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Today
Full panchang
May every sacred act you set out to do be done rightly, and every prayer find its way home.
With love, from all of us at DharmKriya
Before four the whole para is awake. The radio comes on, the conch sounds, and a single voice begins to call the Goddess home.
The radio comes on · Saturday 10 October 2026, Hyderabad
The radio comes on in
Scroll, and let the night turn to dawn
In Bengal the whole neighbourhood hears the same broadcast before dawn: Mahishasura Mardini, the chanted invocation of the Goddess. That recording is not ours to play. This is ninety seconds of the hour in our own sound: the tanpura's drone, the conch, the river in the dark, and the birds as the sky turns.
Our own synthesised soundscape, not the All India Radio programme and not anyone's voice. Headphones help. For the live Bengali stations, open Pujo Radio from the corner of the page.
Saturday 10 October 2026. The times below are for Hyderabad: the twilights and sunrise from our ephemeris, the tithi from the panjika, and the four o'clock radio from memory.
4:00AM
By tradition, the hour the broadcast begins
The house wakes in the dark. Someone switches on the old set, and across the para the same broadcast rises from every window: Mahishasura Mardini, the chanted invocation of the Goddess. Nobody speaks. The tea can wait.
5:20AM
Nautical dawn in Hyderabad, computed
In the half-light families walk down to the Hooghly. Mahalaya is Sarva Pitru Amavasya, the last day of Pitru Paksha, and standing waist-deep they offer water, sesame and kusha to their ancestors, naming each one. Amavasya runs from 9 Oct, 9:36 PM to 10 Oct, 9:19 PM.
5:46AM
First light in Hyderabad, computed
The sky greys, then pinks. Under the shiuli tree the night's flowers lie white and orange on the dew, and by the river the kash is in full plume. Bengal knows the Mother is near by these two flowers before any calendar says so.
6:07AM
Sunrise in Hyderabad, computed; the brush work goes on through the morning
In the potters' quarter the artisan lifts a fine brush and paints the eyes of the pratima, the third eye last. Until this moment she is clay and straw. After it, she sees.
9:19PM
Amavasya ends, from the panjika
The fortnight of the ancestors closes and the fortnight of the Goddess opens. At 9:19 PM the Amavasya ends and Pratipada begins. From here the city counts the days.
Mahalaya is the one day of Pitru Paksha when tarpan reaches every ancestor, even those whose tithi the family no longer remembers. If you cannot stand in the river yourself this year, a DharmKriya pandit can offer it for you on the Ganga at Haridwar, in your family's names.
A card for the family group: the room at sunrise with the radio still glowing, Shubho Mahalaya in Bengali and English, and the date. Made in your browser, nothing uploaded.
