ರಾಘವೇಂದ್ರ ಆರಾಧನೆ | Raghavendra Aradhana

Raghavendra Aradhana is the yearly observance of the day on which Sri Raghavendra Tirtha, the Madhva saint known with affection as Rayaru, entered his brindavana at Mantralaya, on the bank of the Tungabhadra. It falls on the dwitiya, the second tithi, of the dark fortnight of Shravana. That fortnight is Shravana krishna paksha in the amanta calendar of Karnataka and Bhadrapada krishna paksha in the purnimanta reckoning of the North; the tithi is the same. The aradhana is kept above all at Mantralaya, and at the many mathas and shrines of Raghavendra Swamy elsewhere.

Who he was

Raghavendra Tirtha was born Venkatanatha at Bhuvanagiri, in present-day Tamil Nadu, in about 1595. He studied under Sudhindra Tirtha, head of the Madhva matha then at Kumbakonam, took sannyasa from him and succeeded him as its head. About forty-five works in Sanskrit are attributed to him. The best known is the Parimala, his commentary on the Nyaya Sudha of Jayatirtha, from which he is called Sudha Parimalacharya.

In 1671, in the Virodhikrit samvatsara, on Shravana krishna dwitiya, he entered alive a brindavana prepared for him at Mantralaya, then the village of Manchala, now in Andhra Pradesh close to the Karnataka border. The tradition holds that he remains present in the brindavana.

The aradhana at Mantralaya

The aradhana is kept over three days. The Madhya Aradhana, on the dwitiya, is the principal day; the Purva Aradhana is the day before it and the Uttara Aradhana the day after. At Mantralaya these three fall within a festival of seven nights, the Saptaratrotsava, which in 2024 ran from Shravana shukla chaturdashi to Shravana krishna panchami.

The matha’s programme for that year shows its shape. The festival opened with the hoisting of the flag in the evening. The Madhya Aradhana began with a maha panchamrita abhisheka in the morning and ended with processions on the elephant vahana and in the silver and golden chariots at night. The Uttara Aradhana was the day of the Maharathotsava, the great car festival. The matha also confers its Sri Raghavendra Anugraha award during the festival, and annadana, the feeding of pilgrims, is part of the festival.

Which day Anudina gives

Anudina gives the Madhya Aradhana: the day on which the dwitiya of Shravana krishna paksha is running at sunrise. The Purva and Uttara Aradhana are the days on either side of it. The row is shown when the Tradition setting is Madhva, in every regional custom; under Smarta or Sri Vaishnava it does not appear. In 2027 Anudina gives 19 August. The Mantralaya matha publishes its own schedule each year, and for the festival there that schedule is the one to follow.

The full moon two days earlier is the day of Yajur Upakarma and Raksha Bandhan. Krishna’s birth follows in the same fortnight or, at Udupi, sometimes a month later: see Janmashtami and Sri Krishna Jayanti (Madhva). The founder of the tradition is remembered on Madhva Navami and Madhva Jayanti.