Hanuman Jayanti 2028: Date, Rituals & Significance

Purnima runs 8 Apr, 19:11 → 9 Apr, 15:56.

Hanuman is the model bhakta (strength, learning, brahmacharya and complete surrender to Rama) and a chiranjivi, one of the seven immortals, held to be present wherever the Ramayana is recited.

He is the deity of Mangal (Mars) and of Saturday, invoked against fear, against obstacles, and for relief during Shani's sade-sati; Tuesday and Saturday are his days.

The sindoor smeared thickly on his images comes from the story of Sita applying vermilion for Rama's long life: Hanuman, hearing why, covered his whole body in it out of love; the full-body sindoor-and-foil dressing of a murti is called a chola.

The day's texts are the Sundarkand of the Ramayana, Tulsidas's Hanuman Chalisa (read 11 or 108 times), the Bajrang Baan and the Sankat Mochan Hanumanashtak; wrestlers and akhadas honour him as their patron.

Anjana, an apsara born a vanara by a curse, did long penance for a son with her husband Kesari. At the same time King Dasharatha's Putrakameshti yajna produced a bowl of divine payasam for his queens; a bird, or the wind itself, carried a share of it to Anjana, and Vayu placed it in her hand. She ate it and bore Hanuman: son of Kesari, of Vayu, and (in the Shaiva telling) a portion of Rudra.

As a hungry infant he sprang into the sky at the rising sun, mistaking it for a fruit. Indra struck him down with the vajra, breaking his jaw (hanu), and from that he is Hanuman. Vayu, in grief, drew all air out of the world until the gods revived the child, and each then granted him a boon, making him invulnerable, weightless or vast at will, and mightier than any.

A curse of the rishis made him forget his own powers until reminded of them. It is Jambavan who reminds him, on the shore of the ocean, before the leap to Lanka in search of Sita, and from there the Sundarkand unfolds.

Source: Valmiki Ramayana; Ramcharitmanas; Anand Ramayana; Shiva Purana (the Rudra-avatara strand)

Hanuman's worship grew greatly through the bhakti movements of the second millennium; Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas and Hanuman Chalisa (16th century) fixed his image in the North, and Tulsidas is held to have founded the Sankat Mochan temple at Varanasi.

In Maharashtra, Samarth Ramdas in the 17th century established hundreds of Maruti temples as centres of strength and devotion. The akhara and wrestling tradition across the North keeps him as patron.

Regional calendars differ: Andhra and Telangana keep Hanuman Jayanti on Vaishakha Krishna Dashami, closing a 41-day Hanuman Deeksha begun on the Chaitra Purnima; Tamil Nadu keeps Hanumath Jayanti in Margazhi; Karnataka on Margashirsha Shukla Trayodashi. The Salasar and Mehandipur Balaji fairs in Rajasthan draw very large crowds.

• Tulsidas, Hanuman Chalisa and Ramcharitmanas, 16th c.
• Samarth Ramdas and the Maruti temples of Maharashtra, 17th c.
• Regional panchanga traditions for the Hanuman birth tithi (Chaitra / Vaishakha / Margazhi / Margashirsha)

1. A pre-dawn bath is taken; in Maharashtra the Janmotsav is held at sunrise with the reading of the janma-katha and the breaking of a coconut at the moment of 'birth'.
2. The Sundarkand is read, the Hanuman Chalisa recited 11 or 108 times, and the Bajrang Baan and Sankat Mochan stotra offered.
3. Sindoor mixed in jasmine (chameli) oil is offered to the image, and a chola, a full-body dressing of sindoor and silver foil, is put on the murti; laddoo, boondi, chana-gud, paan and a flag (dhwaja) are offered.
4. A bhandara, a free community meal, is given, and many keep a fast on the day or maintain a Tuesday or Saturday Hanuman vrat through the year.

• North India. The Chaitra Purnima festival: Sundarkand and Chalisa paths, the chola and sindoor, and large bhandaras; the Salasar Dham and Mehandipur Balaji fairs in Rajasthan.
• Maharashtra. Hanuman Janmotsav at sunrise on Chaitra Purnima, with kirtan; the Maruti temples of Samarth Ramdas as centres of the day.
• Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Hanuman Jayanti on Vaishakha Krishna Dashami: the close of a 41-day Hanuman Deeksha, the mala worn from the Chaitra Purnima and immersed now.
• Tamil Nadu. Hanumath Jayanti in the month of Margazhi, kept on the Amavasya or the Moola nakshatra, with vada-mala and butter offerings.
• Karnataka. Hanuma Jayanti on Margashirsha Shukla Trayodashi, observed as the Hanuman Vratam with a special puja and the reading of his mahatmya.

• Boondi and besan laddoo, imarti — The sweets offered to Hanuman and shared as prasad.
• Chana-gud — Roasted gram with jaggery: a plain, strengthening prasad associated with the deity of the akhara.
• Paan, and the bhandara meal — Betel offered to the image; puri-sabzi, kheer and halwa served free to all at the bhandara.

Hanuman Jayanti is kept on the day when Purnima of Chaitra Shukla paksha prevails at sunrise. That day is Sunday, 9 April 2028. Purnima holds at sunrise only on this day.

at sunrise

In North India and Maharashtra, Hanuman Jayanti is the Chaitra Purnima: the full moon, the Moon opposite the Sun (elongation ~180°, sidereal Lahiri), near the Chitra nakshatra that names the month; Maharashtra times the Janmotsav to sunrise. Because other regions place the birth in different luni-solar and solar months, the Gregorian date is not single: the Chaitra Purnima festival drifts about 11 days earlier each year (and back ~19 in an adhika-month year), while the Tamil Margazhi observance moves with the solar month. For the Chaitra Purnima festival the Sun stands in sidereal Meena or early Mesha.

A lunar date: Purnima of the bright half of Chaitra drifts about 11 days earlier each solar year, then jumps back ~19 days when a leap (Adhika) month is inserted.