Rama Navami

Rama Navami is a spring Hindu festival that celebrates the birthday of the Hindu God Lord Rama. He is particularly important to the Vaishnavism tradition of Hinduism, as the seventh avatar of God Vishnu. The festival celebrates the descent of Vishnu as shri Rama avatar, through his birth to King Dasharatha and Queen Kausalya in Ayodhya. The festival is a part of the spring Navratri, and falls on the ninth day of the bright half (Shukla Paksha) in the Hindu calendar month of Chaitra. This typically occurs in the Gregorian months of March or April every year. Rama Navami is an optional government holiday in India.

Baby Rama in a cradle at Chinawal village temple, Maharashtra

Quotes

• On the 24th of the Tschet month, a big gathering of people is taken here to celebrate the birthday of Rama, so famous in entire India.”
  • Joseph Tiefenthaler. History and Geography of India, (pp. 252-54), quoted in Kishore, Kunal (2016). Ayodhyā revisited. ch 11, also in Jain, Meenakshi. Rama and Ayodhya (2013, pp. 166

• By the impact of the festival of the Rāmanavami, bathing in the Sarayu river, having a darśan of the idol of Lord Rāma and beholding the Janmabhūmi, all they went to the Sāntānaka Loka by planes.
• By the merit of visit to Janmabhūmi, the darśana of the idol of Lord Rāma, bathing in the Sarayū river and the impact of the festival of the Rāmanavamī (the birthday of Rāma)all went to the Santanaka Loka in a plane.
• O best of sages! I made a darśana on the Rāmanavamī day.
  • Satyopākhyāna, edited by Dr. Shailja Pandeya, Rastriya Sanskrit Sansthan, Ganganath Jha Parisar, Allahabad, 2003. As quoted in Kishore, Kunal (2016). Ayodhyā revisited.

• If people fast on the Rāmanavamī day, bathe in the Sarayū and make donation, they are liberated from the bound of birth.
  • 12th chapter called दरिद्र-भञ्जनदुर्ल्लभो Adhyaya of the Ayodhyā-māhātmya of the Rudra-yāmala. As quoted in Kishore, Kunal (2016). Ayodhyā revisited.

• “Then Mahadeva said to the goddess, “I have told you the advantages of Ayodhya, the Sarayù, the Birthplace, and the day of the Navami. He who hears them, or relates them to others, obtains salvation in the end after having enjoyed all pleasures.”
  • Ayodhyā-māhātmya, Ram Narayan’s translation of Ayodhyā-māhātmya, published in the “Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,” Vol. XLIV in the year 1875. in Kishore, Kunal (2016). Ayodhyā revisited.

• Only by visiting it a man can get rid of staying (frequently) in a womb (i.e. rebirth). There is no need for making charitable gifts, performing penance or sacrifices or undertaking pilgrimages to holy spots. On the Navamī day the man should observe the holy vow. By the power of the holy bath and charitable gifts, he is liberated from the bondage of births.
  • description of the Janma-sthāna in the Ayodhyā-māhātmya of the Skanda-Purāna published by M/S Khemraj Shrikrishnadas, prop. Shri Venkateshwar Steam Press, reprinted by Nag Publishers, New Delhi, 1986, Vol. 2, Vaishnava-khanda. Adhyaya 10, p. 293R.) quoted in Kishore, Kunal (2016). Ayodhyā revisited.

• He, who fasts on the (Rāma) Navamī, takes bath and makes a donation, is liberated from all perils of birth by having a glance at the Janmasthāna.
  • Skanda Purana, manuscript preserved at Bodleian Library, Oxford, which has been marked as ‘O’ by Hans Bakker, is the largest version and contains 30 chapters. The same text was translated by Ram Narayan into English and published in the Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1875 A.D. The same text was edited by Pt. Ramnarayanadas and printed at the Lakshminarayan Press, Moradabad in 1898. quoted in Kishore, Kunal (2016). Ayodhyā revisited. ch 2

• He, who fasts on the (Rāma) Navamī, takes bath and makes a donation, is liberated from all perils of birth by having a glance at the Janmasthāna.
  • Skanda Purana, manuscript preserved at Vrindavana Research Institute in Bengali script which has been marked as ‘B’ by Hans Bakker.(Adhyaya 5, folio 13V.-14V.) quoted in Kishore, Kunal (2016). Ayodhyā revisited. ch 2

• “By evening, we had arrived at Shri Kshetra Ayodhya and stopped at the Kale Rama temple. The festival of Ramnavami (the day Lord Rama was born) was only a few days away and so the city of Ayodhya was milling with some seven to eight lakh pilgrims and holy men. I had never seen so many sadhus and bairagis together. There were also many pilgrims from the south.” (p. 177)
  • Visit of Vishnu Bhatta Godshe Versaikar to Ayodhyā (1859 A.D.) Majha Pravas (My Travels), i.e. ‘1858 The Real Story of the Great Uprising’. quoted in Kishore, Kunal (2016). Ayodhyā revisited. ch 11

• The Ramnowmee, or festival commemorating the birth of Rama, fell with the eighth day of the Mohurrum, on the 30th March, 1871. The public part of the Hindoo festival at Bareilly consists in carrying out an idol of Rama to a grove on the outskirts of the city, where the image is washed and adorned with flowers, and, after ceremonial performances, brought back again to the temple. For the going and returning of this procession a route had to be laid down and Police were called in in large numbers to accompany and direct it. Its direction was widely apart from that taken by the Mahomedan processions accompanying the tazias; and as neither sect was allowed to pass through the more crowded thoroughfares of the town, there was no danger of an accidental collision. But the events showed that a portion of the Mahomedan community had resolved at all costs to interrupt the Hindoo festival, to attack the procession and-to plunder the Hindoos in different parts of the city. The procession ‘was a very large one and was accompanied by 4OO Police and several of the District Officers. It started about 2 P. M., and was to return an hour before sunset The grove was quickly reached and the due ceremonies performed. About half an hour afterwards the procession was attacked on its way back, not far from the temple, at a turning in the road. With much difficulty the assailants were beaten off, and the idol brought back without the procession being broken up. But meanwhile the Mahomedan mob, failing in its attack upon the procession, broke into parties and fell back upon the city, intent on rapine and bloodshed.
  • Annals Of Indian Administration In 1871-72 - Vol.17 by Smith, George, ed https://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.3099/page/n345/mode/2up