Shravani Shivaratri · the Deoghar kanwar Festival The Shivaratri of the monsoon month, and in Jharkhand the largest day of the year.

English

Shravani Shivaratri · the Deoghar kanwar

हिन्दी

श्रावणी शिवरात्रि

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.

1. Saturday, 31 July 2027
2. Thursday, 20 July 2028
3. Wednesday, 8 August 2029

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Worked out for Chennai, Lahiri ayanamsa. A date is a function of the place: set yours above and the next three come back for where you are.

The Shivaratri of the monsoon month, and in Jharkhand the largest day of the year. Baba Baidyanath at Deoghar is one of the twelve jyotirlingas, and through the whole of Shravana the kanwariyas walk the hundred and five kilometres from Sultanganj on the Ganga to the temple with two sealed pots of river water slung on a pole, in saffron, calling bol bam, and they do not set the kanwar on the ground once in the whole walk. This Chaturdashi is the day the queue is longest and the water is poured. Those who do not walk keep the four prahar puja at whatever Shiva temple is nearest them, which is how most of the region keeps the day.

Deity

Shiva, Parvati, Baidyanath

Kind

Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.

Shravana Krishna Chaturdashi running at nishita, true midnight, else at sunset, the same reading Maha Shivaratri is given five months later. An amanta almanac calls the same night Ashadha Krishna Chaturdashi.

Sunrise 05:54, sunset 18:36, 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.

A phalahar fast through the day, on fruit, milk and water, broken after the offering. The kanwariyas keep it for the days of the walk and eat nothing cooked with grain while the kanwar is on the shoulder.

Jharkhand keeps it hardest, at Deoghar and at Basukinath, and Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh send much of the kanwar. The Haridwar and Gaumukh kanwar of the same month goes to Pura Mahadev and Kashi instead, and the Deccan and the south keep no Shravana Shivaratri at this scale and read the Magha one as the Shivaratri.

The dates above are the Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh 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.

• Baidyanath Jyotirlinga, Deoghar 1,437 km
  Jharkhand

  The entry for this day names Deoghar, and it is a temple of Baidyanath. Baba Baidyanath at Deoghar is one of the twelve jyotirlingas, and through the whole of Shravana the kanwariyas walk the hundred and five kilometres from Sultanganj on the Ganga to the temple with two sealed pots of river water slung on a pole, in saffron, calling bol bam, and they do not set the kanwar on the ground once in the whole walk.

• Basukinath Dham 1,448 km
  Dumka, Jharkhand

  The entry for this day names Basukinath, and it is a temple of Shiva. Jharkhand keeps it hardest, at Deoghar and at Basukinath, and Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh send much of the kanwar.

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. Your family's own temple comes first, and its calendar is the one that decides.

A temple visit, or the first darshan at a new temple. No weekday is ruled out: Tuesday belongs to Murugan and the Amman, Saturday to Perumal and Sani, so the day usually follows the deity rather than the almanac. Ashtami and Chaturdasi are the two tithis held back for darshan, with the standing exceptions of Sivaratri on Krishna Chaturdasi and Kala Bhairava Ashtami, which are kept on those very days. Rahu kaal, Yamaganda and Gulika kaal are not scored here; the panchangam page prints them for the day you pick, and most families simply wait them out.

Find a day for temple visit →

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.