Ram Navami 2027: Date, Puja Vidhi & Significance

Last updated: September 2026 · By Acharya Alok Pandit, Divine Hindu, Jayanagar 3rd Block East, Bengaluru 560011 · ~20 min read

Two questions reach our counter in Jayanagar every spring: what is the date of Ram Navami, and what time is the puja. This guide answers both for 2027 and gives a household the rest of what it needs — the birth story as the Ramayana tells it, the puja vidhi in order, a samagri list, the rules of the vrat and who should not keep it, and the very different ways the day is observed in Ayodhya, in Maharashtra and across the South.

Ram Navami marks the birth of Shri Rama, the seventh avatar of Vishnu, born at Ayodhya to King Dasharatha and Queen Kausalya. He is remembered as Maryada Purushottam, the man who held the line of dharma even when it cost him everything, and the day is kept less as a spectacle than as a household birthday: a cradle is set up, an infant form of Rama is placed in it, and at midday the family rocks the cradle and sings.

Ram Navami 2027 date, tithi and the madhyahna moment

Ram Navami is fixed to Chaitra Shukla Navami, the ninth lunar day of the waxing fortnight of Chaitra. In 2027 that day is Thursday, 15 April. Drik Panchang, calculated for New Delhi, gives "Rama Navami on Thursday, April 15, 2027", and Prokerala independently gives "Rama Navami 2027 is on April 15 Thursday". Samvat.in and CalendarLabs agree. There is no dispute about the Indian date.

Why midday, and not sunrise, fixes the day

Most Hindu festivals are decided by which tithi is running at sunrise, or at moonrise, or at the moment of a particular sandhya. Ram Navami is decided by madhyahna — the middle third of the daylight span, roughly the two and a half hours around solar noon. The reason is simple and specific: tradition holds that Shri Rama was born at midday, and so the festival is kept on the day whose madhyahna carries the Navami tithi. Drik Panchang states the principle plainly, describing the mid-point of madhyahna as the moment when Shri Rama was born.

Madhyahna is not clock noon. It is calculated by dividing the interval between local sunrise and local sunset into five equal parts and taking the third; its mid-point is what panchang makers publish as the birth moment. Because sunrise and sunset differ from city to city, that mid-point moves. For New Delhi in 2027 it is 12:21 PM. In Bengaluru, Mumbai, Kolkata or Guwahati it will land a few minutes either side. If you want the moment for your own city, take it from a panchang set to your location rather than assuming Delhi's figure applies everywhere.

Why we are not printing exact tithi and muhurat minutes

We will publish a timing only when two independent panchang sources agree to the minute. For 2027 they agree exactly on the madhyahna birth moment for New Delhi, so that number is here. They do not agree on the rest.

The start and end of the Navami tithi differ by one minute between Drik Panchang and Prokerala at each end, and so does the madhyahna puja window — one minute apart at the opening and one at the close. A single minute makes no ritual difference, but printing a precise figure that a reader can find contradicted elsewhere is how a website loses trust. So: the Navami tithi begins mid-afternoon on Wednesday 14 April and ends early afternoon on Thursday 15 April, and the puja is kept in the roughly two and a half hours of madhyahna centred on the birth moment. Take exact minutes from one panchang set to your city and stay with that source for the whole day.

Is Ram Navami 2027 on 14 or 15 April?

Some readers will find 14 April 2027 listed and wonder which is right. For India, it is unambiguously the 15th, and the 14th listing has a clean explanation.

It is a geolocation artefact, not a competing Indian reading. Panchang sites calculate for whatever location the visitor is served with. Drik Panchang queried with a New York location returns "Rama Navami on Wednesday, April 14, 2027", because in the Western hemisphere the madhyahna that carries Navami falls on the local 14th. It is the same astronomical event, printed against a different local calendar date. Nothing has changed about the tithi; only the clock and the calendar of the observer.

The clinching point for India is what 14 April 2027 actually is here. It is Durga Ashtami of Chaitra Navratri. Navami does not begin until mid-afternoon on the 14th, well after that day's midday has passed — so the 14th has no Navami at madhyahna at all and cannot carry Ram Navami under the madhyahna rule. The 15th does, and it also carries the birth moment. Anyone in India who keeps the vrat on 14 April will be keeping Ashtami.

Readers abroad should follow the madhyahna of the city they are in. A family in Toronto or New Jersey keeping the day on their local 14 April is doing it correctly by the same rule, in their own sky; a household that prefers to keep it with Ayodhya and with relatives in India may equally hold to 15 April. Choose one and tell the family which.

