When Ram Navami falls

Dates are computed astronomically against Kashi sunrise.

The significance of Ram Navami

Ram Navami puja vidhi

1. 1Bathe early, wear clean clothes, and take the sankalpa of the fast.
2. 2Clean the puja space and place the images of Rama with Sita, Lakshmana and Hanuman.
3. 3Keep the main puja for madhyahna kaal — the midday window in which the birth is held to have occurred.
4. 4Bathe the infant Rama's image, dress it, and place it in a cradle if one is kept.
5. 5Offer tulsi, flowers, roli, akshat, and a bhog of panakam — jaggery water with cardamom, pepper and ginger — along with fruit.
6. 6Read the birth passage from the Balakanda, sing the Rama aarti, and rock the cradle.
7. 7Distribute panakam and prasad. Break the fast after the puja, or at sunset.

Mantra

Vrat rules

• The fast is kept from sunrise and broken after the madhyahna puja, or maintained until sunset.
• Those completing Chaitra Navratri break the nine-day fast on this day, after the Navami tithi ends.
• Grains, onion and garlic are avoided; fruit, milk and vrat flours are taken.
• The Ramcharitmanas or the Sundarkand is read, in part or whole, through the day.
• Charity of food and water is customary, since Rama's reign is remembered as one in which no one went hungry.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Missing the madhyahna (noon) window — Rama's birth is marked at midday, not at midnight like Krishna's.
• Treating Ram Navami as separate from Chaitra Navratri; it is the ninth and final day of the same observance.
• Breaking the nine-day Navratri fast before the noon birth worship on Navami.
• Overlooking the parana rules if a strict Navratri fast has been kept through the nine days.

The vrat katha of Ram Navami

Ram Navami timeline

1. Nine days of Chaitra Navratri

   Ram Navami is the culmination — the nine nights of the Goddess lead up to the birth of Rama on the ninth day.

2. Morning

   The Ramayana (or Ram Raksha Stotra and Sundarkanda) is recited; the temple and cradle are readied for the birth.

3. Madhyahna — the birth

   At noon, the auspicious hour of Rama's birth, the infant deity is bathed, dressed and rocked in the cradle amid conch and bhajan.

4. Afternoon & evening

   Prasad and panakam (a jaggery drink) are shared; jhula, aarti and Ram-katha continue.

Famous places & temples

Interesting facts

• ◆Rama is worshipped as born at noon, in the Abhijit muhurat — the opposite of Krishna, born at midnight.
• ◆It is the ninth and final day of Chaitra Navratri, so the Goddess's nine nights open into Vishnu's descent as Rama.
• ◆In the south the day is kept as Sita Rama Kalyanam, the wedding of Rama and Sita, rather than only the birth.
• ◆Panakam (jaggery-water with pepper and cardamom) and neer mor are the season's cooling prasad, marking the coming summer.

Common questions