छठ पूजा विधि

In Chhath the Sun is worshipped as the visible god: the deity seen every day, from whom come grain, water, light and life. With him Chhathi Maiya is worshipped. Folk tradition calls Chhathi Maiya the Sun's sister; the Puranic tradition links her to Shashthi Devi, the sixth portion of Prakriti, the beloved of Skanda (Kartikeya), and the goddess who protects children, worshipped in every home on the sixth day after a birth as the 'Chhathi'. Some also link the evening arghya to Pratyusha, the Sun's last ray, and the dawn arghya to Usha, his first ray.

Chhath is known for its simplicity and for being kept together. The whole neighbourhood cleans the ghats together, the paths are washed, and everyone does something for the vrati: one dries the wheat, one carries the daura, one sets lamps at the ghat. The prasad is the produce of the season, sugarcane, bananas, coconut, the large gagal lemon, sweet potato, water chestnut, turmeric and ginger plants, along with thekua made at home. Women sing the folk songs of Chhath in Bhojpuri, Maithili and Magahi, handed down over generations; these songs are the mantras of the festival.

The vrat of Chhath is held to be hard: purity begins with Nahay-Khay, after Kharna comes a fast of about thirty-six hours without water, and twice the arghya is given standing in water. The one keeping the vrat is called the vrati or parvaitin. Usually the women of the house keep it, but men keep it with the same faith; the vrat is not bound to anyone in particular.

Day one, Nahay-Khay (Kartik Shukla Chaturthi): 'bathe, then eat'. Before this the house, and the kitchen above all, has been washed and wiped clean. In the morning the vrati bathes in a river or pond, or at home in water mixed with Ganga water. A single sattvik meal is cooked on this day: bottle gourd (lauki or kaddu), chana dal and rice of unparboiled grain, in ghee, with rock salt in place of ordinary salt. The vrati eats first, then the family. In many places this is also called 'kaddu-bhaat'. From this day onion, garlic, meat and alcohol stop coming into the house.

Day two, Kharna (Kartik Shukla Panchami), also called Lohanda: the vrati fasts the whole day without water. In the evening, in new or well-washed vessels, often on a clay stove fired with mango wood, a kheer of jaggery and rice, the rasiya, is cooked along with wheat roti. This prasad is offered to Chhathi Maiya on a banana leaf, and then the vrati eats it alone and in quiet; no noise is made in the house at that time. The same prasad is then shared with the family, the neighbours and those who come. With the eating of the Kharna prasad the fast of about thirty-six hours without water begins, and it is broken only by the paran after the Usha Arghya on the fourth day.

Day three, Sandhya Arghya (Kartik Shukla Shashthi): this is the main day. All day the prasad is made at home, thekua of wheat flour, jaggery and ghee, and kasar laddoos of rice flour and jaggery, and the fruit is washed and arranged. Before evening the prasad is set in bamboo soops and the daura, and the family walks to the ghat singing; the daura is usually carried on the head by the men of the house. At the ghat the vrati stands in the water and offers arghya to the setting Sun; the method is given separately below. The arghya is given at sunset, and this year's sunset time is at the top of this page. On returning home many families fill the kosi.

Day four, Usha Arghya (Kartik Shukla Saptami): before dawn, while it is still dark, the family carries the daura to the ghat again. The vrati stands in the water facing east and waits for the Sun to rise, and with the first ray the arghya is offered to the rising Sun. Then comes the puja of Chhathi Maiya at the ghat, the sharing of prasad and the blessing of the elders. After that the vrati breaks the fast with a little water, ginger or prasad, which is called the paran, and eats a simple meal on returning home. The sunrise time for the next morning is also given at the top of this page.

Soop and daura: bamboo soops (winnowing trays; at least one for each vrati, and in many homes one for each member of the family or for each vow), a large bamboo daura or basket, and a copper or brass lota for the arghya. Many homes keep a brass soop as well as the bamboo ones.

Prasad: thekua (wheat flour, jaggery and ghee; wheat washed, dried and ground for the household is held best), kasar or rice-flour laddoos, a whole bunch of bananas, sugarcane with its leaves, a coconut with water in it, gagal (the large lemon), sweet lime, apples, water chestnuts, sweet potato, suthni, radish with its leaves, fresh turmeric and ginger plants, betel nuts, betel leaves, makhana, and whatever fruits of the season can be found.

