Varalakshmi Vratam: What, Why, When, How

What it is

Varalakshmi Vratam is a vow to the goddess Lakshmi, kept on a Friday in the month of Shravana, the Friday before the full moon of that month. Vara means a boon or a gift: Varalakshmi is Lakshmi who gives what her devotees ask for.

The vow is kept mostly by married women in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, and by Telugu, Kannada and Tamil families around the world. A pot (kalasham) is filled, dressed and decorated as the goddess, with a coconut on top and her face on the front. The women worship her through the morning, tie a yellow thread on the right wrist, and pray for the good of the whole family. Many invite friends and neighbours, and give each woman a small gift of turmeric, kumkum and fruit.

Why it is kept

Charumati's dream. B. A. Gupte's Hindu Holidays and Ceremonials (1916) retells the story from the Bhavishyottara Purana, as Shiva tells it to Parvati. In the city of Kaundinya lived a Brahmin woman named Charumati, devoted to her family and kind to all. One night Lakshmi came to her in a dream and taught her a worship: wash and decorate the house, choose a clean place to the east or north-east, draw a svastika on the floor, set a pot full of rice on it, wrap the pot in new cloth, worship it with flowers and leaves, place the goddess's image on top and offer the best food the house can make. Charumati woke, told her family, and kept the worship with care on the full-moon Friday of Shravana.

The friends who joined her. In the story Charumati's home was filled with plenty. When her friends asked how, she did not keep it to herself: she taught them the worship, and they kept it too. Families link this part of the story to the custom of keeping the vow with other women and giving each guest a gift. Shiva adds in the story that Parvati herself, Sarasvati, Savitri and Indrani once kept this vow.

The pot as the goddess. In V. Nagam Aiya's Travancore State Manual (1906), the woman cleans a metal pot, draws the figure of Lakshmi on it, ties a tali (the marriage thread) round its neck, sets a coconut smeared with turmeric on top on a bed of mango leaves, and adorns it with jewels and flowers, much as families do today.

The texts behind the story

• Hindu Holidays and Ceremonials, with dissertations on origin, folklore and symbols, by B. A. Gupte (Calcutta: Thacker, Spink, 1916) ("Friday Fasts" (Vara-Laxmi), pp. 52–53, leaves n107–n108: after the Bhavishyottara Purana, Shiva to Parvati; Charumati of the city of Kaundanya and her dream; the pot of rice, the worship and the friends who joined her)
• The Travancore State Manual, by V. Nagam Aiya, vol. II (Trivandrum: Travancore Government Press, 1906) ("Varalakshmi Vritam", p. 310, leaf n349 (the decorated pot, the tali, the coconut on mango leaves))

When it is kept

Varalakshmi Vratam is kept on the last Friday before Shravana Purnima, the full moon of the month of Shravana (the day the full moon is present at sunrise at your location). It usually falls a few days before Raksha Bandhan, which is kept on that full moon. When Shravana Purnima itself falls on a Friday, some calendars keep the vow on that full-moon Friday instead: B. A. Gupte records this as the Bhavishyottara Purana's rule. The app gives the Friday before the full moon, and shows the full-moon Friday as a second date in the years it applies.

The date, from the calendar engine

• Varalakshmi Vratam 2027: Varalakshmi Puja falls on Friday, August 13, 2027 in Washington DC (South Indian rule, computed for this city). The date is the same in New Delhi.

The date depends on your city. Every city we cover is on the year page.

Traditions and regional customs

• Telugu, Kannada and Tamil families: the Friday before Shravana Purnima (engine id varalakshmi-vratam)
• Bhavishyottara Purana, as Gupte 1916 records it: Shravana Purnima when it falls on a Friday (engine alternative purnima-friday)
• Some families who cannot keep the day itself keep another Friday of Shravana

Why the day can differ

The day depends on when the full moon comes at your location, so a city abroad can keep the vow a week earlier than India in a year when the full moon falls on a Friday there but on a Saturday in India. The app shows your city's Friday, and India's when they differ.

