Krishna Jayanthi

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Re: Difference between Krishna Janmashtami and Krishna Jayanthi

Quoted from https://www.facebook.com/groups/vada...1096835629201/

Extract from India Divine about Krishna Jayanthi:
Five thousand years ago, when Srikrishna was born, the day was
Simha masam (Avani), Sravana masam, Bahula, Ashtami. and Rohini star.
Hence ideally all these conditions have to match to celebrate
Srijayanthi. But many a times they dont coincide. So the authorities of
various sections of Hindus, have adopted their own criterion for
celebration. For some it is enough if it is Sravana Bahula Ashtami, that
is Srikrishna Janmashtami.

Broadly, there are two different opinions within the Sri
Vaishnava tradition concerning this matter. One can be
called the 'mannAr' tradition, the other the 'tOzhappar'
tradition. (In a nutshell, the difference stems from
lunar vs. solar month and whether to take sunrise or
moonrise into consideration for determining jayantI.
this will be explained below.)

The mannAr tradition is followed by Sri Parakala
Matham and 'munitraya' tradition Sri Vaishnavas such as
both Andavan Ashramams and most Vadagalai acharya-purusha
families. It is named after one mannAr svAmi of unknown date
who is the first extant authority arguing for this calculation.
mannAr svAmi is known to have very eminent predecessors who
shared his opinion, such as the Upanishad Bhashyakara Ranga
Ramanujacharya.

The tOzhappar tradition is followed by Sri Ahobila Matham and
Thengalai Sri Vaishnavas (knowledgable members of the Thengalai
tradition please correct me if I am wrong). It is named after Sri
Vaidika Sarvabhauma Swami, also known as Kidambi Thozhappar, who
wrote a detailed text establishing the reasoning behind his
tradition. He was a disciple of the founding Jeeyar Swami of Sri
Ahobila Matham.

Having briefly laid out the history, here are the differences
themselves. The tOzhappar tradition is simpler so I will lay
it out first.

tOzhappar SrI jayantI:

1) Only the solar month is taken into account.
So it must be in simha (AvaNi) mAsam, which
is mid-August to mid-September.

2) The target date in this month is kRshna-ashTamI
(8th day of the waning phase of the moon) in conjunction
with rOhiNI. However, on that day, not even a tiny bit
of saptamI should exist post-sunrise, nor should there
be any kRttikA nakshatram.

3) If there is no pure ashTamI-rOhiNI conjunction as
described in (2), navamI-rOhiNi is the next preferred
conjunction, with once again a pure rOhiNi mandatory.

4) If (3) is not possible, mRgaSIrsha nakshatra combined
with navamI or daSamI is the next preferred choice.

5) If this observance of SrI jayantI does not fall on
ashTamI, the ashTamI is treated as any other day and
requires no special observance.

mannAr SrI jayantI:

1) The ideal date is the conjunction of rOhiNI and
kRshNa-ashTamI that lasts from sunrise through the
night. (This need not happen in the solar month of
AvaNi. Lunar month of SrAvaNa before AvaNi begins
is also okay.)

2) If (1) is not possible, if at moonrise it is
rOhiNI as well as ashTamI, that date should be
taken. Neither the rOhiNi nor the ashTamI need
be pure as in the tOzhappar tradition.

3) If (2) is not possible, if there is any conjunction
of ashTamI and rOhinI day or night, that calendar
day should be taken as SrI jayantI.

There are 12 more cases in the mannAr tradition which
get quite complicated. But the primary focus in all
is some occurrence of rOhiNI. In no circumstance
should navamI without rOhiNI be taken as SrI jayantI.
(Some other circumstances such as being on a Wednesday
[Sri Krishna is said to be born on this day of the week]
push the date in one direction or another.)

"The key is that in neither mannAr nor tOzhappar is
the tithi given preference. This is why only rarely
does the Sri Vaishnava date coincide with the
smArta date."

This should explain why the mannAr tradition
sometimes observes SrI jayantI as much as a month
before the tOzhappar tradition. Since the latter
exclusively prefers the solar month, their date
often falls several weeks later. Further,
it also explains why the mannAr observance
is often just a day before the tOzhappar date.
This is because the mannAr tradition takes into
account moonrise whereas the tOzhappar tradition
only takes into account sunrise.

Occasionally, mannAr tradition Sri Vaishnavas have
to observe two days of fasting 

in a row -- janmAshTamI
as well as SrI jayantI. This is when the ashTamI and
rOhiNI simply do not coincide at all and fall one
after another in the solar month of AvaNi. Note
that this janmAshTamI is not the same as the smArta
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Thanks for the timely info.
Just wanted to share that this excellent analysis was documented by a good friend, Sri Mani Varadarajan, who hosts www.ramanuja.org.
http://www.ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/ar...2001/0207.html

Shreyas