Trisprsa Mahadvadasi

What is Trisprsa Mahadvadasi?

Dvadashi is the twelfth lunar day. On certain Dvadashis devotees keep the fast in place of Ekadashi, and such a Dvadashi is called a Mahadvadasi. Trisprsa Mahadvadasi is the kind in which Dvadashi begins after sunrise and ends before the next sunrise, so that it runs on into the thirteenth day, Trayodashi. In 2027 it falls on Tuesday, 19 January.

Significance

Devotees keep both the Ekadashi and the Dvadashi vows to please the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Maharaja Ambarisha kept them for a year, and the Bhagavatam describes how careful he was about the last muhurta of Dvadashi, when the fast had to be broken. The Vaishnava calendar is drawn up with the same care. When a tithi is lost between two sunrises the observance moves, and Mahadvadasi days such as Trisprsa settle where the fast is kept.

In Srila Prabhupada's translation, the verse in which King Ambarisha faces that limit reads:

In the meantime, only a muhūrta of the Dvādaśī day was left on which to break the fast. Consequently, it was imperative that the fast be broken immediately.

Srimad-Bhagavatam 9.4.38

How to observe it

In 2027 Trisprsa Mahadvadasi falls on the same calendar day as Putrada Ekadashi, so the fast is kept as on Ekadashi, without grains or beans and with more time for hearing and chanting. Break the fast at the times given on the Putrada Ekadashi page, and confirm them with your own temple calendar.