Sankashti Chaturthi in Ashadha month — Gajanana is a name of Ganesha, the elephant-faced lord of auspicious beginnings.

Gajanana Sankashti Chaturthi is the Sankashti Chaturthi of the month of Shravan. Each lunar month names Ganesha differently for this observance, and in Shravan he is invoked as Gajanana — the elephant-faced one. Sankashti means deliverance from difficulty, and the vrat is kept specifically when a household is carrying a hardship it cannot resolve: illness, debt, litigation, a stalled career, or a difficult marriage. Falling in Shravan, the most sacred month of the year, this Sankashti is held to carry additional merit. The defining feature of the observance is that the fast is broken only after the moon has risen and been offered arghya — the puja belongs to the night, not the day.

A day-long fast is kept from sunrise. It is broken only after the moon is sighted and arghya offered — never before, even if the moon rises late.