Dussehra 2026: Tuesday 20 October, and the afternoon window that settles the date

Dussehra confuses people less than Navratri does, but it still hides a small piece of arithmetic. The tithi that carries the festival turns over at lunchtime on Tuesday, not at dawn, so a calendar that only looks at sunrise would pick the wrong day. I checked the times against two sources, and after converting between time zones they agree to the minute.

Vijayadashami, popularly called Dussehra, is the tenth tithi of the bright fortnight of Ashvin, observed for the victory of Rama over Ravana and of Durga over Mahishasura. It closes the nine nights described in our Sharad Navratri guide, a day after the Ashtami and Navami timings in the Durga Ashtami post.

When is Dussehra 2026, and when does Dashami begin?

Dussehra 2026 is Tuesday 20 October. By Drik Panchang figures the Dashami tithi begins at 12:50 pm IST that day, the moment Navami ends, and it runs until 2:11 pm IST on Wednesday 21 October.

Those times are the same everywhere in India, since a tithi turns over at one instant. Drik's Lancaster, California page lists Dashami from 12:20 am on 20 October, which is 12:50 pm in India once you add the 12 and a half hours between the two zones. A few lists mention 21 October as well. I couldn't find the rule behind them, but the arithmetic below favours the 20th.

Why does the Aparahna decide the day?

Dussehra goes to the day on which Dashami is present in the Aparahna, the fourth of the five equal parts that daylight is divided into. Delhi sunrise is around 6:24 am and sunset around 5:46 pm, so that window works out to roughly 1:13 to 3:29 pm.

That window is my own arithmetic from the Delhi sunrise and sunset on Dekho Panchang, so treat the minutes as approximate. The result is clear anyway. Dashami starts at 12:50 pm on the 20th, before Aparahna opens, so it covers every minute of it. On the 21st it ends at 2:11 pm and covers only the first hour or so. The 20th wins on both counts.

This is the same logic that moves other festivals, and the tithi versus date explainer shows why a sunrise rule would give a different answer here. Dashami is not on the clock at dawn on the 20th at all, because Navami is still running.

What is the Vijay Muhurat, and what time is it in Delhi?

The Vijay Muhurat is a short auspicious window in the afternoon, associated with victory and with starting new ventures. For New Delhi it is about 1:59 to 2:45 pm on 20 October, per Drik Panchang figures. Dekho Panchang lists 2:00 to 2:43 pm for the same city.

The window shifts with your sunrise and sunset. Drik's city figures give Mumbai 2:19 to 3:06 pm, Kolkata 1:16 to 2:02 pm and Chennai 1:51 to 2:38 pm, so Kolkata's comes more than an hour before Mumbai's. My check on the structure: a muhurta is one fifteenth of daylight, and the Vijay window sits eleventh in that sequence. Counting from Delhi sunrise, that lands within a minute of 1:59 pm, which is reassuring. If you want the general idea of how such windows get chosen, the muhurat guide covers it.

When is Ravan Dahan?

Ravan Dahan has no fixed time. It happens in the evening of 20 October, after sunset, and every Ramlila committee announces its own hour. Delhi sunset is around 5:46 pm, so most effigies burn from early evening onward.

Several committees in Delhi, including the Red Fort grounds Ramlila, have announced 20 October for their burning. Do check the notice from the one near you, since crowd control and the end of the final scene often push the hour later. The Vijay Muhurat is for the puja and for beginning things, and the effigy comes afterwards.

Where does Shravana nakshatra come in?

Shravana is the Moon's nakshatra from 3:08 am on 19 October to about 6:02 pm IST on 20 October, per Drik Panchang, so it is running through the Vijay Muhurat. Tradition treats Dashami in Shravana as especially fortunate for Vijayadashami.

The IST end time is my conversion of a Lancaster figure of 5:32 am, and it matches a Hyderabad listing that gives 6:02 pm. Nothing here changes the date, and the nakshatra is simply one more label on the afternoon. If nakshatras are new to you, the nakshatra primer explains the 27 lunar mansions.

What does astrology add to Vijayadashami?

Not much by way of prediction. The festival is pinned to a slice of the Moon's cycle, and the Vijay Muhurat is a timing convention rather than a promise that anything begun at 2 pm will succeed. Plenty of people sign a lease or start a new course on Dussehra because the day feels like a clean start, and that feeling is a fine reason by itself.

For anything personal, your running dasha and Moon sign are more useful than a generic festival forecast, and a free chart shows you both. No chart makes this afternoon decisive for your life.