Festival Rama, Sita, Lakshmana, Hanuman
Sri Rama Navami
The birth of Rama at noon on Chaitra Shukla Navami, and in the Telugu country above all the day of the Sita Rama Kalyanam at Bhadrachalam, where the marriage of Rama and Sita is performed before a crowd and the talambralu, the pearls of rice, are thrown.
Sri Rama Navami 2027 falls on Thursday, 15 April, 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.
Read more Show less
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
Kerala calendar, computed for Chennai
- Thursday, 15 April 2027
- Monday, 3 April 2028
- Monday, 23 April 2029
Where Sri Rama Navami falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 15 Apr
- 2028: 3 Apr, 11 days earlier
- 2029: 23 Apr, 19 days later
The dates, year by year
Kerala calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The birth of Rama at noon on Chaitra Shukla Navami, and in the Telugu country above all the day of the Sita Rama Kalyanam at Bhadrachalam, where the marriage of Rama and Sita is performed before a crowd and the talambralu, the pearls of rice, are thrown. Street pandals give away vadapappu (soaked moong dal) and panakam.
- Deity
- Rama, Sita, Lakshmana, Hanuman
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
For the Telugu country Rama Navami is a wedding as much as a birthday, because tradition holds it to be the day of the Sita Rama Kalyanam too, and the kalyanam is repeated in every village temple and street pandal as though it were the family's own. The great one is at Bhadrachalam on the Godavari, the temple Kancherla Gopanna, Bhakta Ramadasu, built in the seventeenth century with revenue he had collected for the Golconda Sultan; the story is that he was jailed for it and that Rama and Lakshmana came in person to pay the debt, and his keertanas have been sung at every Telugu Rama Navami since. The silk robes and the pearl talambralu are still sent to the kalyanam by the government, a custom said to go back to the Sultan himself. The panakam and vadapappu of the pandals are summer food, cooling in the heat of Chaitra, and are given to anyone who passes.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Sri Rama Navami: how it is kept
Keep ready
- a picture or images of Sita, Rama, Lakshmana and Hanuman
- a new cloth for the plank
- tulasi leaves and jasmine
- turmeric, kumkum and sandal paste
- a small cradle
- new clothes and a mangalasutram for the kalyanam
- rice coloured with turmeric for the talambralu
- jaggery, dry ginger, cardamom and pepper for the panakam
- soaked moong dal, coconut or cucumber and green chilli for the vadapappu
- buttermilk for the neer majjige
The steps
0 of 8 done
What is cooked
Telugu homes offer panakam (jaggery water with dry ginger, cardamom and pepper), vadapappu (soaked split moong with salt, green chilli and coconut) and neer majjige (thin buttermilk with ginger and curry leaves), and the meal after the puja often has chakkara pongali and pulihora. Karnataka makes the same trio as panaka, kosambari of moong dal and cucumber, and majjige, handed out in cups at street corners.
The hour
Clock times for Thursday, 15 April 2027 at Chennai
Madhyahna, midday, is the hour of the birth, and the calendar takes the day on which Navami runs at midday; the kalyanam follows in the afternoon.
The main rite. Madhyahna, the midday hour, with the Navami running, is when the birth is marked with the puja and the cradle. The kalyanam follows at the muhurtham the temple fixes, around midday at Bhadrachalam and in the afternoon in most pandals.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Madhyahna | 12:09 | midday, the midpoint of sunrise and sunset |
| Aparahna | 13:24 | the afternoon, three fifths of the daylight after sunrise |
Sunrise 05:57, sunset 18:22, 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 Navami from previous day 15:24 until 13:21 | then Shukla Dasami until next day 11:22 |
| Nakshatra | Pushya until 09:34 | then Ashlesha until next day 08:18 |
| Rahu kaal | 13:42 to 15:15 (1 h 33 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 05:57 to 07:30 (1 h 33 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 09:03 to 10:36 (1 h 33 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:44 to 12:34 (0 h 50 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 13:23 | moonset next day 02:19 |
For Thursday, 15 April 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
A light fast until the midday puja, broken with panakam, vadapappu and neer majjige.
What is avoided
Those keeping the fast eat nothing before the midday puja, and the day is kept vegetarian without onion or garlic. The talambralu from a kalyanam are never swept away or stepped on.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Bhadrachalam is the Telugu centre; Karnataka keeps the day with Rama bhajans and panaka; Tamil Nadu calls it Ramanavami and the north Ram Navami, closing Chaitra Navratri with it.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu
- Tamil Nadu keeps Ramanavami at home with panakam, neer mor and kosumalli, often at the close of nine days of Ramayana reading.
- Telugu
- Bhadrachalam in Telangana is the centre, and its kalyanam is watched live in nearly every Telugu home; Andhra Pradesh now holds its state kalyanam at Ontimitta in Kadapa, performed at night in the moonlight a few days later. Many temples keep the nine days from Ugadi as Sri Rama Navaratrulu.
- Kannada
- Karnataka keeps Sri Ramanavami with panaka, kosambari and majjige given away at street corners, and Bengaluru with a long Ramanavami music festival of classical concerts that runs on for weeks after the day.
- North India
- The north keeps Ram Navami as the close of Chaitra Navratri, with Ayodhya as its centre.
- Maharashtra
- Maharashtra keeps Ram Navami with a kirtan through the morning and the cradle rocked at noon in the Rama temples, Nashik's Kalaram temple among them.
The dates above are the Kerala 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
శ్రీరామ నవమి శుభాకాంక్షలుSri Rama Navami shubhakankshalu
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Bhadradri Kothagudem, Telangana
The entry for this day names Bhadrachalam. The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. The birth of Rama at noon on Chaitra Shukla Navami, and in the Telugu country above all the day of the Sita Rama Kalyanam at Bhadrachalam, where the marriage of Rama and Sita is performed before a crowd and the talambralu, the pearls of rice, are thrown.
Temples of Rama 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.
Read more Show less
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.
Fixing a day for it
The muhurtham rules for a puja held alongside, whose day the family chooses
Sri Rama Navami's own date is set by the rule in "The hour" above, and no muhurtham moves it. For a satyanarayana puja around it, whose day the family does choose, the finder below applies these rules.
The Satyanarayana vratam and katha at home. Pournami is the day of the vratam and Ekadasi the next best; Kartika Pournami, Vaishakha Pournami and the Sankranti days are the ones most families choose. Thursday, the day of Guru, comes first among the weekdays, and Tuesday is the one usually passed over. The puja is done in the evening and the prasadam shared after the katha, so no lagna window is computed here.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it.
Read more Show less
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.