Families who cannot keep the vow on the day, because of travel, illness, a birth or a death in the family, often keep it on another Friday of the same month. Temples abroad often hold a group Varalakshmi puja on the Friday evening or the weekend after.

How to keep it at home

1. On Thursday, clean the house and the prayer place, draw kolam or rangoli at the door, and gather what you need: a metal pot (kalasham), rice or water to fill it, mango leaves, a coconut, turmeric, kumkum, a new blouse piece or small cloth, flowers, fruit and a yellow thread with knots (the thoram, or nombu charadu) for each woman.
2. Fill the pot with rice (or water with a few coins and a little turmeric), set mango leaves in its mouth and a coconut smeared with turmeric on top. Dress the pot in the cloth, adorn it with flowers and jewellery, and set a face of the goddess on the coconut or the pot. Many families do this on Thursday evening and welcome the goddess into the home with a song.
3. On Friday morning, after a bath, worship Ganesha first. Then worship the goddess in the pot: offer turmeric, kumkum, flowers, incense and a lamp, read or listen to the vrata katha, and offer the food you have made. Tie the yellow thread on the right wrist after it has been offered to the goddess.
4. Say the prayers your family knows to Lakshmi, such as the Lakshmi Ashtottara (her 108 names) or "Karagre Vasate Lakshmi". Wave the aarti, and in the evening invite other women for haldi-kumkum: give each one turmeric, kumkum, betel leaves, fruit and a small gift (vayanam).
5. The next day, or on a day the family chooses, do a short puja and move the pot, often by lifting it slightly or turning it, as a sign of seeing the goddess off. Use the rice from the pot in the family's cooking.

Fasting

Many women fast until the morning puja is over and then eat the food that was offered; some eat only fruit and milk until the evening. These are family customs, kept by choice. Anyone who is pregnant, unwell, diabetic, elderly or on regular medicine should keep a light fast, or none, and talk to a doctor first.

Food

Offerings differ by family and region. Common ones are sweet and savoury kozhukattai or kudumulu (steamed rice-flour dumplings), payasam, sweet pongal, chana sundal, appam, vadai and fruit. Gupte's telling of the story speaks of twenty-one sweets placed before the goddess, and many families still offer several kinds.

For children

Long ago a kind woman named Charumati had a dream. In it, the goddess Lakshmi showed her how to decorate a pot as the goddess, with a coconut on top, flowers, a lamp and good food. Charumati did it all with care, and her home felt full of joy. When her friends asked her about it, she did not keep the secret. She taught them all, and they did the puja together. That is why, on this Friday, families invite friends and share sweets and small gifts.

Something to do together

Help decorate the pot: fold the mango leaves, put flowers around it, and draw a kolam at the door. Then help give each guest her small gift.

Sources

• Panchang engine rule varalakshmi-vratam (packages/panchang/data/festivals.json), with its note on the Purnima Friday and the engine's alternative purnima-friday and pre-1931 records gupte-1916-varalaxmi and nagam-aiya-1906-festivals (packages/panchang/src/festivals/extras.ts).
• Hindu Holidays and Ceremonials, with dissertations on origin, folklore and symbols, by B. A. Gupte (Calcutta: Thacker, Spink, 1916) (pp. 52–53, leaves n107–n108)
• The Travancore State Manual, by V. Nagam Aiya, vol. II (Trivandrum: Travancore Government Press, 1906) (p. 306, leaf n345 (Varalakshmi Vritam in the list of fasts: kept by Telugu, Kanarese and Mahratta families and a few Tamil ones, by women only) and p. 310, leaf n349)
• W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: South Arcot, vol. I (Madras: Government Press, 1906), p. 90 (kunkumam and saffron put at the door every Friday in honour of Lakshmi). Read on the page image. (p. 90, leaf n111)

Related guides

• Raksha Bandhan
• Diwali (Deepavali)
• Vat Savitri