Maharishi Valmiki
Valmiki Jayanti
The Adi Kavi's day, the poet whom compassion made, and who made the Ramayana.
Tithi: Ashwin Purnima
In the simplest words
Birthday of the first poet, the robber who became a rishi and wrote the Ramayana, proving nobody is too far gone to transform.
The story & purpose
Before he was a sage he was, tradition tells, Ratnakara the highway robber, until a meeting with Narada turned him inward, and years of stillness grew an anthill (valmika) around him. The first shloka of Sanskrit poetry burst from him as a curse of grief. Seeing a hunter kill one of a pair of krauncha birds, sorrow itself took metre: 'ma nishada...'
The rest of the story
From that metre came the Ramayana, twenty-four thousand verses in which the poet himself shelters Sita and teaches Lava-Kusha to sing their father's story. His jayanti, on the Ashwin full moon, is kept with shobha yatras and path, above all by communities who carry his name with pride.
What is done
Ramayana path
Any kanda read or heard, Sundarkand most of all.
Shobha yatra
Processions with the Adi Kavi's image and Ram-nam sankirtan.
Anna-daan
Food shared in his name, the reformed robber who became refuge.
Best timings
Path and processions through the purnima day.
Exact muhurat varies by city and tradition; for the precise hour, consult a local panchang for your location.
Worth knowing
'Pargat Diwas' is the day's name in Punjab, where Bhagwan Valmiki is worshipped in his own temples.
The krauncha shloka is honoured as Sanskrit's first; poetry's birth certificate is compassion.
His ashram at Bithoor holds that Lava and Kusha were born there.