No purnimanta-amanta split this time

Some festivals carry two month-names depending on whether your calendar is purnimanta (month ends at the full moon, common in the North) or amanta (month ends at the new moon, common in the West and South). Maha Shivratri is the standard example — Phalguna Krishna Chaturdashi in the North, Magha Krishna Chaturdashi in the South: one day, two names. Ram Navami has no such split. It falls in the shukla paksha, and both reckonings label this month's bright fortnight Chaitra. It is Chaitra Shukla Navami everywhere.

The birth of Shri Rama: the traditional account

What follows is the story as the Valmiki Ramayana and the Puranas give it, and as it is retold in households at Ram Navami. It is offered here as traditional narrative, not as verified history.

Dasharatha, king of Kosala and lord of Ayodhya, had ruled long and well and had three queens — Kausalya, Kaikeyi and Sumitra — but no son to follow him. In old age the want of an heir weighed on him, and on the counsel of his ministers and of the sage Vasishtha he resolved to perform the putrakameshti yajna, the fire sacrifice offered for the sake of children. The rishi Rishyashringa was invited to conduct it. The rites were performed over many days on the banks of the Sarayu with the full observance the texts demand.

At the close of the yajna, the accounts say, a divine figure rose from the sacrificial fire bearing a vessel of payasam, and gave it to the king to be shared among his queens. Dasharatha divided it. Kausalya and Kaikeyi received their portions, and Sumitra received hers along with a share from each of the others — which is why she bore two sons where the other queens bore one. In time four princes were born to Ayodhya: Rama to Kausalya, Bharata to Kaikeyi, and the twins Lakshmana and Shatrughna to Sumitra.

The Ramayana is precise about the moment of the eldest's birth. Rama was born in the month of Chaitra, on the ninth day of the bright fortnight, under Punarvasu nakshatra with Karka (Cancer) as the rising sign, at madhyahna — midday. That single detail is what governs the whole festival. Because the birth is placed at midday, the festival is placed at midday, and the day chosen each year is the day whose midday carries Navami. Everything in the puja vidhi below follows from it: the cradle is rocked at madhyahna, the conch is blown at madhyahna, the aarti is sung at madhyahna.

What follows the birth — Mithila, the exile, Lanka, the return remembered at Diwali — belongs to the epic rather than to this guide. Ram Navami keeps only the beginning: a household with a newborn in it.

Ram Navami puja vidhi, step by step

This is the ghar ka vidhi — the home form, as most families keep it. Temples elaborate it; a small household can do the whole thing in under an hour. The one fixed point is that the birth observance belongs to madhyahna.

1. Bathe and prepare the space early. Rise before sunrise if you can, bathe, and wear clean, unstitched or simple clothes — yellow, saffron and cream are customary. Clean the puja room, wipe the mandir, and lay a fresh cloth on the chowki. Draw a rangoli or a swastika at the threshold.
2. Take the sankalp. Sit facing east or north, hold water, a little akshat and a flower in the right palm, and state aloud what you are undertaking — your name, gotra if you use one, the place, the tithi, and the vow to keep the vrat and the puja for the day. Release the water into a plate. The sankalp is what turns the day's actions into an observance rather than a routine.
3. Set up the cradle. Place the palna or jhula on the chowki and set the infant form of Rama in it, on a small cushion, with a light cloth. This is the heart of the day's arrangement in most homes: Ram Navami is a birthday, and the child is received.
4. Arrange the Ram Darbar. Alongside or behind the cradle, set the darbar — Rama at the centre with Sita at his left, Lakshmana at his right, and Hanuman seated at his feet. If you are placing a new murti in the mandir for the first time, settle its position and its pratishtha before the day rather than during it.
5. Panchamrita abhishek. Bathe the murti with panchamrita — milk, curd, honey, ghee and sugar, in that order — then with clean water, and dry it with a soft cloth. Dress it, apply chandan, and offer a fresh garland. Keep the used panchamrita; it is distributed as prasad.
6. Shodashopachara offerings. Light the diya and the dhoop. Offer flowers (tulsi leaves, marigold, jasmine), akshat, roli, a sacred thread, and fruit. Rama is worshipped as an avatar of Vishnu, and tulsi must be present in the naivedya offered to Vishnu — a leaf placed on the bhog is the minimum. Many families also wear a tulsi mala for the japa that follows.
7. Paath. Read the Sundarkand — the Hanuman chapter, the most commonly read section on this day — or the Bala Kanda birth passage, or a portion of the Ramcharitmanas. Many households do an akhand paath from morning to midday. Where time is short, the Hanuman Chalisa is customarily added, since Hanuman is present in the darbar.
8. Ram Raksha Stotra. Recite the Ram Raksha Stotra of Budha Kaushika. It is the standard protective stotra of the day and is traditionally held to be an act of sharanagati — taking refuge — rather than a transaction.
9. Japa. Chant "Shri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram", the thirteen-syllable mantra, or the simple "Om Shri Ramaya Namah". A mala of 108 is the usual count; many families sit together and keep it going in relay until madhyahna.
10. The birth moment at madhyahna. As the madhyahna mid-point arrives — 12:21 PM for New Delhi, a few minutes different in your city — blow the conch, ring the bell, rock the cradle gently, and sing the birth songs or the bhajan your family uses. In many homes this is the only moment of the day that everyone stops for. Offer the bhog now: panjiri, kheer, panakam, fruit, and sweets, with tulsi on the plate.
11. Aarti. Sing the Rama aarti and, in most homes, the Hanuman aarti after it, circling the lamp clockwise before the darbar. If the order of the aarti thali is unfamiliar, our guide to doing aarti sets it out.
12. Kshama prarthana and closing. Ask forgiveness for whatever was left out or done imperfectly, do a pradakshina of the mandir, distribute prasad and panakam to everyone in the house and to neighbours, and set aside a portion for daan. Those who observed the Chaitra Navratri fast break it now or at sunset, as the family's custom holds.

