Shabari Jayanti 2026 Date
Shabari Jayanti 2026 is on Sunday, 8 February 2026, on Sapthami tithi.
Dates are for India (IST). Tithi timings for your city are on the Shabari Jayanti page.
About Shabari Jayanti
Shabari Jayanti marks the tribal ascetic whose meeting with Rama, at the Matanga hermitage by Pampa Lake, is told in Aranya Kanda of Valmiki's Ramayana. Observed on Phalguna Krishna Saptami (Magha in the Amanta calendar), it honours the moment Rama accepts food from a Nishada woman.
The much-loved image of Shabari biting each berry first to make sure it is sweet does not actually appear in Valmiki's Ramayana — that detail is a later addition from the Padma Purana. In Valmiki's telling (Aranya Kanda, sarga 74), Shabari simply gathers ripe fruits and roots from around Pampa Lake for Rama. What Valmiki does stress is the company she keeps: commentators read Rama's visit alongside his welcome of Guha the boatman and the sceptic sage Jabali as proof that he is sarva-samah — the same to all, regardless of birth. After serving Rama, Shabari asks leave to join her gurus, the disciples of Sage Matanga, and ascends to heaven by her own inner light. On this day devotees read these sargas and the Padma Purana episode.
