Festival Kaveri, Varuna, Amman
Aadi Perukku · Pathinettam Perukku
The eighteenth day of Aadi, when the Kaveri and the other rivers are in flood from the monsoon and the water is thanked for the year's crop.
Aadi Perukku · Pathinettam Perukku 2027 falls on Tuesday, 3 August, computed for Chennai.
Latitude, longitude and time zone 13.08, 80.27
Asia/Kolkata · UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place.
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A tithi that ends at dusk in Chennai can still be running at dusk a thousand kilometres west, which moves the day. Sunrise and sunset here are computed for the place above.
When it falls next
Tamil Nadu calendar, computed for Chennai
- Tuesday, 3 August 2027
- Thursday, 3 August 2028
- Friday, 3 August 2029
Where Aadi Perukku · Pathinettam Perukku falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 3 Aug
- 2028: 3 Aug, 1 day later
- 2029: 3 Aug, 1 day earlier
The dates, year by year
Tamil Nadu calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The eighteenth day of Aadi, when the Kaveri and the other rivers are in flood from the monsoon and the water is thanked for the year's crop. Families go to the riverbank or the canal with cooked rice in five or nine colours, float lamps and small offerings, and eat beside the water. Newly married couples are often taken along, since the day is held to bless a household's increase.
- Deity
- Kaveri, Varuna, Amman
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
In the delta the Kaveri is spoken of as a woman, and in Aadi, swollen with the monsoon water from the Kodagu hills, she is said to be carrying the year's crop as a mother carries a child; the offerings made to her are the ones a woman expecting a child is given, bangles, a karugamani chain, kaappu arisi and flowers. Aadi is also the Tamil farmer's sowing season, the Aadi pattam, so the seed is often shown to the river before it goes to the nursery. At Srirangam, where the river divides around the island, Namperumal is brought to the Amma Mandapam ghat and sends his sister Kaveri a brother's gifts of a silk sari, a mangalyam and fruit, floated out on the current. For married women the day renews the thali, and for the newly married it is the day their wedding garlands, kept since the ceremony, are given to the river.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Aadi Perukku · Pathinettam Perukku: how it is kept
Keep ready
- the mixed rices in closed vessels
- kaappu arisi (raw rice with jaggery)
- karugamani and kadholai
- glass bangles
- turmeric thread and turmeric paste
- kumkum and flowers
- agal vilakku lamps and banana leaves
- betel leaves, areca nut and fruit
- camphor
- the dried wedding garlands, for a newly married couple
The steps
0 of 9 done
What is cooked
Tamil Nadu cooks the kalanda sadham, the mixed rices that travel well: lemon rice, puliyodharai (tamarind rice), thengai sadham (coconut rice), curd rice and sakkarai pongal, with sesame rice and jaggery rice in some homes and vadai and appalam alongside. Some delta families make five or nine kinds, to match the colours of the old offering.
The hour
Clock times for Tuesday, 3 August 2027 at Chennai
The daylight hours beside the water; the offering is made in the morning or the late afternoon, not after dark.
The main rite. The eighteenth day of the solar month of Aadi, counted from the day the Sun enters Katakam. The offering at the water is made in the morning or the late afternoon, and the lamps are set on the water before dusk.
This day's rule names no hour of its own: it is fixed by the tithi or the nakshatra running at sunrise. The rule above is the whole of it, and the day's own times are below.
The day itself
| What | When | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Tithi | Shukla Prathamai from previous day 15:35 until 11:52 | then Shukla Dwitiyai until next day 08:20 |
| Nakshatra | Ashlesha until 14:17 | then Magha until next day 11:37 |
| Rahu kaal | 15:25 to 17:00 (1 h 35 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 09:05 to 10:40 (1 h 35 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 12:15 to 13:50 (1 h 35 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:50 to 12:40 (0 h 51 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 06:37 | moonset 19:28 |
For Tuesday, 3 August 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
No fast is kept. The day is a picnic: coconut rice, lemon rice, tamarind rice, curd rice and sweet pongal are cooked and shared.
What is avoided
Do not go into the flood current or let children near the edge; the river is at its strongest on this day and every year some are lost to it. Nothing goes into the water but flowers, lamps, turmeric and the offerings; plastic and leftover food go home.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
A Tamil Nadu river day, kept hardest in the Kaveri delta. Kerala and the Telugu country have no equivalent, though the whole south treats Aadi as a month of Amman worship.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu (the dates above)
- A Tamil river day, kept hardest along the Kaveri at Srirangam, Tiruchirappalli, Thanjavur and Kumbakonam, at Mettur and at Bhavani Kooduthurai; families far from the Kaveri keep it at the Tamiraparani, the Vaigai, a tank or their own well.
The dates above are the Tamil Nadu reckoning, because that is the calendar this key belongs to. Switch the tradition on the calendar page to see how another one dates the same day.
Greeting
What is said to family and friends on the day
இனிய ஆடிப்பெருக்கு நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள்Iniya Aadi Perukku nalvazhthukkal
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
Temples of Amman near you
Not recorded for this day in particular: the nearest temples of the day's own gods, for a reader whose own temple is not listed above.
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Adi Kamakshi and Kamakshi, standing on the pancha agni penance
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Devi Karumariamman in her three forms
- Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu · Kamakshi Devi seated in padmasana with the Sri Chakra
- Chengalpattu, Tamil Nadu · Adhiparasakthi as the swayambhu in the anthill
Your family's own temple comes first, and its calendar is the one that decides.
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A temple is listed here only where the gazetteer's own line names this day, or where this day's own entry names the town, or where the day belongs to the ancestors or the nagas and the temple is recorded for that rite. Where neither table says anything, nothing is listed as kept for the day; where fewer than three are, the nearest temples of the day's own gods are added under a heading of their own.
Mantras
The prayers said with the day. Each opens with its words and meaning.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it.
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A printed panchangam can differ by a day where an almanac reads a tithi at a different instant, and a family's own custom always comes first. Where the practice genuinely varies, the text says so rather than choosing for you.