Festival Krishna, Radha, Gauranga
Dol Jatra · Dol Purnima
The full moon of Phalgun, when Radha and Krishna are set on a swing and rocked while abir, dry colour, is thrown over them.
Dol Jatra · Dol Purnima 2027 falls on Monday, 22 March, 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
Bengal calendar, computed for Chennai
- Monday, 22 March 2027
- Saturday, 11 March 2028
- Wednesday, 28 February 2029
Where Dol Jatra · Dol Purnima falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 22 Mar
- 2028: 11 Mar, 10 days earlier
- 2029: 28 Feb, 12 days earlier
The dates, year by year
Bengal calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The full moon of Phalgun, when Radha and Krishna are set on a swing and rocked while abir, dry colour, is thrown over them. The deity is carried round the para in a palanquin in the morning, the swing is pushed seven times, and the colour is offered at his feet before anyone plays with it. Shantiniketan keeps the same morning as Basanta Utsav, with the songs and the yellow that Tagore set to it.
- Deity
- Krishna, Radha, Gauranga
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
For the Gaudiya Vaishnavas the same full moon is Gaura Purnima, the night Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was born at Nabadwip in 1486 while the moon was in eclipse and the town was out in the river chanting, so the morning holds two joys at once: Krishna at play with Radha and the gopis in Vrindavan, and the saint who taught Bengal to sing his name. On the evening before, many villages burn the nyara pora, a hut of straw and dry leaves, which is Bengal's own form of the Holika fire, and the colour waits for the next morning. The first abir of the day belongs to the deity and the second to the elders: children put a pinch at the feet of their parents and grandparents and bow before they touch anyone of their own age. Families keep it because it is the gentlest of the colour days, a morning of dry powder, songs and sweets, and the last great festival before the Bengali year turns.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Dol Jatra · Dol Purnima: how it is kept
Keep ready
- abir in red, pink and yellow
- a small swing for Radha and Krishna
- flowers, mango leaves and garlands
- tulsi leaves and sandal paste
- a ghee lamp and incense
- a conch
- malpua and chinir mot, white sugar sweets, for the bhog
The steps
0 of 8 done
What is cooked
Malpua is the sweet of Dol, eaten with mihidana and chinir mot, white sugar moulded like little temples, and the patishapta of the season. Gaudiya households break the Gaura Purnima fast after moonrise, the stricter ones with prasad cooked without grain.
The hour
Clock times for Monday, 22 March 2027 at Chennai
Phalgun Purnima at sunrise, the udaya tithi the panjikas take, which is the morning after the north lights the Holika bonfire at the previous evening's pradosha.
The main rite. Phalgun Purnima at sunrise, the udaya tithi of the panjika; the swing and the first abir are offered in the morning, and the nyara pora is lit on the evening before. Gaudiya households keeping the Gaura Purnima fast break it after moonrise.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | 06:12 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
| Pradosha kala | 18:20 to 20:44 | the 2 h 24 min after sunset, the evening worship hour |
Sunrise 06:12, sunset 18:20, UTC+5.5. These are the instants the rule is read at, not the temple's own puja times, which every temple prints for itself.
The day itself
| What | When | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Tithi | Shukla Pournami from previous day 18:22 until 16:14 | then Krishna Prathamai until next day 14:29 |
| Nakshatra | Uttara Phalguni until 20:46 | then Hasta until next day 19:50 |
| Rahu kaal | 07:43 to 09:14 (1 h 31 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 10:45 to 12:16 (1 h 31 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 13:47 to 15:18 (1 h 31 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:52 to 12:40 (0 h 49 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 18:19 | moonset next day 06:30 |
For Monday, 22 March 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
No fast is kept. Malpua, mihidana and the patishapta of the season are made and given away.
What is avoided
Wet colours, oil paint and chemical powders are left alone; Dol is played with dry abir, and never on anyone who has not chosen to play. Colour is not put on an elder's face, only at the feet, and nobody plays before the deity has had the first abir.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Bengal and Odisha, where it is Dola Purnima, keep the swing; the Hindi belt plays the colours on Dhulandi and Maharashtra waits until Rang Panchami. Gaudiya Vaishnavas keep the same full moon as the birth of Chaitanya, so Nabadwip and Mayapur fill for it.
In other regions
- North India
- The Hindi belt keeps the same morning as Dhulandi, the day of colour after the Holika fire, and the temples of Braj play with Krishna through the whole season; the swing itself belongs most to Bengal and Odisha.
- Bengal (the dates above)
- Bengal keeps Dol in every para and in the thakurdalan of the old family houses, with Nabadwip and Mayapur crowded for the Gaura Purnima and Shantiniketan greeting the spring in yellow at the Basanta Utsav. Bangladesh keeps the same morning as Dol Purnima.
- Assam
- Assam keeps the same full moon as the Doul of the Vaishnava satras, above all at Barpeta and Hajo, beginning with the meji fire and ending in the Phakuwa of colour.
- Odisha
- Odisha carries the Dolagobinda images from village to village in the bimana, swings them at each stop and plays the abira, and the Dola Melana brings the images of a whole group of villages together.
The dates above are the Bengal 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
শুভ দোলযাত্রাShubho Doljatra
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Hayagriva Madhava Temple, Hajo 1,877 kmKamrup, Assam
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Doul Utsav and Bihu are its days
Temples of Krishna 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 · Venkatakrishnan (Parthasarathy) with the arrow scars on his face
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · The eight forms of Lakshmi in shrines on four floors, facing the sea
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Adhivyadhihara Bhaktha Anjaneyar, thirty-two feet tall from a single block of granite
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Neervanna Perumal below and Ranganathar on the hill, in four postures
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.