Skanda Sashti 2026: Soorasamharam Date and the Six Days

In 2026 Soorasamharam, the enactment of Murugan’s battle with Surapadman on the beach at Tiruchendur, falls on the evening of Sunday 15 November. That evening closes the six-day Kanda Sashti vratam, which opens on Tuesday 10 November. The interesting fact about this year is a small one: the six days and the six tithis line up exactly, one tithi to each sunrise, so there is no question of where the count begins or ends.

The Count, Morning by Morning

The vratam runs from the first tithi of the bright fortnight to the sixth. Read off the daily panchang at sunrise for New Delhi, the mornings go like this:

1. Tuesday 10 November: Shukla Pratipada at sunrise (06:39)
2. Wednesday 11 November: Shukla Dwitiya at sunrise (06:40)
3. Thursday 12 November: Shukla Tritiya at sunrise (06:41)
4. Friday 13 November: Shukla Chaturthi at sunrise (06:41)
5. Saturday 14 November: Shukla Panchami at sunrise (06:42)
6. Sunday 15 November: Shukla Shashthi at sunrise (06:43), the day of Soorasamharam

Nothing is skipped and nothing repeats. When a tithi is short enough to miss every sunrise, or long enough to cover two, the number of mornings and the number of tithis stop matching and each calendar has to decide which to follow. In 2026 the question never arises for this vratam: six sunrises, six tithis, in order.

The first of those mornings needs a word. The new moon falls at 12:32 on Monday 9 November, the day after Diwali, and the Pratipada begins at that instant. But sunrise on the 9th comes first, at 06:38, while the tithi is still Amavasya. So the 9th is not counted, and the Pratipada’s morning is Tuesday 10 November; the tithi itself ends at 14:00 that afternoon. That Tuesday is also the day north India keeps as Govardhan Puja.

A Shashthi That Holds Morning and Evening (स्कंद षष्ठी)

The Shashthi begins at 23:24 on Saturday 14 November, late at night, and ends at 02:01 in the small hours of Monday 16 November. Between those instants lies one sunrise, that of the 15th at 06:43, and one sunset, at 17:27 that same day. The tithi is still running more than eight hours after the sun goes down.

This is what makes the date secure. Some calendars fix a Shashthi observance by the tithi at sunrise; the temple enactment itself happens at dusk, and a calendar looking at the evening wants the Shashthi then. On the 15th both conditions hold, so the morning reading and the evening reading agree, and there is no rival day on either side: the 14th rises in Shukla Panchami and the 16th rises in Shukla Saptami.

These instants are the same moment everywhere in India; only the sunrise and sunset clock moves with longitude. Tiruchendur lies far to the south of New Delhi, and its own sunset will differ by some minutes, but with the tithi running hours past the evening on either reckoning, the conclusion does not change. Your own city’s figures are on the panchang calculator.

The Same Tithi as Chhath

The instants above are not computed separately for this page. They are the Kartika Shukla Shashthi from the site’s festival table, the row it files under Chhath Puja, because Chhath and Kanda Sashti are kept on one and the same tithi. On the 15th, households in Bihar offer the evening arghya to the setting sun while Murugan’s temples in Tamil Nadu stage the victory over Surapadman. The two observances have no shared story and no shared liturgy; they share a lunar date.

Tiruchendur and the Six Abodes

Tamil devotion counts six principal shrines of Murugan, the Arupadai Veedu, a grouping that goes back to the Tirumurugarruppadai, the Sangam-era poem attributed to Nakkirar: Thiruparankundram, Tiruchendur, Palani, Swamimalai, Thiruthani and Pazhamudircholai. Tiruchendur is the only one of the six on the sea, on the coast of the Gulf of Mannar, and the temple tradition there places Murugan’s camp before the battle on that shore. That is why the festival is tied so closely to its beach, though Murugan temples across Tamil Nadu hold their own Soorasamharam on the same evening.

The following day, Monday 16 November, the temple celebrates Thirukalyanam, the wedding of Murugan and Deivanai. The daily table has Shukla Saptami at sunrise that morning, the tithi after the Shashthi, which matches the custom’s order of victory first and wedding next.

Kanda Puranam and the Skanda Purana

The narrative behind the vratam is told in Sanskrit in the Skanda Purana and, in the form most Tamil households know, in the Kanda Puranam of Kachiyappa Sivachariyar, a Tamil retelling. In its narrative Surapadman and his brothers hold the devas in subjection; Murugan, born of Shiva to end that subjection, leads the war against them, and on the last day of the fighting meets Surapadman himself. In Kachiyappa’s telling the defeated Surapadman is split in two, the halves becoming the peacock that Murugan rides and the rooster on his banner.

The six days of the vratam are kept in homes and temples with fasting of varying strictness, from one meal a day to fruit and milk alone, and with the recitation of the Kanda Sashti Kavacham. Households differ in how strictly they keep it, and the custom presents it as devotion offered rather than as a bargain; this page makes no claim about what the fast does for anyone who keeps it.

The Sun Is Still in Libra

Tamil calendars name their months by the Sun’s sign, and the month of the Sun in Libra is Aippasi, the month in which Kanda Sashti usually falls. In 2026 all six days of the vratam, the Soorasamharam evening included, sit inside it: the site’s table has the Sun entering Scorpio at 19:39 on Monday 16 November, the evening after Soorasamharam. When a Tamil almanac starts its next month is a question of its own sunrise and sunset rules, and this page does not answer it.

Key Instants

• Vratam opens (Pratipada at sunrise): Tuesday 10 November; the Pratipada runs from 12:32 on 9 November to 14:00 on 10 November
• Soorasamharam (Shashthi): Sunday 15 November; the Shashthi runs from 23:24 on 14 November to 02:01 on 16 November
• Sunrise and sunset on the sixth day (New Delhi): 06:43 and 17:27
• Thirukalyanam: Monday 16 November, Shukla Saptami at sunrise
• Sun enters Scorpio: 19:39 on 16 November

Other dates in the season are in the 2026 festival calendar and on the festival pages, including the computed Chhath 2027 page for next year’s Kartika Shukla Shashthi. In Hindi: स्कंद षष्ठी 2026: सूरसंहारम की तारीख और छह दिन.