Festivals of India series - Akshaya Tritiya

The next in this series is Akshaya Tritiya (also called as Akha Teej) and it is celebrated all over India with great devotion and respect. The word ‘Akshaya’ is a combination of ‘A’ (as in another) and ‘kshaya’ which are two different words in Sanskrit language. Degeneration is ‘kshaya’ and that which does not degenerate or diminish is ‘a’-‘kshaya’ = Akshaya. Tritiya means third day of the lunar month. This festival falls every year on the third day of lunar Vaishakha month in the bright half fortnight (Shukla Paksha). Akshaya Tritiya (Akha Teej) on a Monday or with Rohini Nakshatra is considered to be more auspicious. This translates to somewhere in months of April-May every year.

Akshaya Tritiya means festival of abundance, that which never degenerates. The sun and the moon are at their best today – they are fully radiant and give their best. So, as everybody is celebrating it these days, Akshaya Tritiya is not about buying gold and hoarding it. There is much more to it than buying gold. Let us see what!!


As per Hindu way there are 3 ½ lunar days that are considered auspicious. Generally if you are performing activities like marriage, starting a business or travel, house warming etc, you need to consult an astrologer for an auspicious time that will bring prosperity and good luck in the venture or relationship. But in these 3 ½ (sadhe teen) days if you wish to start any such venture, you are most welcome to do so because these are considered very auspicious days.
They are
• first day of Bright Half of Chaitra maasa (starting of new year) i.e. Ugadi,
• tenth day of Bright Half of Ashvina maasa (Vijaya Dashami festival ),
• third day of Bright Half of Vaishakha maasa (Akshay Tritiya- Parshu Jayanti)
• First half of first day of Bright Half of Kartika maasa.

Today you can specially perform Vishnu Puja ad offer him the blend of milk, honey, curds, ghee and sugar which is called the Panchamritha. You may add banana also in this. You can also offer God fruits and coconut because coconut is considered to be a complete offering.

Hindu mythology states that there are 4 yugas - SatYuga, TretaYuga, DwaparaYuga and KaliYuga. There are also Trimurtis - Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva who are symbolical representation of Lord of creation, Lord of Protection and care taking and Lord of destruction.
Now Lord Vishnu needs to incarnate whenever there is a crisis on his beloved earth. One of his incarnations (sixth one to be precise) is Rishi Parashuram, a holy sage was born on this day. It is believed that he reclaimed the land throughout the western coastal region of India (Goa, Konkan coast, Kerala as it is today) from the Lord of Sea.
The TretaYuga is also believed to have been started today.
The holiest of River Ganges (or Ganga) also descended from heaven on this day to earth and became the life line of so many living beings on earth. Hence a dip in rivers, Ganges is considered very auspicious for all Hindus on this day. If you see the modern political map, you may notice that the important ancient cities of India like Haridwar, Varanasi (Banares), Prayag (Allahabad), Patna (Pataliputra), Champanagar (Bhagalpur), Kanpur and Kolkata (Calcutta) are located on the banks of river Ganges.

Since Indian economy is mainly agricultural based, all celebrations and festivals are surrounded around the reaping season, crops etc. Farmers observe this day as Navanna (new grain) Parvam (festival). Indian economy is based on agriculture and this is the time for reaping Ravi crops. The farmers of India bring their crop (Wheat, gram, mustard etc) home from the fields in these days. They have enough money to celebrate and this socio-economic reason brings them in festive mood.

It is believed that this world is running on righteousness (dharma). Any action (karma) you do in this will have an impact or fruition or result. This impact may be positive (punya) balance in your bank of life or negative (paapa) balance. The world will collapse if everybody runs on negative balance or paapa for themselves. So you must take care to see that you have a positive balance of your karma impact. It is also believed that all your sufferings in this world are because of you running on negative balance of results of karma. So any problem or suffering can be set right if you do the right charity at the right time and earn positive balance of punya. This balance will get exhausted in keeping up of health, wealth and general well being of you, your family and your near and dear ones. Because of this, you need to have a continuous supply of punya for yourself to keep your happiness and peace quotient high. So, any such charity performed on this day of akshaya tritiya is considered to give you an eternal supply of punya. This will protect you and your family and your near and dear ones from any suffering.

So akshaya tritiya is a day when you perform actions (karma) to fulfil your desires and earn eternal bliss, be it through the way of Dharma(Righteousness), Artha(wealth), Kaama(Worldly pleasures) or Moksha(eternal salvation). Hence it is common for people in India to do charity (for Dharma), start a new business (for Artha), get married or engaged (for kaama) or perform religious activities like holy offerings to fire God as homam (for moksha) etc.