Kṣaya
क्षय
Everyday Hindi: क्षय (तिथि / मास)
Omission: a tithi or month skipped in the reckoning.
Definition
Kṣaya ('decay, loss') names an element dropped from the reckoning. A kṣaya tithi begins after one sunrise and ends before the next, so it never prevails at sunrise and is not named as the day's tithi; the opposite case, a tithi spanning two sunrises, is a vṛddhi tithi. A kṣaya māsa, a lunar month containing two saṅkrāntis, is rare and occurs only in years that also contain an adhika māsa.
Articles that use this term
- PanchangaExplainer
Navratri, twice a year: Chaitra and Sharad
The two nine-night festivals of the goddess, at the spring and autumn turns of the year, and the rules almanacs use to fix their first and last days.
7 min read · 1 October 2026
- PanchangaExplainer
Adhika masa: the leap month
Twelve lunar months fall about eleven days short of the solar year. How the calendar inserts a thirteenth month, when it does so, and what the rare lost month is.
6 min read · 25 September 2026