Hanuman Jayanti

Overview

Hanuman Jayanti is the birthday of Hanuman. In North India it is Chaitra Purnima, the full moon six days after Ram Navami; the south keeps other dates, described below. The day is a temple day above all — Hanuman shrines are the most numerous in the north, and on Jayanti they are crowded from before dawn — and its practice is the Hanuman Chalisa, recited once or many times, with the sindoor offering and the Tuesday-and-Saturday customs of his worship. See the Hanuman page for the deity.

Story and scripture

The Ramayana’s Kishkindha Kanda (sarga 66) tells the birth through Jambavan, who reminds the despairing Hanuman who he is: son of Anjana and Kesari, born of the wind god Vayu’s blessing, who as a child leapt at the rising sun taking it for a fruit and was struck down by Indra’s thunderbolt — the blow to the jaw (hanu) that gave him his name — and then granted his powers by the gods to placate the wind. The Puranic and regional traditions add the birth’s date and place, and they do not agree: Anjaneri near Nashik, Kishkindha (Hampi) in Karnataka, and Anjan in Jharkhand are each held as the birthplace, and the tithi varies by region.

The Hanuman Chalisa of Tulsidas, forty verses in Awadhi, is the text of the day and of Hanuman’s worship generally; its verses on his birth and his service to Rama are what the day recites.

How the day is kept

At the temple: a bath before dawn; sindoor (vermilion in oil) offered to the image, from which Hanuman’s orange colour comes; a garland of ak leaves or of laddus; jasmine oil; the Chalisa read aloud, alone or in a group. In large temples the Sundara Kanda — the fifth book of the Ramayana, Hanuman’s crossing to Lanka — is read through in the morning.

At home: the Chalisa recited a vowed number of times; the Bajrang Baan by those who keep it; Rama’s name, since Hanuman’s worship and Rama’s are not separated; a fast until the puja.

Jaap. Om Hanumate Namah as the count, the Hanuman Chalisa as the recitation, and Aarti Kije Hanuman Lala Ki to close. Linked below.

Regional forms

• North India: Chaitra Purnima. Processions with the image in Delhi, Varanasi and the towns of UP and Bihar; the Sankat Mochan temple at Varanasi holds a music festival around the day.
• Tamil Nadu and Kerala: Hanumath Jayanti on the Margazhi (Margashirsha) Amavasya under Moola nakshatra, in December or January, following the Tamil Anjaneya Puranam’s account.
• Karnataka: Hanuman Vratam on Margashirsha Shukla Trayodashi; Hampi’s Anjanadri hill as the birthplace.
• Andhra and Telangana: a forty-one-day deeksha ending on Vaishakha Krishna Dashami, the day taken as the birthday.
• Maharashtra: Chaitra Purnima at sunrise, with a kirtan through the night before at Anjaneri and at the Maruti temples of the Samarth Ramdas tradition.

The date

This site gives the North Indian date: the day Chaitra Purnima is current at sunrise in New Delhi. The southern dates are separate observances with their own rules and are not computed here.

Mantra, aarti and chalisa for Hanuman Jayanti

Mantra Om Hanumate Namah ॐ हनुमते नमः Mantra Om Namo Bhagavate Hanumate Namah ॐ नमो भगवते हनुमते नमः Aarti Aarti Kije Hanuman Lala Ki आरती कीजै हनुमान लला की Chalisa Hanuman Chalisa हनुमान चालीसा