Akshaya Tritiya, sometimes called Akha Teej, takes its name from akshaya, "that which never decreases." Ventures started on this day, charitable gifts, and acts of worship are held to yield enduring benefit, so it is a favoured date for weddings, house-warmings, new account books and the purchase of gold. Several traditions place notable events on it: the start of the Treta Yuga, the descent of the Ganga, Krishna's gift of the inexhaustible vessel to Draupadi, and the beginning of Vyasa's dictation of the Mahabharata.
It falls on the third tithi (Tritiya) of the waxing fortnight of Vaishakha and is counted an abujha muhurta, auspicious throughout without the need to check for a favourable hour.
Observance is broad but expressed differently: in the Jain tradition it closes the year's first long fast with sugarcane juice, at Badrinath and in Braj it opens seasonal temple rites, and in the south and west it is chiefly a day for buying and for beginning new work.