Pūrṇimā
पूर्णिमा
Full moon: the fifteenth tithi of the bright fortnight.
Definition
Pūrṇimā is the tithi ending when the Moon is 180° from the Sun, the fifteenth of śukla pakṣa. Lunar months take their names from the nakshatra near the full Moon, for example Kārtika from Kṛttikā, and in the pūrṇimānta system the month ends at pūrṇimā. Many festivals fall on it, such as Guru Pūrṇimā and Śarad Pūrṇimā, and lunar eclipses occur only at full moon.
Articles that use this term
- Siddhanta
Eclipses in the Indian sky: what is computed and what is kept
How the siddhantas compute a grahana, what Rahu and Ketu stand for in that computation, and sutak as a practice that varies from one tradition to another.
7 min read · 30 September 2026
- PanchangaExplainer
Amanta and purnimanta: the Hindu calendar's two month systems
Two ways of deciding where a lunar month ends, why they give one festival two month-names, and which regions use which.
7 min read · 24 September 2026