Sita Navami

About Sita Navami

Significance

Sita Navami, also called Janaki Navami or Sita Jayanti, marks the appearance of Sita, the daughter of King Janaka of Mithila and the consort of Rama. In the Valmiki Ramayana (Bala Kanda, sarga 66) Janaka himself tells how, as he was ploughing a field for a sacrifice, the girl rose from the furrow, and he named her Sita, the furrow; she is therefore called ayonija, not born of a womb, and Bhumija, daughter of the Earth.

Tradition honours Sita as the embodiment of steadfastness, dignity and devotion, and in Vaishnava theology as Lakshmi. The epic closes her story where it began: in the Uttara Kanda, asked to prove her purity once more, she calls on the Earth, who receives her back. Sita Navami falls a month after Ram Navami, on the same tithi of the bright fortnight, and many devotees keep the two days as a pair.

How and where it is observed

The day is kept with special devotion in Mithila: at Sitamarhi in Bihar, where Punaura Dham is revered as the place of Sita’s appearance, and at Janakpur in Nepal, as well as at Ayodhya and in Rama temples across North India. Some traditions keep a separate Janaki Jayanti or Sita Ashtami on Phalguna Krishna Ashtami (Purnimanta), which is Magha Krishna Ashtami in the Amanta calendar.

Rituals

Married women in many families keep a fast and worship Sita and Rama together, often with Janaka, Sunayana and the Earth, offering flowers, sindoor and items of married life. Temples hold abhisheka and midday aarti, devotees recite the Janaki stotra or the Sita episodes of the Ramayana and the Ramcharitmanas, and in Mithila the day is kept with songs and community feasts.

How the date is fixed

Sita Navami is Vaishakha Shukla Navami, the same month name in the Amanta and Purnimanta calendars. Like Ram Navami, it is fixed by midday: the day is the one on which Navami prevails during Madhyahna, the third of the five equal parts of the daytime. If Navami covers part of Madhyahna on two days, the day with the greater coverage is taken; if it covers Madhyahna on neither, the day on which it prevails longest.

Sources

• Valmiki Ramayana, Bala Kanda, sarga 66 (Janaka’s account of Sita rising from the furrow)
• Valmiki Ramayana, Uttara Kanda (Sita’s return to the Earth)
• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Rama

Customs differ between regions, communities and families; this description is background, not a prescription. The date above is calculated by the rule shown on this page.