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
Nepal calendar, computed for Chennai
- Sunday, 12 September 2027
- Thursday, 31 August 2028
- Wednesday, 19 September 2029
Where Indra Jatra · Yenya falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 12 Sep
- 2028: 31 Aug, 11 days earlier
- 2029: 19 Sep, 18 days later
The dates, year by year
Nepal calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The eight days of Yenya, the great Newar festival of Kathmandu, opened by raising the lingo, a tall pine pole, at Hanuman Dhoka. Indra is said to have come down to the valley to take parijat flowers for his mother and to have been caught and tied up as a thief, and the images of the bound Indra are shown through the days. The Kumari, the living goddess, is drawn through the old city in her chariot with Ganesh and Bhairav beside her, the Lakhe and the Pulukisi elephant dance in the lanes, and rice beer runs from the mouth of the Sweta Bhairav mask.
- Deity
- Indra, Kumari, Bhairava
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
Indra Jatra thanks the god of rain at the end of the monsoon and remembers the dead of the year, and it is the one week in which the Kumari, the living goddess, is seen by the whole city. The raising of the lingo pole at Hanuman Dhoka is Indra's flag being planted, and when it comes down the festival ends. In the old tellings the king of Nepal received the tika from the Kumari on this festival, and the blessing she gives is still held to protect the city for the year. For Newar families the lamps carried round the town for the recently dead are the heart of it.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Indra Jatra · Yenya: how it is kept
Keep ready
- the lingo pole, cut and carried in beforehand
- lamps for the Upaku Wanegu
- samay baji for the household
- a place on the square for the chariot days
The steps
0 of 8 done
What is cooked
Samay baji is set out through the week and eaten standing as the chariots pass. The rice beer from the Sweta Bhairav mask is taken as prasad in a mouthful by those who can reach it, and the Newar houses cook yomari and wo for the relatives who come in for the chariot days.
The hour
Clock times for Sunday, 12 September 2027 at Chennai
Bhadra Shukla Dwadashi at sunrise, when the lingo is raised; the days run on to the Ashwin Krishna Chaturthi, when the pole comes down.
The main rite. From Bhadra Shukla Dwadashi, when the lingo is raised, to the Chaturthi of the dark fortnight, when it comes down; the Kumari's chariot goes out on the Purnima and the days around it, in the afternoon.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | 05:58 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
Sunrise 05:58, sunset 18:13, 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 Dwadasi from previous day 19:37 until 22:13 | then Shukla Trayodasi until 2 days later, 00:40 |
| Nakshatra | Shravana until next day 06:05 | then Dhanishta until 2 days later, 08:59 |
| Rahu kaal | 16:41 to 18:13 (1 h 32 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 12:05 to 13:37 (1 h 32 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 15:09 to 16:41 (1 h 32 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:41 to 12:30 (0 h 49 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 15:54 | moonset next day 03:42 |
For Sunday, 12 September 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
No fast is kept. Samay baji, the Newar plate of beaten rice, buffalo, ginger and soy beans, is eaten, and the families that lost someone in the year walk the Upaku Wanegu route with lamps.
What is avoided
The Kumari is not touched, and her chariot is not photographed from above or blocked. Families in mourning do not join the feasting until the lamps have been carried for their dead.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
A Kathmandu valley festival; Patan and Bhaktapur keep their own jatras on other days. Nothing outside Nepal answers to it, though the Indra of the story is the Vedic one.
In other regions
- Nepal (the dates above)
- A Kathmandu festival above all, kept by the Newars of the old city at Hanuman Dhoka, Indra Chowk and the Kumari Ghar; Patan and Bhaktapur keep their own jatras on other days.
The dates above are the Nepal 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
इन्द्रजात्राको शुभकामनाIndrajatrako shubhakamana
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
Temples of Bhairava 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 · Kapaleeswarar and Karpagambal, with the peacock shrine
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Adipureeswarar and Vadivudai Amman with Thyagaraja
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Masilamaniswarar with Kodiyidai Nayaki
- Tiruvallur, Tamil Nadu · Vadaranyeswarar with Vandarkuzhali, and the Urdhva Tandava Nataraja
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.