Sri Rama Navami Festival

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Today we celebrated Sri Rama Navami at home. The birthday celebration of Lord Rama has always been a special day for us. This being a food blog, let me focus only on the food aspect of Sri Rama Navami in this post. As kids, we loved all the special dishes we got to have in the morning or early noon. Sri Rama Navami is unlike other festivals like Ugadi or Ganesha Chaturthi where you had to wait at least until lunch time in the afternoon to enjoy the scrumptious fare. And for festivals like Krishna Astami and Shivaratri, the wait for all the special dishes often used to get excruciatingly long when food was served only after late night Pooja. Lord Rama, as he is always be known to be, was so much kinder to younger ever-hungry folks by being born early in the day, causing celebration to start early. So on Rama Navami day, immediately after morning Pooja, we got a chance to enjoy thirst quenching Beladha Hannu Panaka, couple of varieties of Kosambari Salad, Mixed Fruits Rasayana/Salad and Masala Majjige/Buttermilk. A terrific combination, so very welcome on a hot summer morning or noon. After consuming at home, we would visit nearby temples where we saw more such goodies like Panaka, Buttermilk and of course, Salads made of Fruits, Cucumber and Pulses being served after special morning Pooja.

This year, for Rama Navami, we prepared Raagi Milk/Panaka, Mixed Fruits Rasayana, Moong Dal with Carrot Kosambari, Channa Dal Kosambari Salad and Masala Majjige/Buttermilk. Everything came out so well and hopefully Lord Rama was pleased just like all of us were. Since we could find Wood Apple or Beladha Hannu, we went for healthy Raagi Milk Drink this time.

Sri Rama Navami Festival Preparation
Sri Rama Navami Festival Preparation

Sri Rama Navami Recipes

For the benefit of those who are looking for recipes of these dishes, here are a few links to posts which detail out the recipes of food dishes prepared for Rama Navami –

1. Beladha Hannu Panaka or Wood Apple Juice – If you happen to purchase Beladha Hannu or Wood Apple, do try out my Beladha Hannu Panaka or Wood Apple Juice recipe.

2. Raagi or Finger Millet Milk – Raagi or Finger Millet is known for its strengthening and cooling effect and hence Raagi Milk can serve as a great summer drink. While I take the time to post a detailed recipe soon, here is the quick summary on Raagi Milk – Fry Raagi lightly and then grind the same in a mixer grinder with sufficient water, Cardamom and Jaggery. Filter out the resulting mixture to have Raagi Milk made. Here is one more recipe for Raagi Milk which differs slightly from today’s preparation requiring the Raagi to be soaked overnight instead of being fried.

3. Mixed Fruit Rasayana or Salad recipe – The Mixed Fruit Rasayana or Salad recipe is very similar to my Honeydew Melon Payasam/Rasayana post. Along with the Melon, we just added some extra fruits like Grapes, Banana. Apple could have gone well with this too. We used Jaggery instead of Sugar.

4. Moong Dal Carrot Kosambari Salad – Recipe is described in my post Moong Dal Carrot Kosambari Salad recipe. I just made sure I added lot less Carrot and Moong Dal in much larger percentage than what is described in that post.

5. Masala Majjige or Spiced Buttermilk – Have a look at Masala Majjige or Spicy Buttermilk.

Over next week or two, I will try posting the Channa Dal Kosambari Salad. Meanwhile, you may wish to have a look at Bengal Gram and Cucumber Kosambari Salad or the Corn and Pomegranate Kosambari Salad.

Hope you all had a great time too on this special day. Do share your ideas and experiences here in the comments. My best wishes to you and your family on this festive occasion.

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