Brahma · the new year itself
Ugadi · Gudi Padwa
The lunar new year of the Deccan: neem and jaggery, gudi flags, and fresh beginnings.
Tithi: Chaitra Shukla Pratipada
In the simplest words
New Year's Day in Andhra, Telangana, Karnataka and Maharashtra. Families raise a victory flag, eat a special chutney with six tastes, and start the year fresh.
The story & purpose
Tradition counts this pratipada as the day Brahma began creation. Telugu and Kannada lands greet it as Ugadi; Maharashtra raises the gudi, a bright cloth and kalash on a staff, over doorways as a flag of victory and welcome.
The rest of the story
Ugadi pachadi mixes six tastes in one bowl: sweet, sour, salt, bitter, pungent, astringent, the mixed flavour of any coming year.
What is done
Abhyanga snan
Oil bath before sunrise; new clothes.
Gudi / pachadi
Raising the gudi; tasting the six-flavour pachadi; neem with jaggery.
Panchanga shravan
Hearing the new year's almanac read, traditionally the year's outlook.
Best timings
Gudi is raised at sunrise and taken down by evening; puja in the morning.
Exact muhurat varies by city and tradition; for the precise hour, consult a local panchang for your location.
Worth knowing
The same day opens Chaitra Navratri in the north: many new years, one tithi.
Kashmir's Navreh and Sindhi Cheti Chand fall in the same season of beginnings.
'Ugadi' is 'yuga-adi', the age's beginning. Each Ugadi the Telugu–Kannada year takes a new name from the sixty-year cycle of samvatsaras.