Hanuman Jayanti 2026 — Thursday 2 April
హనుమాన్ జయంతి 2026
Chaitra Shudda Pournami · Hanuman Janma Utsav · Sunrise Pournami Muhurat 06:08 – 09:42 IST (Hyderabad)
Hanuman Jayanti 2026 (also called Hanuman Janma Utsav) falls on Thursday, 2 April 2026. Birth day of Hanuman, son of Anjana and Vayu. Born on Chaitra Pournami at sunrise. The deity of strength, devotion, and protection. Patron of those facing Shani / Sade Sati afflictions. Primary observance: Hanuman Chalisa recitation (108 times for full benefit), Sundara Kanda parayana, Bajrang Baan, vermilion (sindoor) + oil offering, Hanuman temple visit, Tulasi mala japa. Recommended muhurat: Sunrise Pournami Muhurat 06:08 – 09:42 IST (Hyderabad).
Hanuman Jayanti 2026 — Date & Muhurat
| Festival Date | Thursday, 2 April 2026 |
| Telugu Masa & Tithi | Chaitra Shudda Pournami |
| Primary Muhurat | Sunrise Pournami Muhurat 06:08 – 09:42 IST (Hyderabad) |
| Alternative Names | Hanuman Janma Utsav |
All timings computed using Lahiri Ayanamsa Swiss Ephemeris for Hyderabad (17.385°N, 78.486°E). For exact local timings in other cities use our Today's Panchangam tool.
Significance of Hanuman Jayanti 2026
Birth day of Hanuman, son of Anjana and Vayu. Born on Chaitra Pournami at sunrise. The deity of strength, devotion, and protection. Patron of those facing Shani / Sade Sati afflictions.
Key Rituals on Hanuman Jayanti 2026
Hanuman Chalisa recitation (108 times for full benefit), Sundara Kanda parayana, Bajrang Baan, vermilion (sindoor) + oil offering, Hanuman temple visit, Tulasi mala japa.
Hanuman Jayanti 2026 Puja Samagri Checklist (Shopping List)
Items to procure 1-2 days before Hanuman Jayanti 2026:
| # | Item |
|---|---|
| 1 | Sindoor (vermilion) |
| 2 | Mustard oil |
| 3 | Banana / tulasi leaves |
| 4 | Red flowers + jasmine |
| 5 | Boondi laddu (favourite naivedyam) |
| 6 | Camphor + ghee lamp |
| 7 | Hanuman Chalisa book |
| 8 | Coconut + bananas |
| 9 | Black sesame (for Sade Sati natives) |
| 10 | Akshat + turmeric |
Regional Variations of Hanuman Jayanti 2026
Andhra/Telangana: Chaitra Pournami observance. North India: Different date (Kartik Krishna Chaturdashi for some traditions). Tamil Nadu: Margazhi/Margashirsha Amavasya in some. Maharashtra: Chaitra Pournami. Karnataka: Margashirsha Shukla Trayodashi. We observe the Chaitra Pournami date.
The Birth of Hanuman, and the Curse He Carried
Anjana, an apsara living on earth as the wife of Kesari, kept a long penance for a son. Vayu carried to her the divine payasam meant for another, and Hanuman was born of that — Vayu's son by that act, Kesari's son by birth, and held by many traditions to be an amsha of Shiva himself. He is called Anjaneya after his mother, Maruti and Pavanaputra after Vayu, and Kesari Nandana after his father.
As an infant he was hungry and mistook the rising sun for fruit, and leapt at it. Indra struck him with the vajra to stop him and broke his jaw; Vayu withdrew from the world in grief until the devas revived the child and each gave him a boon, which is where his strength and invulnerability come from. The broken jaw is the name — hanu for jaw, and Hanuman the one whose jaw was marked.
The boy then used that strength thoughtlessly, disturbing the rishis at their rites, and they laid a curse on him: he would forget what he could do until someone reminded him of it. That curse is the reason the Ramayana works the way it does. Hanuman does not know his own capacity when he first meets Rama at Rishyamukha, and Jambavan has to remind him before he leaps to Lanka. The tradition reads it as the definition of the ideal servant — power held without any interest in it.
The Sundara Kanda is his book. He crosses the ocean, finds Sita in the Ashoka grove, refuses to carry her back because it would rob Rama of the act, allows himself to be captured, has his tail set alight and burns Lanka with it. Later he brings the mountain when Lakshmana falls, because he cannot identify which herb is the Sanjeevani and will not risk the delay. He carries the brothers on his shoulders in battle.
He is one of the chiranjeevis — the ones who did not die. The tradition holds that he is present wherever the Ramayana is read aloud, and a seat is kept for him at a parayana for that reason.
