Lunar months
Shravana: where the lunar month falls
Shravana is the lunar month in which the Sun enters sidereal Leo. See its dates for 2026 to 2028 and the full Moon behind its name.
01 · In the lunar year
Shravana is the lunar month in which the Sun enters Leo.
A lunar month is named from the Sankranti inside it. The new Moon to new Moon month that holds the Sun’s entry into sidereal Leo is Shravana, the fifth month of the lunar year.
02 · The name in the sky
Shravana’s full Moon falls in or near Shravana.
The month names come from nakshatras. With the Sun in the month’s sign, the full Moon stands opposite it, near the nakshatra the month is named after.
The fifth month
Shravana (श्रावण) is the fifth of the twelve lunar months, after Ashadha and before Bhadrapada. Like every lunar month it runs from one new Moon to the next, and it takes its name from the Sankranti that falls inside it: Shravana is the month in which the Sun enters sidereal Leo. It belongs to Varsha ritu, one of the six seasons of two months each.
In the Amanta count, from new Moon to new Moon, in IST:
| Year | Begins | Ends | Sun enters Leo | Full Moon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 12 Aug, 23:06 | 11 Sep, 08:56 | 17 Aug, 07:34 | 28 Aug, 09:48 |
| 2027 | 2 Aug, 15:35 | 31 Aug, 23:11 | 17 Aug, 13:49 | 17 Aug, 12:58 |
| 2028 | 22 Jul, 08:31 | 20 Aug, 16:13 | 16 Aug, 20:04 | 5 Aug, 13:39 |
The dates move against the calendar from year to year, by about 11 days earlier from 2026 to 2027, because twelve lunar months are about 11 days shorter than the solar year; why lunar festival dates change each year explains the drift and the extra months that correct it.
The name and the full Moon
The month names come from nakshatras. With the Sun in Leo, the full Moon of the month stands opposite it, and Shravana is named for Shravana, the nakshatra the full Moon falls in or near. In the site’s ephemeris the Moon at the full Moon of Shravana stood in Shatabhisha in 2026, in Dhanishta in 2027 and in Shravana in 2028. The match is to within a nakshatra or two rather than exact: the Sun can be anywhere in its sign when the Moon is full, and the Moon stands opposite wherever the Sun is.
In the Purnimanta count
Where months are counted from full Moon, Shravana runs from the full Moon of Ashadha to its own full Moon. Its waxing half is the same in both counts. The waning half that ends an Amanta Shravana is called Bhadrapada Krishna in the Purnimanta count, and Purnimanta Shravana begins instead with the waning half of Amanta Ashadha, as why a fortnight can have two month names explains.
Festivals
Of the festivals the site has 2026 pages for, Krishna Janmashtami and Raksha Bandhan fell in Shravana that year, counted by the Amanta month at noon IST on the festival’s main day.
The lunar month guide lists all twelve names. See today’s lunar month on the Delhi Panchang, or explore another topic in Learn.