Festival Nagas, Shesha, Vasuki
Nag Panchami
The fifth day of the bright fortnight of Shravana, when milk is poured at the snake mound and at the naga stones, and images of the serpent are drawn beside the door with cow dung or turmeric.
Nag Panchami 2027 falls on Friday, 6 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
- Friday, 6 August 2027
- Wednesday, 26 July 2028
- Tuesday, 14 August 2029
Where Nag Panchami falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 6 Aug
- 2028: 26 Jul, 10 days earlier
- 2029: 14 Aug, 18 days later
The dates, year by year
Tamil Nadu calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The fifth day of the bright fortnight of Shravana, when milk is poured at the snake mound and at the naga stones, and images of the serpent are drawn beside the door with cow dung or turmeric. Ploughing and digging are left alone for the day, since the serpent is in the earth; the ropes and the fields rest.
- Deity
- Nagas, Shesha, Vasuki
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
The Mahabharata's story is that on this Panchami the young sage Astika stopped King Janamejaya's great sacrifice, in which every serpent in the world was being drawn into the fire, and the nagas were saved; the day has been theirs since. In the monsoon the burrows fill with water and snakes come out into the fields and houses, so the worship is also a farmer's pact of respect with an animal he meets every day and cannot afford to anger. The household katha tells of a ploughman who killed a nest of young snakes and the mother serpent who took her revenge, until a daughter of the house won her over with milk and prayer, and that is why women keep the day for the safety of their brothers and children. At Ujjain the Nagchandreshwar shrine above Mahakal opens for this one day in the year, and in Varanasi the fair at the Nag Kuan draws the city.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Nag Panchami: how it is kept
Keep ready
- cow dung, haldi or sandal paste for drawing the nagas
- a silver, stone or clay naga image, or the printed picture
- raw milk in a small pot
- kheel or lajaa (puffed grain)
- sesame and durva grass
- roli, akshat and flowers
- mauli thread
- a ghee lamp and incense
The steps
0 of 8 done
What is cooked
The iron tawa is not put on the fire, so the north makes no chapati: puris, kachoris, pua and kheer are cooked in the kadhai instead, with dal-bati in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, and the nagas are given milk, kheel and a little kheer. Maharashtra steams dinde and patolya rather than frying or cutting anything, and Karnataka makes tambittu and arishina ele kadubu, steamed in turmeric leaves.
The hour
Clock times for Friday, 6 August 2027 at Chennai
Shravana Shukla Panchami at sunrise; the offering is made in the morning.
The main rite. Shravana Shukla Panchami holding the sunrise; the drawings by the door are made first thing, and the milk and the puja are offered in the morning.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | 05:55 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
Sunrise 05:55, sunset 18:34, 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 Panchami from 02:28 until next day 00:23 | then Shukla Shashti until next day 23:01 |
| Nakshatra | Uttara Phalguni until 07:33 | then Hasta until next day 06:26 |
| Rahu kaal | 10:40 to 12:15 (1 h 35 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 15:25 to 16:59 (1 h 35 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 07:30 to 09:05 (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 | 09:30 | moonset 21:38 |
For Friday, 6 August 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
Many women fast for their brothers' safety and eat after the offering. Milk, lajaa (parched grain) and sesame are given to the naga.
What is avoided
No digging, ploughing, cutting or sewing; the iron tawa is not heated, and many kitchens keep the knife away. A live snake is never made to drink milk, which harms it; the milk goes on the mound, the stone or the image, and captive snakes shown by charmers are best not paid for.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Kept in Maharashtra, the Gangetic plain and Karnataka. Gujarat keeps it half a month later, on Shravan vad Pancham, five days after Raksha Bandhan, so the Gujarati Nag Pancham and the northern one fall in different fortnights of the same month. Andhra and Telangana keep Nagula Chavithi in Kartika instead, and Tamil Nadu marks the monthly Ayilyam day for the nagas.
In other regions
- Kannada
- Karnataka keeps Nagara Panchami as a sisters' festival, pouring milk on the naga stones under the peepal for their brothers' welfare.
- North India
- Uttar Pradesh and Bihar keep it with the doorway drawings, the gudiya thrown in the pond and the dangal at the akharas; Varanasi holds the fair at the Nag Kuan and Ujjain opens the Nagchandreshwar shrine for the day.
- Maharashtra
- Maharashtra worships clay nagas at home with women's songs and fugdi, and Battis Shirala in Sangli, once famous for its live snakes, keeps the festival now with images.
- Nepal
- Nepal pastes a printed picture of the nagas above every door with cow dung and offers milk and rice at Nag Pokhari and Taudaha in Kathmandu.
- Goa · Konkani
- Goa breaks no ground at all on this day, neither digging nor ploughing nor cutting, and steams the patoleo for it: rice flour spread on a fresh turmeric leaf, filled with coconut and jaggery, folded and steamed so the leaf goes into the taste.
- Kodagu
- In Kodagu the naga stones stand in the devara kadu, the groves left uncut for the deity of the place, of which the district keeps more than a thousand, and the milk is poured there rather than at a temple.
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
नाग पंचमी की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएंNag Panchami ki hardik shubhkamnayein
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Srikalahasti Temple 97 kmTirupati district, Andhra Pradesh
This day is kept for Nagas, and the gazetteer keeps this temple for Sarpa and Kala sarpa. Vayu, air, and the classic kshetram for Rahu-Ketu and Sarpa dosha nivarana pooja, booked for the same morning.
- Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu
This day is kept for Nagas, and the gazetteer keeps this temple for Sarpa and Kala sarpa. The Ketu sthalam, near Poompuhar, where Ketu worships Sivan with a serpent body and a human face.
- Thiruvarur, Tamil Nadu
This day is kept for Nagas, and the gazetteer keeps this temple for Sarpa and Kala sarpa. The delta sthalam where Rahu and Ketu are given human faces and worshipped together, and the serpents are said to have been freed of a curse.
- Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu
This day is kept for Nagas, and the gazetteer keeps this temple for Sarpa and Kala sarpa. visited for Kala sarpa, Naga dosham and delayed marriage.
- Ghati Subramanya Temple 308 kmBengaluru Rural, Karnataka
This day is kept for Nagas, and the gazetteer keeps this temple for Sarpa and Kala sarpa. Bengaluru’s Sarpa dosha temple, where Subramanya faces east and Narasimha west in the same idol.
- Krishna, Andhra Pradesh
This day is kept for Nagas, and the gazetteer keeps this temple for Sarpa and Kala sarpa. The Sarpa dosha kshetram of coastal Andhra, where the Lord is said to have come out of an anthill in a field.
12 more temples in this gazetteer are recorded for the day. Find temples near you.
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.