For the puja: clay lamps, ghee, cotton wicks, incense, sindoor, roli, kesar or kumkum, unbroken rice, turmeric, flowers and a garland, raw milk, Ganga water, new clothes for the vrati (an unstitched sari for women, a dhoti for men), and a mat to sit on at the ghat. For homes that fill the kosi: five or seven sugarcane stalks, a clay elephant, a clay pot (the kosi) and more lamps.

For cooking the prasad: wheat, jaggery, ghee and rice flour; for Kharna, milk, unparboiled rice and jaggery; for Nahay-Khay, bottle gourd, chana dal, unparboiled rice and rock salt. A new clay stove and mango wood are best where they can be had; otherwise a separate stove washed well. No salt goes into the prasad.

On reaching the ghat, first clean your place. Many families make a small altar of earth there, mark it with sindoor and light a lamp on it; this is Chhathi Maiya's place. Take the soops out of the daura and arrange the prasad in them: thekua, fruit, pieces of sugarcane, coconut, turmeric and ginger, sindoor and rice, and a lit lamp in the middle.

The evening arghya: a little before sunset the vrati bathes and steps into the water, knee-deep or waist-deep and no deeper, and stands facing west, towards the setting Sun. They lift the soop full of prasad towards the Sun in both hands. A member of the family, or any devotee at the ghat, pours a stream of raw milk or water from a lota over the rim of the soop, so that the stream touches the soop and falls towards the Sun. The arghya is offered in the same way from each soop.

With the arghya the vrati turns round on the spot in the water as a parikrama, once or more as their tradition holds, and prays with folded hands. They may chant 'Om Suryaya Namah' or 'Om Ghrini Suryaya Namah' in their heart, but the true mantras of Chhath are the folk songs sung by the women at the ghat, which go on through the whole arghya: songs asking the Sun to rise, songs praying to Chhathi Maiya to protect children and married life, and songs of the hardship of the vrat. After the Sun has set the vrati comes out of the water, the soops go back into the daura and the family returns home.

The dawn arghya: reach the ghat before dawn, light a lamp at the altar and arrange the soops again. The vrati stands in the water facing east and waits for the Sun to rise; the waiting is itself part of the worship and passes in song and prayer. At the first sight of the Sun the arghya is offered in the same way, with a stream of milk or water over the soop, and the parikrama follows.

The paran: after the arghya the vrati worships at Chhathi Maiya's altar on the ghat, gives prasad to everyone and touches the feet of the elders. In Chhath it is held auspicious to ask for prasad, and no one who asks is refused. In many places married women put a long line of sindoor on each other at this time, from the nose up to the parting of the hair. Then the fast is broken with a little water, raw milk, a piece of ginger or prasad. On returning home eat a light, simple meal; after a long fast do not eat heavily all at once.

Filling the kosi is a particular custom of Chhath, usually done when someone has made a vow to Chhathi Maiya and it has been fulfilled, the birth of a child, a marriage, recovery from illness, or when some auspicious event has taken place in the home. After the evening arghya, five, seven or more sugarcane stalks are tied together at the top in the courtyard or on the roof to make a kind of canopy. Under it is placed a clay elephant carrying a clay pot, the kosi, and twelve, twenty-four or more lamps are lit around it. Soops full of thekua, fruit and prasad are set there, and the women sing the songs of Chhath late into the night.

At dawn, before the Usha Arghya, the same kosi is set up and filled again at the ghat. Filling the kosi is not required in every home; it depends on the vow and the family's tradition, and the number of sugarcane stalks and lamps differs from house to house.

Flowing water is held best for Chhath, but if there is no river nearby the worship is not incomplete. A clean tank or pond, a nearby ghat, a temporary pool made in the colony or housing society, or a large tub or a small pool lined with tarpaulin on the roof of the house: Chhath is kept in all of these. All that is needed is that the water is clean, that the vrati can stand in it, and that the direction of the Sun is open from there.

If you make a pool at home, fill it with clean water and add a little Ganga water. Even if buildings hide the Sun itself, face its direction and give the arghya at the time of the arghya. After the puja pour the water of the arghya and of the pool on trees and plants rather than down the drain.

At a public ghat, keeping the water clean is part of Chhath too; the Sun and the water are both deities of this festival. Do not throw plastic, polythene bags, leftover puja flowers or rubbish into the water, do not bathe in the river with soap or detergent, and clean your place before you leave the ghat.

