Vat Savitri Vrat Katha

Vrat Dates

These are stored observance dates. Local timings and traditions can differ; each date includes its calendar references below.

Vat Savitri Vrat Katha

This story appears in the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata, where the sage Markandeya tells it to Yudhishthira. Ashvapati, the righteous king of Madra, had no children. For eighteen years he kept vows and offered oblations in worship of the goddess Savitri. Pleased, the goddess granted him a radiant daughter, who was named Savitri after her.

Savitri grew up so luminous and accomplished that no prince dared to seek her hand, so her father sent her to choose a husband herself. She returned and announced that she had chosen Satyavan, son of King Dyumatsena of Shalva. Dyumatsena had gone blind and, his kingdom seized by enemies, was living in a forest hermitage with his wife and son.

The sage Narada, who was present, said that Satyavan was unmatched in virtue but had one flaw: exactly one year from that day, he would die. The king asked Savitri to choose again, but she replied firmly that a daughter is given in marriage only once and that she had already chosen Satyavan in her heart. Seeing her resolve, the king agreed. After the wedding Savitri put aside her royal clothes and lived in the forest hermitage, serving her husband and his parents.

Silently she counted the days Narada had foretold. When three days remained, she undertook a severe three-day vow, standing day and night without food or water. On the fated day, when Satyavan set out to cut wood, Savitri took leave of her in-laws and went with him. As he chopped wood, Satyavan was seized by a terrible headache and lay down with his head in Savitri's lap. Popular tradition places this beneath the shade of a great banyan (vat) tree.

Then Yama himself appeared, clad in red and holding a noose, drew out Satyavan's thumb-sized life-spirit, and set off toward the south. Savitri followed. Yama told her to turn back, but she spoke such wise words on dharma, on friendship with the good, and on a wife's devotion that Yama was pleased and offered her any boon except her husband's life.

For her first boon Savitri asked that her blind father-in-law regain his sight and strength; for the second, his lost kingdom; for the third, a hundred sons for her own father Ashvapati. Yama granted each, yet still she followed. At last she asked to bear a hundred sons by Satyavan. Yama said "So be it" — and Savitri gently asked how that boon could be fulfilled without her husband. Bound by his own word, Yama released Satyavan's life and blessed the couple with long life.

Savitri returned to the banyan tree where Satyavan's body lay, and he rose as if waking from a deep sleep. Back at the hermitage they found that Dyumatsena's sight had returned, and soon his kingdom too was restored. Ever since, married women have kept this fast in the month of Jyeshtha, worshipping the banyan tree in memory of Savitri's courage and unwavering devotion.

How to Observe the Vrat (Vidhi)

1. Traditionally the vrat spans three days (from Trayodashi to Amavasya or Purnima), but today most women fast on the main day only. Bathe in the morning, dress in festive adornment and take the sankalp for your husband's long life.

2. Gather the puja items — a water kalash, roli, turmeric, akshat, flowers, raw cotton thread (kalava), soaked black chana, fruit, sweets, incense and a lamp, a bamboo fan, and a picture or image of Savitri and Satyavan.

3. Go to a banyan (vat) tree and pour water at its roots. Meditating on Savitri, Satyavan and Yama, offer roli, turmeric, akshat, flowers, fruit and soaked chana, and light incense and a lamp.

4. Wind the raw thread or kalava around the trunk while walking around the tree — usually 7 times; some women go round 11, 21 or 108 times.

5. Sit beneath the tree and read or listen to the Vat Savitri Vrat Katha. There is also a custom of fanning the tree and the images of Savitri and Satyavan with a bamboo fan.

6. After the puja, give the baya of soaked chana, clothes and dakshina to your mother-in-law and seek her blessings. By tradition the fast is broken by eating a tender banyan bud with soaked chana; in many regions the fast is broken the next day.