Radha Ashtami
The birth of Radha, fifteen days after Krishna's, on the eighth tithi of bright Bhadrapada.
Where it is kept Braj — Barsana, Vrindavan and Mathura — and wherever the Gaudiya, Vallabha and Nimbarka sampradayas are established.
When it falls
Computed from the Moon's elongation from the Sun. The civil day is the one carrying the tithi running in the aparahna, the afternoon division.
Overview
Radha is held to have been born at Barsana on Bhadrapada Shukla Ashtami, a fortnight after Janmashtami. The observance is kept in the aparahna division of the day, which is the rule used here, and at Barsana the Ladli Ji temple holds the year's principal festival.
On this one day the temple permits darshan of Radha's feet, which are otherwise covered. That detail is the substance of the festival for the tradition: the rest of the year the devotee approaches Krishna through Radha, and today the order reverses.
Where it comes from
Radha is absent from the Bhagavata Purana. She appears in the Brahmavaivarta and Padma Puranas, in Jayadeva's Gita Govinda of the twelfth century, and in the Prakrit anthology Gatha Saptashati considerably earlier — but the theology that makes her Krishna's hladini shakti, his own power of delight, is a development of the Gaudiya tradition from the sixteenth century.
This absence from the earliest source is not a weakness of the tradition and it is not hidden by it; the Gaudiya theologians argue the point explicitly. It is stated here because a festival page that implied Radha was in the Bhagavata would be wrong.
Why it matters
In the Gaudiya and Nimbarka understanding Radha is not subordinate to Krishna but is the same reality in its feminine aspect, and this is the day that position is expressed liturgically.
Barsana, Nandgaon and the Braj villages keep it as their own local festival, which gives it a regional density unlike its relatively modest observance elsewhere.
How to celebrate
- Keep the puja in the aparahna windowThe rule that fixes the date also fixes the hour of the observance.
- Fast until midday if you keep the vratA half-day fast is the common form, broken after the noon puja.
- Read the Gita Govinda or the Radha stotrasThe devotional literature of the day.
What to avoid
These are not all the same kind of thing. Some are prohibitions from a named text, some are Indian law, some are practical, and some are a confusion worth not repeating. Each item says which it is.
- Do not take grain during the fastStandard vrat restriction for the day.
- Do not claim the Bhagavata as the source for RadhaIt does not name her. The Brahmavaivarta Purana and the Gita Govinda do.
Where this comes from
Everything above is either computed by this site’s own panchang engine, or drawn from the works listed here. Where a custom is modern, commercial or contested, the page says so rather than presenting it as ancient.
- Brahmavaivarta Purana, Prakriti Khanda, and Padma Purana, for Radha's birth and character.
- Jayadeva, Gita Govinda, twelfth century, for the earliest sustained poetic treatment.
- Rupa Goswami and the Gaudiya theologians of the sixteenth century, for the hladini shakti doctrine.
Dates are computed for the place named above and will differ elsewhere. Regional traditions vary; where two reckonings are in use, both are named rather than one being chosen silently.
Other festivals
All festivals, with dates for any year · The calendar on the home page