Through all four days of Chhath, purity is the first rule. The prasad is made in new or well-washed vessels, in a washed kitchen, after bathing and in clean clothes. The wheat for the prasad is washed and dried in the sun, and care is taken that no bird or anyone else touches it. The prasad is not tasted while it is being made. No salt, onion or garlic goes into the prasad, and in these days onion, garlic, meat and alcohol do not come into the house at all.

In these days the vrati usually sleeps on the floor on a mat or blanket, wears new or washed unstitched clothes and avoids harsh words. The soops and the prasad are not touched without washing the hands, and shoes are not taken near the prasad. In many families Chhath is not kept in a year when there has been a death in the house; this depends on the family's tradition. Once it is begun, many homes keep it every year, and when the vrati can no longer keep it, another member of the family takes it up.

Health comes first; let this be clear. A fast of thirty-six hours without water and standing long in cold water weigh heavily on the body. The elderly, pregnant women, nursing mothers, people with diabetes, heart, kidney or blood-pressure conditions, and anyone on regular medicine should fast only after asking their doctor, or keep a lighter form: a vrat with water and fruit, or joining without fasting by making the prasad, carrying the daura and taking part in the arghya. Chhathi Maiya is the goddess who protects children and life; keeping the vrat by putting one's own body in danger cannot be counted as her wish.

Men keep this vrat too, and for them the method is the same. At the ghat keep children away from deep water, stay together in the crowd, beware of electric wires and fireworks near the water, and let a member of the family stay beside the vrati who goes into the water.

Many stories are told about how Chhath began. They are stories of faith, not history; none of them alone proves the beginning of Chhath, but together they show how old the worship of the Sun and of Shashthi is in this land.

Tradition links this vrat to Karna. Karna, the son of the Sun and king of Anga (the region of present-day Bhagalpur and Munger), stood waist-deep in water every day and offered arghya to the Sun, and it is said that from this came his radiance and strength. People link the Chhath custom of offering arghya while standing in water to him.

One story is that of Draupadi and the Pandavas. When the Pandavas had lost their kingdom and were in distress, Draupadi kept this vrat of the worship of the Sun and Shashthi, and tradition says that by its fruit the Pandavas' troubles ended and their kingdom came back to them.

In the Ramayana tradition the story is told that after the victory over Lanka, on returning to Ayodhya, Rama and Sita fasted on Kartik Shukla Shashthi and worshipped the Sun, and broke the fast the next morning by offering arghya to the rising Sun. The Sitacharan temple in the middle of the Ganga at Munger is held to be linked to this story.

The story of Shashthi Devi is in the Prakriti Khanda of the Brahmavaivarta Purana. King Priyavrata, son of Svayambhuva Manu, had no child for a long time. When at last a son was born to his queen, the child was stillborn. Overcome with grief, the king carried the child to the cremation ground and was ready to give up his own life. Just then a goddess appeared in a celestial chariot and told him who she was: Shashthi Devi, the sixth portion of Prakriti, the beloved of Skanda, and the protector of the children of the world. The goddess lifted the child and he came to life. She asked the king to spread her worship on earth. Priyavrata did so, and the hymn to Shashthi Devi that he is said to have offered is found in the same chapter.

This Puranic story is about the worship of Shashthi Devi, the same goddess who is worshipped on the sixth day after a child's birth in the 'Chhathi'. Folk tradition joined this goddess to the Sun as Chhathi Maiya, and that is why the wellbeing of children comes first among the prayers of Chhath.

By tradition the vrat of Chhath is kept for the protection and progress of children, for the health of the family and for the fulfilment of a vow; many also link it to relief from diseases of the skin and eyes, since the Sun is held to be the god of health. But the greatest message of Chhath lies in its very form: the first arghya goes to the setting Sun, which is to say that what is declining is honoured as much as what is rising; the prasad holds every crop of the earth; and at the ghat the whole community stands together, with no one high or low, all in the same water.

After the Usha Arghya and the paran the aarti of the Sun god is sung at home; many families do the aarti with a lamp at the ghat itself. At a ghat of the Ganga or another river, the aarti of Ganga ji is sung with it. The aarti of the Sun god, the Surya Chalisa and the aarti of Ganga ji are given separately in this library.