Ram Navami puja samagri

A working list. Nothing here is compulsory — the vidhi holds with a diya, water, a flower and attention — but this is what a full home setup usually contains.

Our Chaitra Navratri and Ram Navami edit gathers the pieces we are most often asked for in the shop during these nine days.

The Ram Navami vrat: how the fast is kept

The Ram Navami vrat is a day fast, taken from sunrise on 15 April 2027 and carried to the release. When it is released varies by household, and both customs are old: some families break the fast after the madhyahna puja, receiving the bhog offered at the birth moment as the first food of the day; others hold it until sunset and eat after the evening lamp. Follow the practice your family already keeps rather than adopting a new one from a website.

Within the fast, the usual form is phalahar — fruit, milk and curd, sabudana, singhare or kuttu ka atta, potato and sweet potato, rock salt (sendha namak) in place of table salt, and no grain, no ordinary salt, no onion or garlic. A stricter form is nirjala, without water, and a gentler one is a single satvik meal in the evening. All three are recognised. Panakam, the jaggery-and-pepper drink made for this day, is taken during the fast in the South and is one reason the vrat is easier to keep there in April heat.

For a great many households the Ram Navami fast is not a separate observance at all but the last day of the nine-day Chaitra Navratri fast. The Navratri parana — the formal breaking of the nine-day vrat — is done on this day, after the Navami puja and, in homes that keep it, after Kanya Pujan and the havan. The Devi worship of the nine nights and the Rama worship of the ninth day sit together without contradiction; families do both in the same room.

Who should not keep the fast

Tradition itself makes room for exemption, and this is worth saying plainly. Pregnant and nursing women, children, the elderly, anyone diabetic, anyone unwell, and anyone on regular medication should not keep a strict fast. Medication that must be taken with food does not become optional because of a vrat. Where there is any doubt, follow your doctor's instruction over custom — the observance is not diminished by it. A sankalp kept with a simple satvik meal, or with the paath and the puja alone, is a complete observance. This article is general cultural and religious information and is not medical advice.

What is traditionally done, and traditionally avoided

How Ram Navami is kept across India

The same tithi produces very different days in different places, and it is worth knowing that the northern and southern forms of Ram Navami are not variations on one another so much as two distinct festivals sharing a date.

Ayodhya keeps it as a birthplace keeps a birthday. Pilgrims arrive for days beforehand and begin with a snan in the Sarayu at first light, the river bathing that traditionally opens the observance. The Ram Janmabhoomi temple draws immense crowds through the day, and the surrounding lanes fill for the Ram Navami mela, a fair of several days with kirtan mandalis, Ram Katha pandals, sweet stalls and traders. Kanak Bhawan, the temple traditionally associated with Sita's residence after her marriage, is among the most visited on the day, and its Sita-Rama darshan draws long queues. Anyone planning to go should expect very heavy footfall, book accommodation early and follow the crowd-management routing put in place by the local administration.

