Ugadi

About Ugadi

Significance

Ugadi, or Yugadi, is the New Year of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The name joins yuga, an age, and adi, beginning, and the day is understood as the beginning of a new cycle of time: Dharmashastra digests quote the Brahma Purana for the view that Brahma began creation on the first day of the bright half of Chaitra. Each Telugu and Kannada year bears a name from the sixty-year samvatsara cycle, and Ugadi is the day the new name begins to be used in almanacs, invitations and documents.

The festival’s symbolism lies in accepting the whole year as it comes. Its signature dish combines six tastes, and the year’s almanac is read aloud so that the household begins the year aware of what the panchanga says about rains, harvests and public life. This is a reading of tradition, not a forecast of events.

How and where it is observed

Ugadi is a public holiday in the three states and is kept by Telugu and Kannada families worldwide. Like Maharashtra and Goa, these regions follow the Amanta lunar calendar, in which each month begins after the new moon, so the year starts the day after the Amavasya that closes Phalguna. On the same day Maharashtra keeps Gudi Padwa. In coastal Karnataka, Tulu-speaking communities also keep a solar New Year, Bisu, at the Sun’s entry into Mesha.

Rituals

The day begins with an oil bath, mango-leaf garlands (torana) on the doors and rangoli or muggulu at the threshold. Telugu households prepare Ugadi pachadi from neem flowers, raw mango, tamarind, jaggery, salt and green chilli or pepper, so that bitter, sour, sweet, salty, astringent and pungent are tasted together; in Karnataka a mix of neem and jaggery (bevu-bella) is shared. Festive foods include obbattu or holige and pulihora. In the evening, temples and community halls hold the panchanga shravanam, the public reading of the new year’s almanac.

How the date is fixed

Ugadi is Chaitra Shukla Pratipada, the same day as Gudi Padwa and, as a bright-fortnight date, the same in Amanta and Purnimanta naming. It is kept on the day on which Pratipada prevails at sunrise (udaya tithi). If Pratipada is present at two sunrises the first day is taken; if it begins after one sunrise and ends before the next, the day that contains it is taken, which is then also the day on which the preceding Amavasya ends.

Sources

• Nirnaya Sindhu, Pariccheda 2, Chaitra (Samvatsararambha)
• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Ugadi
• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Ugadi pachadi

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.