Govardhan Puja 2027: Annakut Date, Muhurat and Story

Krishna, Govardhan and the meaning of Annakut

The Bhagavata Purana tells that the cowherds of Braj used to hold a great yearly sacrifice for Indra, king of the gods and bringer of rain. The young Krishna asked why: their living came from the cows, and the cows grazed on Govardhan hill, so the hill and the herds deserved their worship. Persuaded, the villagers offered their feast to Govardhan instead. Indra, slighted, sent torrential rain for seven days, and Krishna lifted the whole hill on his little finger, holding it like an umbrella over the people and their cattle until the storm was spent and Indra relented.

Annakut means “a mountain of food”, and the offering recreates the feast that was turned from Indra to the hill. The popular explanation for the chhappan bhog, the fifty-six dishes offered in many temples, is that Krishna, who ate eight times a day, went without food for the seven days he held up the hill and so missed fifty-six meals, which his devotees now make up. The day is therefore as much about gratitude for land, water, cattle and harvest as about worship.

The same date carries other meanings. In Maharashtra and Karnataka it is Bali Pratipada or Diwali Padwa, recalling King Bali, and it counts as the half day among the three and a half self-auspicious muhurtas; in Gujarat it is Bestu Varas, the first day of the new year.

How the Govardhan Puja date is set

Govardhan Puja falls on Kartika Shukla Pratipada, the first tithi of the waxing fortnight of Kartika. As a bright-half festival it carries the same month name in purnimanta and amanta calendars alike. In the amanta reckoning the Diwali new moon closes Ashvin and opens Kartika; in the purnimanta reckoning Kartika is already half over, and its bright half begins here. On the Gregorian calendar it usually falls in late October or November.

The governing time is the morning, pratahkal: Pratipada should be in force after sunrise, when the Govardhan figure is worshipped, and panchangs also mark an evening window in which many families perform the parikrama and aarti. Usually this makes Govardhan Puja the day straight after Lakshmi Puja. In some years, though, Amavasya runs well into the next morning. Pratipada then holds the morning only a day later, Govardhan Puja moves with it, and a gap day opens between Diwali and Annakut.

Because tithis begin and end at any hour, two panchangs may weigh a partly covered morning differently, which is why “Govardhan Puja kab hai” sometimes has two answers, especially in a gap-day year. The date on this page applies the morning rule for New Delhi.

Govardhan Puja vidhi and the Annakut offering

In the courtyard or near the door, on ground that has been cleaned and plastered, the family shapes Govardhan out of fresh cow dung, in some homes as a reclining figure and in others as a small hill. It is decorated with flowers, tufts of cotton and small lamps, and a little image of Krishna, with cows and cowherds, is set beside or upon it.

The puja is performed in the morning window. Water, roli, akshat, flowers, incense and a lamp are offered, followed by the naivedya of the Annakut, and family members then walk around the figure in parikrama, singing the praises of Giridhari, the lifter of the mountain. Cattle are bathed, their horns painted and garlanded, and after being worshipped they are given a special feed.

The Annakut itself is food raised like a hill: rice heaped high, kadhi, a mixed vegetable dish made from whatever the season offers, puris, sweets and as many other preparations as the household can manage. Once offered, it becomes prasad and is shared with family, neighbours, guests and anyone who comes to the door.

Customs to keep on Govardhan Puja

Traditionally the Govardhan figure is made from the dung of cows kept at home or nearby, on a spot cleaned early in the morning, and people walk around it rather than stepping over it. Many households cook the Annakut without onion and garlic, as Vaishnava offerings usually are, and nobody eats from it before it has been offered.

The spirit of the day is sharing, so prasad goes round the neighbourhood and food is given to those in need. Pilgrims on the long parikrama of Govardhan hill traditionally walk barefoot, and some cover the whole route in full-length prostrations; anyone attempting it should carry water, start early and set a sensible pace. In many homes the family also seeks elders’ blessings and visits relatives as the festive week moves on towards Bhai Dooj.

Regional ways of keeping the day

In Braj the festival returns to its source. Pilgrims walk the Govardhan parikrama of about 21 km around the hill, passing Jatipura and Mansi Ganga, and temples in Mathura and Vrindavan set out towering Annakuts. At Nathdwara in Rajasthan, the shrine of Shrinathji, the form of Krishna as the lifter of Govardhan, the Annakut is among the grandest occasions of the year, and Swaminarayan temples in India and abroad lay out hundreds of dishes before the deities.

In Maharashtra and Karnataka the day is Bali Pratipada or Diwali Padwa. It remembers King Bali, the generous ruler whom Vishnu as Vamana sent to the netherworld but allowed to return once a year; wives perform aarti of their husbands and receive gifts, and the day is counted as the half muhurat of the three and a half. In Gujarat it is Bestu Varas, the first day of the new Vikram Samvat year, when people greet one another with “Saal Mubarak” and business begins in new account books.

In parts of Haryana, Punjab, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh the same day is kept as Vishwakarma puja, when workshops honour their tools and machines and work pauses. In Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh the day is tied to cattle festivals, with cows and their herders at the centre of the celebrations.

Astrology of Kartika Shukla Pratipada

Pratipada is the first tithi, the span in which the Moon draws from 0° to 12° ahead of the Sun just after the new moon. Muhurta Chintamani gives it to Agni, the god of fire, and places it in the Nanda, or “joyful”, group with the sixth and eleventh tithis. Agni has a second link with the date: Kartika takes its name from Krittika nakshatra, whose deity is also Agni, and this is the day the waxing half of Kartika begins.

The Sun is in sidereal Libra (Tula), where it is debilitated, and the Moon, having only just passed it, also stands in Libra or at the start of Scorpio (Vrishchika), often in Swati or Vishakha nakshatra. So close to the Sun it is usually invisible, and the first crescent of Kartika appears a day or so later. Vishti karana (Bhadra) does not occur on Shukla Pratipada, and as the half day of the sade-teen muhurat the morning is widely chosen in western India for opening trade and starting new ventures.