In the South the day turns on a different event. At Bhadrachalam in Telangana, on the Godavari, the temple of Sri Sita Ramachandra Swamy performs Sitarama Kalyanam — the celestial wedding of Rama and Sita, enacted in full on Ram Navami with the talambralu, the mangalsutra and the ritual of a real marriage. It is the largest observance of its kind and is broadcast widely. This is the dominant southern form: in the South, Ram Navami is as much a wedding as a birthday, and the day is often called Sri Rama Navami precisely in that register. Rameswaram, associated with Rama's worship of Shiva before the crossing to Lanka, sees its own observance and heavy pilgrim traffic, and kalyanam utsavams are held in Rama temples across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

The southern street form is hospitality. Pandals and temple gates in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh distribute panakam — jaggery water with dry ginger, cardamom, black pepper and lemon — along with neer mor, the spiced buttermilk, and kosambari, the soaked moong dal salad with cucumber and coconut. All three are cooling foods for a festival that falls at the hottest turn of the year, and giving them away to anyone passing is as much a part of the day as the puja. Bengaluru adds something distinctive of its own: the Sri Ramanavami music festival tradition, with Carnatic concert series running for weeks around the festival in neighbourhood pandals, the Fort High School ground programme among the best known, offering classical music as the day's devotional act.

Maharashtra keeps the birthday form with its own texture. Ram Navami kirtan is performed in temples through the morning, the katha building towards midday, and at the madhyahna moment the cradle ceremony is done — the palna set swinging, the infant Rama placed within, sugar and dry fruit distributed. It follows Gudi Padwa by a little over a week, and many families treat the two as the opening and closing of the same festive fortnight; see our note on Gudi Padwa and Ugadi. In Bihar and Jharkhand, Ramnavami is among the biggest days of the year, with saffron flags raised over homes and lanes, akhara processions with traditional drumming, and large public Ram Katha and bhandara arrangements in Ranchi, Patna, Hazaribagh and beyond.

Sita's side of the story has its own places. Punaura Dham near Sitamarhi in Bihar, held by tradition to be her birthplace, and the Sita Samahit Sthal associated with her final return to the earth both keep the day, as does Janakpur in Nepal, the Mithila of the epic and the home of her father Janaka. That Janakpur–Ayodhya link is felt again at Ram Navami wherever the kalyanam form is followed. Sita's own day, Sita Navami, falls a month later, on Friday 14 May 2027.

Ram Navami and Chaitra Navratri 2027

Chaitra Navratri 2027 begins with Ghatasthapana on Wednesday, 7 April — the same day as Ugadi and Gudi Padwa, and the day Vikram Samvat 2084 and Shaka Samvat 1949 begin. It runs a clean nine days to 15 April, with no tithi kshaya and no tithi vriddhi in the sequence, which means one calendar day per tithi and no doubled or dropped day to argue about. Ram Navami is the ninth of those days and the parana. Our full Chaitra Navratri 2027 guide covers Ghatasthapana in detail, and the background piece on spring Navratri explains why the spring nine nights are kept more quietly than the autumn ones.

Festivals around Ram Navami 2027

Dates below are for 2027 and are drawn from panchang sources that agree with one another. There is no adhik maas in 2027, so the year runs without an intercalary month displacing anything.

One point of interest in this fortnight: Chaitra Shukla paksha in 2027 carries a tithi kshaya, a dropped tithi. Kamada Ekadashi and Vamana Dwadashi both fall on 17 April, which compresses the fortnight by a day — and that is why Chaitra Purnima and Hanuman Jayanti land on Tuesday 20 April rather than the 21st. Readers who count forward from Ram Navami by hand will be a day out unless they allow for it. For the wider year, see our Hindu festival calendar.

Visit us or order online

If you are arranging the mandir for Ram Navami 2027, come and see the pieces in person at the Divine Hindu Store, Jayanagar 3rd Block East, Bengaluru 560011, or order online. The Ayodhya Ram Lalla Idol – For Car, Home & Office is traditionally used as the infant form placed in the palna on this day, and is also kept in the car and at the workplace through the year. For the fuller mandir, our idols collection carries the Ram Darbar in several sizes. Before fixing a new murti in place, our guide to idols for the home temple is worth a read.

Dates and timings in this article are drawn from published panchang sources for New Delhi and are given for general guidance. Panchang timings vary with location, so confirm the madhyahna moment for your own city with a panchang set to your location or with your family purohit. Ritual practice differs legitimately between regions, communities and families; where this article and your family custom differ, follow your family. Nothing here is medical, financial or professional advice, and no ritual, product or observance is claimed to produce any specific outcome.