Simhastha 2027–28: Jupiter in Leo at Nashik and Ujjain

Simhastha (सिंहस्थ) means “standing in Simha”, and Simha is the Sanskrit name of Leo. The word refers to Jupiter, Guru, being in that sign. Two of the four Kumbh sites take their mela year from it: Nashik with Trimbakeshwar on the Godavari, and Ujjain on the Shipra. Jupiter reaches sidereal Leo on 31 October 2026, the first of three entries this page dates.

Jupiter in Leo is only half of each site’s rule. The other half is the Sun’s sign, and that is what separates Nashik’s year from Ujjain’s. This page dates both conditions from the site’s DE421 ingress table. It does not give bathing (snan) days. Those are fixed by the akharas and the mela administration and announced by them, and a reader planning a visit should go by that announcement.

Jupiter’s Three Spells in Leo, 2026–2028

Jupiter does not settle into Leo in one move. It crosses in, turns retrograde, backs out into Cancer, and comes forward again. Then, after reaching Virgo, it backs into Leo a second time. Dates are IST, by the day.

The first spell is the short one, 86 days: Jupiter turns retrograde inside Leo on 13 December 2026 and is back in Cancer by 25 January. The second and third run about five months each. Together the three come to 386 days, a little more than the 361 days Jupiter spends in a sign on average, so the Leo year is all there; it is simply cut into three pieces. Why Jupiter moves this way in these years is laid out on the atichari Guru page.

Nashik and Trimbakeshwar: the Sun in Leo Too

The rule the mela tradition recites for Nashik and Trimbakeshwar is Jupiter in Simha with the Sun also in Simha. Leo is the Sun’s own sign, so at this site both grahas stand in it together. The Sun spends about a month in each sign, so the test is simple: does that month fall inside one of Jupiter’s Leo spells?

• 2026: the Sun is in Leo from 17 August to 17 September. Jupiter is still in Cancer and reaches Leo only 44 days after the Sun has left. The rule is not met.
• 2027: the Sun is in Leo from 17 August to 17 September. Jupiter has been in Leo since 26 June, 52 days earlier, and stays 70 days past the Sun’s exit. The whole month meets the rule.
• 2028: the Sun reaches Leo on 16 August, but Jupiter left for Virgo on 24 July. The rule is not met.

So within the table, 2027 is the only year in which both conditions hold, and they hold together from 17 August 2027 to 17 September 2027. Which days inside that stretch are bathing days is a separate question, and the people who run the mela answer it; the sign test does not.

Ujjain: the Sun in Aries

For Ujjain the rule as recited is Jupiter in Simha with the Sun in Mesha, Aries, the sign the classical tables give as the Sun’s exaltation. That puts the Ujjain month in spring, and the spring months fall differently:

• 2026: the Sun is in Aries from 14 April to 15 May while Jupiter is in Gemini. Not met.
• 2027: the Sun reaches Aries on 14 April. Jupiter has already reached Leo once, but it backed out into Cancer on 25 January and turns direct there on 13 April. It does not return to Leo until 26 June, 42 days after the Sun has gone. Not met.
• 2028: the Sun is in Aries from 13 April to 14 May. Jupiter backed into Leo on 28 February, 45 days before, and stays until 24 July, 71 days after the Sun moves on. Met for the whole month.

This is why the two sites, which share the Simhastha name, fall a year apart this time. The 2028 month also has a detail of its own. Jupiter is retrograde in Leo through the month and turns direct on 14 May 2028, the same day the Sun crosses into Taurus. Read by sign, that changes nothing, because Jupiter is in Leo on either side of the station.

Why Twelve Years

Jupiter takes 11.86 years (4332 days) to go round the zodiac, so it is back in Leo about every twelve years, and a little less than twelve. That is the clock behind the familiar twelve-year gap between Simhasthas at the same site. Because the cycle is short of twelve full years by about seven weeks (51 days), the season in which Jupiter meets Leo drifts slowly from one round to the next. The pairing with a given solar month therefore has to be checked each time rather than assumed, which is what the two lists above do.

How Firm Are These Days?

The ingress days come from the DE421 ephemeris with the Lahiri ayanamsa, the convention the site uses throughout. Jupiter moves slowly at a sign line: at its slowest forward crossing into Leo in this table, one degree of difference in the ayanamsa would move the crossing by about 8 days. A panchang on a different ayanamsa can therefore date Jupiter’s Leo entry several days away from this one. The Sun moves about a degree a day, so the Sun’s months are firm to within a day whichever convention is used. How the ayanamsa works, and what else it shifts, is on the ayanamsa page.

What This Page Does Not Claim

The mela tradition tells the story of the amrit kalash, the pot of nectar from the churning of the ocean, and of drops falling at the four Kumbh sites. The page reports that story as the tradition’s own and makes no claim about what bathing on a given day does for anyone. It also gives no crowd numbers, travel advice or snan list. The Prayagraj counterpart, with the tithi behind each of its bathing days, is on the Magh Mela 2027 page.

The sign test above is the same for everyone. Which house of a birth chart Leo occupies is not. For that count by Moon sign, see Jupiter in Leo from October 2026, and to check whether Jupiter was retrograde on a date that matters to you, use the retrograde checker. Every Jupiter loop in these years has its own page, starting with Jupiter retrograde 2026–27.

In Brief

• Jupiter in Leo: 31 October 2026 to 25 January 2027; 26 June 2027 to 26 November 2027; 28 February 2028 to 24 July 2028
• Nashik and Trimbakeshwar rule (Sun in Leo): met from 17 August 2027 to 17 September 2027
• Ujjain rule (Sun in Aries): met from 13 April 2028 to 14 May 2028
• Snan days: none given here; they come from the mela’s own announcement