Radha Ashtami 2027
8 September 2027

Radha Ashtami remembers the birth of Radha Rani, Krishna’s most beloved, fifteen days after Janmashtami, at Barsana near Mathura. The Padma Purana and the Garga Samhita tell how Vrishabhanu and his wife Kirti found an infant girl lying on a lotus in the Yamuna and took her home as their own daughter; unlike Krishna’s midnight birth, Radha’s is kept at madhyahna, since that is the hour tradition gives for her coming into the world.

Vaishnava tradition holds Radha as inseparable from Krishna, the embodiment of pure devotion (bhakti) itself, and in Barsana and Vrindavan the day is kept on a scale as large as Janmashtami, with temple doors opening only at midday for her darshan. Many households fast until noon, breaking it only after the puja, and swings (hindola) are decorated for Radha and Krishna together, as they are through much of the month.

• Idol or picture of Radha Rani
• New clothes and jewellery
• Small swing (hindola)
• Roli, akshat and kalava
• Flowers and a garland
• Diya and ghee
• Milk sweets, fruits and panjiri for bhog

Source: Padma Purana and Garga Samhita, Radha’s birth at Barsana

Vrishabhanu, a gopa of Barsana, and his wife Kirti had long wished for a child. One day, going to bathe in the Yamuna, Kirti found an infant girl lying on a lotus in the water, her eyes closed.

She took the child home as a gift from the river itself, and the Garga Samhita tells that the infant’s eyes opened only when the young Krishna, brought to see her, looked into her face; until then, by some tellings, she had not opened them for anyone else.

Named Radha, she grew up at Barsana, and her bond with Krishna, the Puranas say, was devotion itself taking form: Krishna without Radha is held to be only half complete, which is why the two are worshipped and shown together in almost every temple.

What to do

• Keep the fast until the madhyahna puja if you can, since Radha’s birth is placed at midday rather than at dawn or at night.
• Decorate a small swing for Radha-Krishna if your family keeps the custom, since swings are part of the wider month’s worship of the two together.
• Visit a Krishna temple for Radha’s darshan if you can, since many open their doors specially at midday for this day.

What to avoid

• The fast is usually not broken before the midday puja, since the hour itself is central to how Radha Ashtami is kept.

Barsana, Radha’s own birthplace, and nearby Vrindavan keep the largest celebrations, with processions and bhajans through the day, and the day is also written as Radhashtami or Radha Jayanti in different places.