ಶ್ರೀಕೃಷ್ಣ ಜಯಂತಿ (ಮಾಧ್ವ) | Sri Krishna Jayanti (Madhva)

Sri Krishna Jayanti, as the Udupi Krishna Matha and the Madhva tradition keep it, is the birth of Krishna fixed by the Sun’s month as well as by the moon: the ashtami of the dark fortnight that falls while the Sun is in Simha, joined with the nakshatra Rohini when the two meet. It is the day of the Janmashtami worship at Udupi. In most years it is the same day as the Janmashtami the rest of India keeps; in some years it falls a month later.

Why Udupi’s day can differ

Krishna was born at midnight on the ashtami of the dark fortnight, under Rohini. The lunar calendars fix the festival by the tithi in the lunar month: Shravana krishna paksha in the amanta reckoning of Karnataka, which is Bhadrapada krishna paksha in the purnimanta reckoning of the North. The Udupi panchanga reckons the month by the Sun, the sauramana, and asks for the four together: Simha masa, krishna paksha, ashtami and Rohini.

The Sun enters Simha in the middle of August. When the Shravana ashtami falls after that, the two festivals coincide, as they did in 2026. When it falls before, Udupi waits for the next krishna ashtami, which is in Bhadrapada by the amanta count, and keeps the festival about a month after most of the country.

How it is kept

The day is a fast. Uttaradi Math’s instructions for 2023, for example, called it a full fast without water, like an ekadashi, with the arghya given after moonrise and the parane taken the next day after the ashtami had ended. At the Udupi Krishna Matha the Paryaya swamiji performs the arghya pradana, the offering of arghya to Krishna, as the moon rises, which on this night is near midnight. Laddus and chakkulis are given out as prasada, by the Paryaya swamiji himself among others.

The next day is Vitla Pindi, also called Sri Krishna Leelotsava or Mosaru Kudike. A clay image of Krishna is carried from the Matha in a golden palanquin to a chariot and taken in procession through the streets round the temple with the images of Anantheshwara and Chandramouleshwara. Along the way young men dressed as gopalas break pots of curd hung from wooden frames, and huli vesha, tiger dancers, perform on Car Street. At the end the clay image is immersed in the Madhva Sarovara.

Which day Anudina gives

Anudina keeps two rows for Krishna’s birth. The general Janmashtami row works out two days. The Smarta day follows the Dharma Sindhu order as Drik Panchang applies it: the night on which the ashtami stands at nishita; of two such nights, the later, or the one with Rohini; and a night whose sunrise still had saptami is given up for the next day if the ashtami stands at that sunrise, unless that night alone carries Rohini at nishita. The Vaishnava day is never such a viddha day: it is the day on which the ashtami stands at sunrise, with Rohini when two days have it. Under the Sri Vaishnava setting that row carries the Vaishnava day; under Smarta and Madhva it carries the Smarta day; either way it names the other.

This row is the Udupi rule, and it is shown only when the Tradition setting is Madhva, in every regional custom. Anudina gives the day on which the krishna paksha ashtami is running at moonrise while the Sun is in Simha. When Rohini also stands at moonrise that night, the row says so. When Rohini stands at moonrise on the night before or after instead, and the ashtami still touches that night, Anudina moves the day to that night. When the two do not meet, the ashtami is taken. In 2027 Anudina gives 25 August.

A Madhva household that follows another matha’s panchanga keeps the day that panchanga prints. For the fast this one is likened to, see Ekadashi. The other Madhva observance of this season is Raghavendra Aradhana.