Vat Savitri: What, Why, When, How

What it is

Vat Savitri is a vrat (a vowed observance) kept by married women for the long life and wellbeing of their husbands and families. It honours Savitri, who in the Mahabharata follows Yama, the lord of death, and wins back the life of her husband Satyavan. Women worship the banyan tree (vat or bargad), walk around it and wind a cotton thread around its trunk, and hear the story of Savitri.

It is kept in two ways. In much of North India, including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and among Maithili families, it falls on the Amavasya (new moon) of Jyeshtha, by the purnimanta calendar. In Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat and Karnataka it is kept as Vat Purnima, on the full moon of Jyeshtha, usually about two weeks later (about six weeks later in a year with an extra month of Jyeshtha).

Why it is kept

Savitri and Satyavan. The Mahabharata (Vana Parva, sections 292 to 298 in K. M. Ganguli's translation) tells the story. Savitri, the daughter of King Ashvapati, chose as her husband Satyavan, the son of a blind king who had lost his kingdom and lived in the forest. The sage Narada warned that Satyavan would die within a year, but Savitri kept her choice. As the day came near, she fasted for three days and nights. On the day itself she went with Satyavan into the forest, where his head began to ache, and he lay down with his head in her lap. Yama came and took his life, and Savitri followed Yama.

As she walked, she spoke to Yama with wisdom about dharma and the company of the good. Pleased, Yama granted her gifts, but not Satyavan's life: her father-in-law's sight and kingdom, sons for her father, and then sons of her own with Satyavan. She spoke again of the good, who do good to others and expect nothing back. Yama, more pleased still, told her to ask for a gift beyond compare. She said the gift of sons could not come true without her husband, and asked for Satyavan's life. Yama released him. Satyavan woke as if from sleep, and they went home together.

The banyan. The epic does not name the tree under which Satyavan lay. The tradition of the vrat places the story under a banyan, a tree that lives very long and puts down new roots from its branches, and so the banyan is worshipped on this day.

The texts behind the story

• The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, translated into English prose (K. M. Ganguli), published by Protap Chandra Roy: Sabha Parva and Vana Parva (Calcutta: Bharata Press, 1884) (Vana Parva, Pativrata-mahatmya Parva, Sections CCXCII–CCXCVIII (printed CCLXLII–CCLXLVIII; the Project Gutenberg e-text numbers them CCLXLI–CCLXLVII), pp. 864–888 (leaves n1109–n1133); summarised, not quoted)
• The Folklore of Bombay, by R. E. Enthoven (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923) (p. 120 (leaf n124): the telling that Satyavan returned from death under the banyan, and the Vat Savitri vow of fasting and walking round the banyan from the 13th to the 15th of bright Jyeshth; p. 56 (leaf n60): Wata Paurnima)
• The North Indian customs of the vrat: tradition, summarised in our own words.

When it is kept

The app gives both days as traditions. North Indian Vat Savitri is the Amavasya of Jyeshtha by the purnimanta calendar (the Amavasya that ends Vaishakha in the amanta calendar), kept on the day on which Amavasya covers the afternoon (aparahna, the fourth fifth of the daytime) at your location; if it covers the afternoon on both days, the day on which it covers more of it; if on neither, the day on which it is present at sunrise. Vat Purnima, kept in Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat and Karnataka, is the Purnima of Jyeshtha, kept on the day on which Purnima is present at moonrise; if it is present at moonrise on both days, the first; if on neither, the day on which it is present at sunrise. The app uses these rules because they match published calendars; they are not read from a text.

The date, from the calendar engine

• Vat Savitri 2027: Vat Savitri Puja falls on Friday, June 4, 2027 in Washington DC (North 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

• North Indian: Jyeshtha Amavasya, in the afternoon
• Marathi, Konkani, Gujarati and Kannada: Vat Purnima, Jyeshtha Purnima at moonrise (engine id vat-purnima)

Why the day can differ

The two traditions are usually about two weeks apart, and about six weeks apart in a year with an extra (adhika) Jyeshtha. Both are correct for the families who keep them; follow your family's custom. Some families, above all in Maharashtra, keep the vrat over three days, from the thirteenth day of the bright half to the full moon.

How to keep it at home

1. Bathe early and dress for worship; many women wear the clothes and ornaments of a married woman. Prepare a plate with water, raw cotton thread, kumkum, turmeric, rice, flowers, fruit, soaked gram, a lamp and incense.
2. Go to a banyan tree, often with other women of the area. Offer water at its roots, apply kumkum and turmeric, and offer flowers, fruit and soaked gram. Some families place a small image or picture of Savitri and Satyavan under the tree.
3. Walk around the tree, winding the cotton thread around the trunk as you go; many families walk around seven times, some more. Then sit and hear or read the story of Savitri and Satyavan.
4. Where there is no banyan nearby, many women worship a banyan branch or a picture at home. Do not break a branch from a living tree for this; use a fallen one, or a picture.

Fasting

Many women fast until the worship is complete, and some keep a full day's fast. It is a choice, not a duty. The day falls in the hottest weeks of the year in North India: drink water if you need to, and anyone who is pregnant, unwell, elderly or taking medicine should not fast without a doctor's advice.

Food

Soaked black gram, mangoes and other fruit, puri and sweets such as gulgule (sweet fried dough balls) in North India; in Maharashtra, simple fasting food after the worship.

For children

Princess Savitri married Satyavan, a kind young man who lived in the forest. One day, Yama, the god who takes people's lives at the end, came for Satyavan. Savitri did not cry and run away. She walked after Yama and talked with him, kindly and wisely, the whole way. Yama liked her words so much that he gave her wishes, and at last he let her ask for anything she liked. She asked for Satyavan's life, and Yama gave it. On Vat Savitri families remember how Savitri used patience and good words.

Something to do together

Find a banyan tree with a grown-up and look at the roots hanging down from its branches. Count how many you can see, and talk about why a tree that grows new roots can live so long.

Sources

• Panchang engine rules vat-savitri and vat-purnima (packages/panchang/data/festivals.json), with their sources and the dates checked in packages/panchang/test/festivals-added.test.ts; the rules are listed in packages/panchang/KNOWN_DIFFERENCES.md §2.5.
• The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, translated into English prose (K. M. Ganguli), published by Protap Chandra Roy: Sabha Parva and Vana Parva (Calcutta: Bharata Press, 1884) (Vana Parva, Sections CCXCII–CCXCVIII, pp. 864–888 (leaves n1109–n1133))
• The Folklore of Bombay, by R. E. Enthoven (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923) (p. 56 (leaf n60): Wata Paurnima; p. 120 (leaf n124): the banyan and the three-day Vat Savitri vow)
• Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Volume XXII: Dharwar (Bombay: Government Central Press, 1884) (Chapter III, Brahmans (Deshasths), p. 70 (leaf n77), checked on the page image: in the Dharwar district (today Dharwad, Karnataka), women keep the full moon of Jyeshtha for their husbands' long life, and draw Savitri, Satyavan and the Indian fig (banyan) tree on a wall)

Related guides

• Karwa Chauth
• Hartalika Teej