Tulsi Vivah 2026
21 November 2026

Tulsi Vivah is the wedding of the tulsi plant to Shaligram, the sacred stone form of Vishnu, or in some homes to an idol of Krishna. The tulsi in the courtyard is treated as the family’s daughter, and the household gives her away in marriage with every rite of a real wedding: haldi, the red chunari, sindoor, the pheras and the kanyadaan. Families keep it with devotion and with the joy of a wedding at home.

It comes at the end of Chaturmas. Devuthani (Dev Uthani) Ekadashi, the day before in the north, is when Vishnu is said to wake from his four-month sleep, and Tulsi Vivah follows it. With it the wedding season opens again, and families begin fixing shaadi dates from the muhurats after this day.

• Tulsi plant in its pot
• Shaligram or a Krishna idol
• Sugarcane stalks for the mandap
• Red chunari
• Sindoor, haldi and mehendi
• Shringar items: bangles, bindi
• Kalash with water and mango leaves
• Panchamrit and Gangajal
• Roli, akshat (unbroken rice), flowers and a garland
• Diya, ghee and dhoop
• Seasonal produce: singhara, shakarkand, ber, amla
• Sweets for the bhog

Source: Popular tradition, drawn from the Puranic story of Jalandhara and Vrinda

Jalandhara was a mighty asura, and his wife Vrinda was a great devotee of Vishnu and wholly devoted to her husband. The power of her devotion, it is said, kept Jalandhara unbeatable, and even the gods could not defeat him while it stood. When he made war on Shiva, the gods turned to Vishnu.

Vishnu took on Jalandhara’s form and came to Vrinda. Her vow was broken, and Jalandhara fell in battle against Shiva. When Vrinda learned the truth, in her grief she cursed Vishnu to become stone. Vishnu accepted the curse, and so came to be worshipped as Shaligram. Vrinda gave up her body, and in the popular telling the tulsi plant grew where she had been.

Vishnu honoured her devotion: he said that as Shaligram he would be married to her as tulsi, and that no worship of him would be complete without tulsi leaves. That wedding is what families celebrate each Kartik.

What to do

• Pick the tulsi leaves needed for the puja a day ahead, since tradition avoids plucking tulsi on Ekadashi and after sunset.
• Hold the wedding in the evening, as most families do, with the diya lit at the tulsi.
• Keep the sugarcane and seasonal produce from the mandap to share as prasad, as is the custom.
• Invite neighbours and relatives, as you would to a wedding, since the tulsi is given away as the household’s daughter.

What to avoid

• Avoid letting the tulsi dry out or plucking her bare before the wedding; the plant itself is the bride.
• Families keeping the puja avoid meat, alcohol, onion and garlic that day, as the food is offered as bhog.
• If the wedding is kept on Ekadashi, rice is left out of the bhog and the meal, as on every Ekadashi.

Tulsi Vivah is kept across North India, and with great fervour in Maharashtra and Gujarat, where it is also called Tulshi Vivah or Tulsi lagna. The day varies by family custom: in much of the north it is Kartik Shukla Dwadashi; some families hold it on the evening of Devuthani Ekadashi itself; and some keep the wedding on any evening from Dwadashi through to Kartik Purnima.

Since it falls in the bright fortnight, the month name is Kartik in both the Purnimanta and the Amanta calendar. Because the tithi is read at each place’s own sunrise and sunset, Ekadashi and Dwadashi can fall a day apart between cities, and so can the day a family keeps the wedding.