Saraswati Puja · Ayudha Puja · Sri Panchami Festival The day of Saraswati, when books, instruments, tools and machines are put away at her feet and not used until she gives them back.
The name
The same day, written in each of the six scripts this app keeps
- English
- Saraswati Puja · Ayudha Puja · Sri Panchami
- தமிழ்
- சரஸ்வதி பூஜை · ஆயுத பூஜை
- বাংলা
- সরস্বতী পূজা · শ্রীপঞ্চমী
Only the names actually in use are listed. A blank script is not an omission: the day may simply not be kept there, or be kept under a different festival's name.
UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place: 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
Looking for the calendar this day belongs to
This day does not fall again in the next three years at this place. A few days are tied to the solar month rather than to the civil year, so a year can hold two of them or none.
What the day is
The day of Saraswati, when books, instruments, tools and machines are put away at her feet and not used until she gives them back. In the south it is the ninth day of Navaratri, and the Ayudha Puja is the same rite turned on the workshop and the vehicle: the lathe, the loom, the lorry and the kitchen knife are washed, marked with sandal and kumkum, garlanded and left alone. Bengal and Assam keep the same name four months earlier, on Sri Panchami in Magh, when a pratima in white or yellow is set up in every school and every para and the hatekhori, a child's first letters, is done in front of her.
- Deity
- Saraswati, Durga
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
The hour
The rule in words
Shukla Navami running at aparahna, the afternoon on which the books and the tools are laid down; they are taken back on Vijayadasami morning. In 2024 the Navami began at 12:07 on 11 October and the Tamil Nadu holiday list kept Ayudha Poojai on the 11th. The Bengali and Assamese panjikas read the Magh Shukla Panchami at purvahna, the forenoon, because the pushpanjali is offered then.
The fast
No fast is prescribed; many families eat one meal and keep the kitchen light. Sundal, vadai and payasam are offered through the nine nights in the south, and Bengal offers kul, the first jujube of the season, which nobody eats before this day.
Where the regions differ
Tamil Nadu and Kerala put Saraswati Puja on Navami and start again on Dasami; Bengal and Assam keep it on Sri Panchami in Magh instead, and the north keeps the same Magh Panchami as Vasant Panchami and the Navami as Maha Navami with the Durga puja. One name and two days four months apart, and the calendar prints whichever its tradition keeps.
Fixing a day for it
The muhurtham rules that go with this festival
Vidyarambham or aksharabhyasam, the first letters. Vijayadashami and Vasant Panchami are the classic days and need no further checking. Otherwise Wednesday and Thursday, the days of Budhan and Guru, are the best, Rikta tithis are left out, and the hour is usually the morning.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it. 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.