Tulsidas Jayanti 2028: Date, Rituals & Significance

Shukla Saptami runs 27 Jul, 14:11 → 28 Jul, 12:03.

The day is kept with recitation and akhand path of the Ramcharitmanas, katha on Tulsidas's life, and worship of Rama and Hanuman; Ramayana mandalis and temples hold sammelans. It is largest at Varanasi (where he lived and where the Sankat Mochan Hanuman temple and the Tulsi Ghat and Tulsi Manas Mandir stand), and at his traditional birthplace Rajapur (Chitrakoot) and at Ayodhya.

Tulsidas, according to the hagiographies, was born under an inauspicious star, abandoned, raised by a wandering sadhu, and married; rebuked by his wife for his attachment to her, he turned wholly to Rama. He began the Ramcharitmanas at Ayodhya on Ram Navami 1574 and completed it over about two years, deliberately writing in Awadhi so that ordinary people, not only Sanskrit scholars, could hold the Ramayana in their own speech.

Source: Regional / sectarian festival tradition and the sources named in the text

Tulsidas is a documented historical figure of the sixteenth–seventeenth centuries; the Ramcharitmanas is among the most widely read and recited texts of the Hindi region, and the Ramlila performances (a UNESCO-listed tradition) are based on it. The Jayanti is kept on Shravana Shukla Saptami by the Ramanandi and wider Vaishnava community.

• Wikipedia

1. The birth anniversary of Goswami Tulsidas, author of the Ramcharitmanas, is marked on Shravan Shukla Saptami.
2. Continuous readings of the Manas are held, especially at Tulsi Ghat and Sankat Mochan in Varanasi, and at Rajapur.
3. Ramkatha sessions and seminars on his works are held in temples and literary societies.

• Varanasi. The largest observance — path at Tulsi Ghat, Sankat Mochan and Tulsi Manas Mandir, with Ramayana sammelans.
• Chitrakoot (Rajapur), Ayodhya, the Hindi belt. Ramcharitmanas recitation, Ram–Hanuman puja, and discourses on Tulsidas's life.

• Prasad — Sweets and fruit distributed at the end of the Manas path.

Tulsidas Jayanti is kept on the day when Saptami of Shravana Shukla paksha prevails at sunrise. That day is Friday, 28 July 2028. Saptami holds at sunrise only on this day.

at sunrise

Tulsidas Jayanti falls on Shravana Shukla Saptami, in July or August.

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