward, because Chaturthi and Panchami share 30 September this year and the count breaks after it. If the tithi is Purnima, if it is Chaturdashi and the death was from ordinary causes, or if the tithi is simply not known, the day is 10 October. Whether and how to observe is a personal and family matter, and this guide does not advise on it. For the sibling transits of the year, see our guides to Shani Vakri 2026 and the Rahu-Ketu transit.

Sources

• Shraddha dates and tithi assignments: Drik Panchang, 2026 Pitru Paksha Shraddha Dates, read in July 2026 for New Delhi, Chennai and Ajmer. The published table is identical across all three.
• Scope of the fortnight, the Purnima redirect, and Mahalaya Amavasya marking the beginning of the Durga Puja festivity in West Bengal: Drik Panchang, Shraddha - Basic Information. It states that Bhadrapada Purnima (Proshthapadi Purnima) is auspicious for shraddha but is not part of Pitru Paksha, that Pitru Paksha is a period of fifteen lunar days, that Pitru Paksha is also known as Mahalaya Paksha, and that Mahalaya Shraddha for those who died on Purnima tithi is performed on the Amavasya shraddha tithi.
• Chaturdashi rule and the aparahna timings: Drik Panchang, 2026 Chaturdashi Shraddha, which restricts the day to those who died by weapon, accident, suicide or murder and directs other Chaturdashi deaths to Amavasya.
• Navami and the Matra Navami association with departed female members of the family: Drik Panchang, 2026 Navami Shraddha.
• Tithi and nakshatra assignments were independently recomputed from the DesiUtils ephemeris (Lahiri sidereal) for 26 September to 10 October 2026, reproducing all eighteen published rows including the shared 30 September date. Panchang sources remain the authority for the published clock times; the recomputation confirms which shraddha falls on which date.
• Dates are given for India. Tithis begin and end at clock times, so a tithi can fall on a different calendar date elsewhere in the world; readers abroad should confirm against a local panchang.