Sri Rama Navami

Whenever the evil forces reign supreme, the Lord will come to the rescue and set things right. Accordingly Lord Vishnu, the preserver of the Universe (according to the Hindu mythology) has taken 9 "Avatars" or incarnations to eradicate the evil forces and establish goodness and prosperity. (Lord Vishnu is yet to take his 10th Avatar - "Kalki). Of these incarnations, the seventh is the Sri Rama Avatar. Sri Rama Navami marks the birth of Lord Rama. From Ugadi for the next 9 days, we celebrate the Vasantha Navarathri. It concludes with Sri Rama Navami. It is celebrated on the day when "Navami" (9th day after the new/full moon day) and the star "Punarvasu" occur together in the Telugu month of "Chaitra". Thus it is also known as Chaitra Masa Suklapaksha Navami, and marks the end of nine-day Chaitra Navaratri celebrations.



Some highlights of this day are:

Kalyanam (Ceremonial wedding performed by temple priests) at Bhadrachalam (A famous temple of Lord Rama) on the banks of the river Godavari in Khammam district in Andhra, India.



For Sri Rama Navami, the "Prasadams" offered are Panakam, Vada Pappu and Panchaamrutham. These items are also prepared at the temples and distributed as prasadams to the devotees who come to seek the blessings of God. All the above mentioned foodstuffs can be taken to bring down the body heat. They also make up for the loss of body fluids due to the excessive perspiration. Apart from the above, in olden days, there was a custom to gift hand-made fans to other people. Since there was no electric fans then, to reduce the effect of the heat, these hand-operated fans were very useful during the summer months. It was indeed a thoughtful gesture.



Panakam in Sanskrit means sweet drink. It is a main neivedyam at all the temples and houses on this day in India.



Ingredients

2-3 cups of water (depends on the no. Of serving)
½ tsp ginger powder or 1tbsp grated fresh ginger
2-3 tbsp grated jaggery (depends on how sweet you want it to be)
½ tsp crushed peppercorns
1 crushed cardamom

Preparation

Dissolve the grated jaggery in water and add fresh chopped ginger or dry ginger powder to it. I prefer fresh ginger to the dry powder as it gives more fresh taste and zing to the drink. The dry ginger loses some properties of fresh ones. Boil the mixture and filter it. Add crushed cardamom and peppercorns to it. Now its ready for Neivedyam.

Food facts

Jaggery or Gur, is pure, Unrefined whole sugar, containing the natural goodness of minerals and vitamins inherently present in sugarcane juice.
Ginger and its extracts aid digestion, help relieve stomachaches, flatulence, and promote circulation.
Powdered ginger is very effective in treating motion sickness. It’s especially given to kids for proper digestion. Fresh mashed ginger root, when applied to burns, eases the pain.
The combination of Pepper, ginger along with honey or cane sugar relieves sore throat, cough and cold.

Vada pappu (Soaked Split yellow moong dal)

Ingredients

1 cup moong dal
2-3 tbsp grated coconut
chushed green chillies(optional)
1tbsp lemon juice (optional)
Salt to taste.
Fresh chopped cilantro to garnish.

Preparation

The moong dal should be soaked in warm water for about half an hour and drained.
To this, add all the other ingredients and mix well.
This dal is eaten raw and uncooked.



Chalimidi

Ingredients

1cup raw rice
2-3 tbsp chopped coconuts
1tbsp ghee
½ cup sugar or jaggery.
Water for syrup
½ tsp crushed cardamom.

Preparation

There are 2 methods for making this chalimidi. One is called the Pachi chalimidi (Raw or uncooked chalimidi). For this the raw rice is soaked for 2-3 hours in warm water.
The rice is then drained and dried in a dry cloth untill completely dry and powdered coarsely.
This rice powder is then mixed with sugar or jaggery adding 1-2tsp water. Add grated coconut and crushed cardamom.
Mix well to make a dough. See the picture. This is the basic recipe. I used ready-made rice powder and it came out very well. There are lot of variations from this one.

The second method is the cooked chalimidi where the rice powder is added to the warm sugar or jaggery syrup and cooked in low heat to form the dough.
It is very carefully stirred so that no lumps are formed. Then the rest of the ingredients are added.
But the traditional way to make it is the very first method.