Pradosham April 2026 — 15 April and 29 April
ప్రదోషం April 2026
Chaitra Krishna Pradosham falls on Wednesday, 15 April 2026, and Vaishakha Shukla Pradosham falls on Wednesday, 29 April 2026. Pradosham is the thirteenth tithi at dusk, kept for Shiva. Two fall in every lunar month — one in the waxing fortnight, one in the waning — and both are observed in the twilight window around sunset rather than through the day.
| Date | Name | Telugu | Masa & Paksha | Sunset (Hyderabad) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 April 2026Wednesday | Chaitra Krishna Pradosham | చైత్ర కృష్ణ ప్రదోషం | Chaitra Krishna | 6:32 PM |
| 29 April 2026Wednesday | Vaishakha Shukla Pradosham | వైశాఖ శుక్ల ప్రదోషం | Vaishakha Shukla | 6:35 PM |
Computed for Hyderabad (17.385°N, 78.486°E) with Lahiri ayanamsa. For your own city use Today's Panchangam, which is location-aware.
What these days are for
Chaitra Krishna Pradosham — Wednesday, 15 April 2026
Recite the Shiva Mahimna Stotra through the pradosh kaal.
Vaishakha Shukla Pradosham — Wednesday, 29 April 2026
Offer water, bilva and white flowers. The Mahamrityunjaya is the mantra of the day.
When pradosha kaal falls
Pradosha kaal is the twilight around sunset on trayodashi, and the whole observance sits inside it — for most who keep the day, the hours before carry no fast at all. How wide the window runs is not settled. The commonly kept practice takes roughly the hour and a half centred on sunset; some panchangams give forty-five minutes either side; others count only the three ghatikas — about seventy-two minutes — after sunset. Every one of them starts from the sunset in the table above, which is why that is the figure this page prints. If your family or your temple keeps a particular window, keep it; nothing here is meant to displace it.
How the evening is kept
- Bathe before the window opens. The observance begins clean, and the bath is taken in the hour before sunset rather than in the morning.
- Abhishekam. The lingam is bathed — water, milk, curd, ghee, honey, water again — then dressed with vibhuti, bilva leaves and white flowers. Bilva is the leaf Shiva is said to accept above any other.
- Nandi first. Nandi is worshipped before Shiva, and the darshan is customarily taken between his horns.
- Somasutra pradakshina. The circumambulation is not a full circle. One walks to the outlet carrying the abhishekam water away, turns back rather than crossing it, and returns the other way — repeated as many times as the family keeps.
- Recitation. The Shiva Panchakshari — Om Namah Shivaya — and the Pradosha Stotra, through the window.
- Breaking the fast. Those who fasted through the day eat after the puja: satvik, without onion or garlic.
Why dusk
The day is tied to the churning of the ocean. When the halahala poison rose and threatened everything living, Shiva drank it and held it in his throat, which is why he is Nilakantha, the blue-throated. The devas' relief came at dusk on a trayodashi, and it is that hour the observance keeps — less a fast of penance than an hour of thanksgiving, which is why it is kept in the evening and why the mood of it is unlike a day-long vrata.