South India · March–April
Also known as Yugadi · Gudi Padwa · Samvatsaradi · Telugu/Kannada New Year
When it’s celebrated
The exact date shifts each year — it’s fixed from the panchang. Cast your free kundli or check the calendar for this year’s muhurat.
Significance
Ugadi marks the New Year for the Telugu and Kannada communities (and, as Gudi Padwa, for Maharashtrians), ushering in the start of a new lunar calendar cycle in spring. A day of fresh beginnings, it celebrates renewal, the harvest of new crops, and the embrace of life's mixture of joys and sorrows, with prayers for a prosperous year ahead.
The story
Ugadi (from yuga + adi, 'the beginning of an age') is believed by tradition to mark the day Lord Brahma began the creation of the universe. It also commemorates, in some accounts, the start of the Shalivahana era. The Gudi Padwa form in Maharashtra is further linked to Rama's victorious return to Ayodhya and the raising of the Gudi (a victory banner). The day inaugurates a new samvatsara, the named year of the sixty-year cycle.
Rituals
Across India
The same lunar new-year day is Ugadi in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka, Gudi Padwa in Maharashtra and Goa, and is related to Cheti Chand for Sindhis and Navreh in Kashmir. The signature Ugadi Pachadi of six tastes is distinctive to the Telugu and Kannada celebration, while the raised Gudi banner characterises the Marathi observance. All share the theme of spring renewal and a fresh year.
Questions
Ugadi marks the start of the new lunar year for the Telugu and Kannada communities and the beginning of spring. It is a day of fresh beginnings, renewal and prayers for prosperity in the year ahead.
Lord Brahma, who is believed to have begun creation on this day, is associated with Ugadi, and Vishnu is also worshipped. The Gudi Padwa form additionally honours Lord Rama's return to Ayodhya.
Ugadi falls on the first tithi (Pratipada) of the bright fortnight of Chaitra, usually in March or April, marking the lunar new year. The date changes each year with the Hindu lunar calendar.
People clean and decorate homes with mango-leaf torans, take an oil bath, eat the symbolic six-taste Ugadi Pachadi, listen to the year's Panchanga predictions, and begin new ventures. In Maharashtra, a Gudi banner is raised as Gudi Padwa.
Ugadi Pachadi is a special dish combining six tastes — sweet, sour, salty, bitter, tangy and spicy — symbolising that the coming year, like life, will bring a mixture of joy, sorrow and varied experiences to be accepted together.
Book a pooja in your name, find the muhurat, or read the day’s panchang — bring the festival into your own practice.
