Ram Navami

Ram Navami is the ninth day of the bright fortnight of Chaitra, the first month of the Hindu lunar year in most of North India. Because the bright fortnight belongs to Chaitra in both calendar systems, the date is the same everywhere. It is the last day of Chaitra (Vasant) Navratri, which begins on the Hindu New Year.

The Valmiki Ramayana and the Ramcharitmanas both place Rama's birth at midday. Panchangs therefore choose the day on which Navami tithi prevails during Madhyahna, the middle part of the day, and give a Madhyahna muhurat for the birth puja. In South India, many communities celebrate a nine-day Sri Rama Navami festival, and some extend it to the following Dashami.

The Valmiki Ramayana (Bala Kanda) tells how King Dasharatha of Ayodhya, long without an heir, performed the ashvamedha and then the putrakameshti yajna with the help of the sage Rishyashringa. From the sacrificial fire a radiant being emerged with a vessel of divine payasam, which Dasharatha shared among his queens. Kausalya gave birth to Rama, Kaikeyi to Bharata, and Sumitra to the twins Lakshmana and Shatrughna.

Valmiki marks the birth with unusual precision: in Chaitra, on the ninth tithi, under the Punarvasu nakshatra (whose deity is Aditi), with five planets exalted, Cancer rising and Jupiter with the moon. The gods had prayed to Vishnu to take birth as a man, because the demon-king Ravana, by Brahma's boon, could not be killed by gods or demons but had disdained to ask protection from humans.

In the sixteenth century, Goswami Tulsidas retold the story in Awadhi in the Ramcharitmanas, which is today the text most read on Ram Navami in North India. Tulsidas describes the time as the holy month of Madhu (Chaitra), the bright fortnight, the Abhijit muhurat at noon, 'neither too cold nor too hot', and Rama appearing first to Kausalya in his four-armed divine form before becoming a crying infant at her request.

Customs vary by region and sampradaya. A common household pattern:

Many devotees fast on Ram Navami, either until the noon worship or for the whole day, taking fruit, milk and fasting foods with rock salt. Grains, pulses, onion, garlic and meat are avoided. Some keep a full nirjala fast. For those who kept the Navratri fast, Ram Navami often brings it to a close. The day is spent in reading, kirtan and acts of charity, such as offering water and buttermilk to passers-by in the summer heat.

Valmiki records the moment of Rama's birth in the Bala Kanda; Tulsidas's chaupai sets the scene, and his chhand, sung in temples and homes at noon, celebrates the moment of birth.

Ayodhya, Rama's birthplace, draws vast crowds for a dip in the Sarayu and darshan at its temples. At Bhadrachalam in Telangana, the Sita Rama Kalyanam, the celestial wedding of Rama and Sita, is performed on Ram Navami with great ceremony, and many temples in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka hold the Kalyanam in public pandals. Tamil Nadu celebrates with bhajans and the Rama Navami music festivals of the classical tradition. Sitamarhi in Bihar and Janakpur in Nepal, linked to Sita's birth and wedding, hold large fairs. Processions (shobha yatras) with tableaux of Rama, Sita, Lakshmana and Hanuman pass through many towns in the north and east. In Maharashtra, temples hold kirtans and cradle ceremonies at noon. ISKCON and other Vaishnava communities fast until the evening.

In South India the day's prasad includes panakam, a cooling drink of jaggery, water, dry ginger and cardamom; neer mor, spiced buttermilk; and kosambari, a salad of soaked moong dal and cucumber, all suited to the early summer heat. In the north, panjiri, kheer, puri-halwa and fruit are offered. Many temples and households set up stalls to give free water, buttermilk and sherbet to passers-by. Akhand Ramayana or Ramcharitmanas recitations, often begun the day before, are completed on Navami.

Ram Navami celebrates the birth of maryada purushottam, the ideal person who keeps dharma even at great personal cost: the son who accepts exile without complaint, the king who places his people first, the brother and friend who stands by others. For devotees, it is a day to remember Rama's name as a refuge and to measure one's own life against his example. Celebrated with devotion, charity and care for others' comfort in the summer heat, it remains a festival of quiet joy as much as of grand processions.