Hanuman Jayanti Puja Vidhi — Step by Step
The worship is customarily done at sunrise, since the birth is placed at dawn in most traditions, and the Sundara Kanda reading is what the day is built around. The day's panchangam details for your city are in the panel above.
| Step | What is done |
|---|---|
| 1 | Snana and sankalpa before sunrise — Bathe and take the sankalpa. Where a deeksha is being completed today, the mala is worn until the visarjan. |
| 2 | Set the altar — Hanuman with Rama and Sita, a lamp with sesame or ghee, and betel leaves. Hanuman is customarily worshipped facing the Rama altar rather than alone. |
| 3 | Sindoor and oil abhishekam — Apply sindoor mixed with jasmine or sesame oil to the murti. This is the offering particular to Hanuman and the reason his images are vermilion. |
| 4 | Archana with betel leaves — Offer tamalapaku — betel leaves — one at a time with the Hanuman ashtottara or the dwadasa nama. Betel leaf archana is the South Indian form. |
| 5 | Vada mala — Offer a garland of vadas, and where the household keeps it, a mala of appam or of laddus. The vada mala is the day's signature offering. |
| 6 | Sundara Kanda parayana — Read the Sundara Kanda, or the Hanuman Chalisa where the full reading is not possible. A seat and a lamp are kept for Hanuman during the reading. |
| 7 | Hanuman Chalisa in count — Chant the Chalisa eleven, twenty-one or one hundred and eight times. Households keep whichever count they have always kept. |
| 8 | Naivedyam — Vada, appam, banana, jaggery, boondi and coconut. Butter and sindoor are offered together in some traditions. |
| 9 | Aarti and pradakshina — Camphor aarti, then pradakshina — customarily in odd numbers, and many households keep eleven. |
| 10 | Mala visarjan — Where a forty-one-day deeksha ends today, the mala is surrendered at the temple and the vrat formally closed before the meal. |
The two things this day is not kept without are the sindoor-and-oil offering and a reading — the Sundara Kanda if there is time, the Chalisa if there is not. Everything else is regional.
Fasting and the Forty-One-Day Deeksha
Hanuman worship has a single-day fast and, in the Telugu tradition, a long deeksha that this day closes.
| Form | What it involves |
|---|---|
| Single-day upavasa | Fruit, milk and water through the day, released after the aarti with the vada and prasada. The usual grade, and the same discipline is kept by many on Tuesdays and Saturdays through the year. |
| Ekabhukta | One sattvic meal after the worship, with the Chalisa or the Sundara Kanda through the rest of the day. |
| Forty-one-day deeksha | A mala is taken at the start of the period, and through it the observer keeps brahmacharya, bathes twice daily, wears the prescribed colour, eats one meal, and reads the Sundara Kanda or the Chalisa daily. It is closed with the mala visarjan on Hanuman Jayanti. |
| Substituted observance | Children, the elderly and the unwell keep the day with the Chalisa and the prasada. The deeksha is not begun without the capacity to complete it, since an abandoned deeksha is regarded more seriously than one never taken. |
The deeksha is a commitment for its full length, not a fast that can be shortened. Anyone considering it should begin on the day the tradition prescribes and plan the forty-one days before taking the mala.
Mantras Chanted on Hanuman Jayanti
The Chalisa is the most widely chanted text in the subcontinent, and these are the verses and mantras used on the day.
| Mantra | What it means |
|---|---|
| ఓం హనుమతే నమః Om Hanumate Namah | The simple salutation, used with each betel leaf offered in the archana. |
| మనోజవం మారుతతుల్యవేగం జితేంద్రియం బుద్ధిమతాం వరిష్ఠమ్ | వాతాత్మజం వానరయూథముఖ్యం శ్రీరామదూతం శరణం ప్రపద్యే || Manojavam maruta-tulya-vegam jitendriyam buddhimatam varishtham, vatatmajam vanara-yutha-mukhyam Sri Rama-dutam sharanam prapadye | The dhyana shloka: swift as thought, fast as the wind, master of his senses, foremost among the wise, son of Vayu, chief of the vanaras, messenger of Rama — in him I take refuge. Chanted before the Sundara Kanda parayana begins. |
| Hanuman Chalisa — forty verses by Tulsidas, opening "Sri Guru charan saroj raj" | The forty-verse hymn, recited whole. Chanted in counts of eleven, twenty-one or a hundred and eight on this day, and customarily on Tuesdays and Saturdays through the year. |
| ఓం శ్రీ రామ దూతాయ నమః Om Sri Rama Dutaya Namah | A salutation to the messenger of Rama. Used where the archana is offered with jasmine, his flower. |
Chant at whatever pace lets the words stay clear. Tradition counts attention, not speed, and a short count said with care is held better than a long one rushed. If a syllable is uncertain, follow your family priest or your temple's recitation rather than a transliteration.
How Hanuman Jayanti Is Kept Region by Region
Hanuman Jayanti is the clearest case in the calendar of one birth kept on different days by different traditions, and the customs differ with the day.
| Region | How the day is kept |
|---|---|
| Andhra Pradesh and Telangana | Kept in the dark fortnight of Vaishakha, and preceded by the forty-one-day deeksha that begins on the Chaitra full moon and closes with the mala visarjan today. Kondagattu in Jagtial and Karmanghat in Hyderabad draw the largest gatherings, with vada mala and betel-leaf archana at every temple. |
| Maharashtra and the North | Kept on the Chaitra full moon. The observance begins before dawn with a kirtan that ends at the moment of sunrise, the birth moment in this tradition, and sunthavada and prasada are distributed. Processions and Chalisa recitations follow through the day. |
| Tamil Nadu and Kerala | Kept in Margazhi under Moola nakshatra, as Hanumath Jayanthi. Vada mala, appam and butter are the offerings; Namakkal and Suchindram hold the main observances in Tamil Nadu. |
| Karnataka | Kept in Margashirsha as Hanuman Vrata. Anjanadri near Hampi is held by tradition to be his birthplace, and the observance there runs with the wider Kishkindha association of the region. |
| Varanasi | Sankat Mochan keeps the largest observance in the city, with a multi-day fair, continuous Chalisa recitation and a procession. |
| Gujarat | Salangpur's Hanuman temple holds the principal observance, with the day marked by the offering of jalebi and a large annadanam. |
| Maharashtra's birthplace claim | Anjaneri near Nashik is held locally to be Anjana's hill and Hanuman's birthplace, and the day is kept there with a climb to the summit temple. |
| Diaspora temples | Chalisa akhand path — continuous recitation for a full day and night — is the common form abroad, held on the nearest weekend to whichever regional date the temple follows. |
Why Hanuman Jayanti falls on different days in different states
You will find Hanuman Jayanti announced on the Chaitra full moon in one place and months later in another, and neither is an error. There is no single received date for the birth, and the regional traditions settled on different ones.
The North and Maharashtra keep the Chaitra full moon. The Telugu tradition keeps a day in the dark fortnight of Vaishakha, and treats the Chaitra full moon as the start of the forty-one-day deeksha rather than as the Jayanti itself — so the two conventions are connected, with one region's festival being the other's opening day. The Tamil and Malayalam tradition keeps it in Margazhi under Moola nakshatra, and Karnataka keeps it in Margashirsha.
This page follows the convention our panchangam computes, and the date is at the top. If your family or your temple keeps a different one, it is a different regional convention for the same birth, not a correction of this one.
Why sindoor, and why betel leaves and vadas
Hanuman is the one deity offered vermilion mixed with oil over the whole image rather than a tilakam. The story told for it is that Hanuman found Sita applying sindoor and learned it was for Rama's long life, and reasoning that more would be better, covered himself in it head to foot. The offering repeats that.
The vada mala is a garland of urad dal vadas strung on thread and hung on the murti, and appam and butter serve the same purpose in the South. The reading given is simply that he is offered strengthening food, in quantity, because that is what suits him.
Betel leaf archana — offering tamalapaku one leaf at a time with each name — is the South Indian form of his worship, and jasmine is his flower. Tuesday and Saturday are his days through the year, and the Chalisa read on those two days is the commonest daily observance in the country.
More Questions About Hanuman Jayanti
Why is Hanuman Jayanti observed on different dates in different states?
Why is Hanuman covered in sindoor?
What is the forty-one-day Hanuman deeksha?
Why is a vada mala offered?
Why does the Sundara Kanda matter more than the rest of the Ramayana today?
What was the curse the rishis laid on him?
Points Households Most Often Get Wrong
| # | Point |
|---|---|
| 1 | Worshipping Hanuman entirely apart from Rama — He is worshipped as Rama's servant, and the altar carries Rama and Sita with him. A Hanuman puja that leaves them out misses what the tradition says about him. |
| 2 | Taking the forty-one-day deeksha without planning it — It is a commitment for its full length, with daily discipline. Begin it only with the forty-one days accounted for. |
| 3 | Assuming another state's date is wrong — Four regional conventions place the birth in four different months. They coexist. |
| 4 | Offering sindoor dry — It is mixed with jasmine or sesame oil and applied to the image. Dry vermilion is not the offering. |
| 5 | Treating the Chalisa as a substitute for the Sundara Kanda on this day — It is the accepted shorter form where time is short, but the day's own reading is the Sundara Kanda, and a seat and lamp are kept for him during it. |