वट सावित्री व्रत कथा

This story is in the part of the Vana Parva of the Mahabharata called the Pativrata Mahatmya Parva; it is also known as the Savitri Upakhyana. During the years of exile Yudhishthira told the sage Markandeya that Draupadi's suffering hurt him more than the loss of his kingdom, and asked whether any woman like her had ever lived. Markandeya told this story in answer.

In the land of Madra there was a righteous king named Ashvapati. His people loved him, but he had no child, and as he grew old the sorrow deepened. He took up a hard rule of restraint and celibacy, began to eat very little, and offered oblations into the fire daily with the mantras of the goddess Savitri. This went on for eighteen years. Then the goddess, pleased, appeared from the fire of the agnihotra and told him to ask for a boon. The king asked for many sons to carry on his line. The goddess said she had already spoken to Brahma about this, and by Brahma's will a radiant daughter would be born in his house. In time the princess of Malava, the king's senior queen, bore a girl with eyes like lotuses. This child, won by the goddess's grace, was also named Savitri.

When Savitri grew up her radiance was such that no prince dared to ask for her. On the day of a parva, after a fast and a bath, she came to her father with flowers that had been offered to the deity. Seeing his daughter the king grew sad and said that the time for her marriage had come, yet no one came to ask; so she must look for a husband worthy of her herself and tell him. Savitri bowed to her father and set out in a golden chariot with his old ministers. She went to the hermitages of the royal sages, touched the feet of the elders, travelled from forest to forest and gave gifts at the sacred places.

When she came back the sage Narada was sitting in the king's court. At her father's asking Savitri told them that in the land of Shalva there was a righteous king named Dyumatsena. He lost his sight, and an old enemy nearby seized the chance and took his kingdom. He went into the forest with his wife and a child at her breast, and took up austerities there. That child grew up in the hermitage; his name is Satyavan. 'He is the one I have taken in my heart as my husband,' Savitri said.

Narada said, 'Alas, a great mistake has been made without knowing.' When the king asked, he counted Satyavan's virtues: his father and mother speak the truth, so the boy was named Satyavan; as a child he made clay horses and drew pictures of horses, so he is also called Chitrashva; he is like the Sun in energy and the Earth in forbearance, generous, truthful and humble. The king asked whether he had any fault too. Narada said, 'Only one, and it covers all his virtues: within one year from today Satyavan will leave his body.' The king at once told his daughter to go and choose another husband. Savitri's answer is the first great turn of this story. She said that death comes only once, a daughter is given only once, 'I give' is said only once; whether his life is short or long, whether he has virtues or not, she had chosen once and would not choose twice. Narada saw how firm her mind was and told the king that he approved of this marriage. The king accepted his word.

Ashvapati took his priests and brahmins and his daughter to Dyumatsena's hermitage in the forest and went to him on foot. The blind king sat on a mat of kusha grass under a sal tree. Ashvapati asked him to take his daughter as his son's wife. Dyumatsena answered with hesitation that they had lost their kingdom and lived in the forest as ascetics; how would his daughter bear this hardship? Ashvapati said that joy and sorrow come and go, and that his daughter knew this as well as he did. Then Dyumatsena told him that he had wished for this match long before, and had drawn back only when he lost his kingdom. The marriage was held with due rites among the brahmins of the hermitages. When her father had gone, Savitri took off all her ornaments and put on bark and red-dyed cloth. With her service and gentle nature she won the hearts of her mother-in-law, her father-in-law and her husband. But Narada's words stayed in her mind day and night.

Savitri went on counting the days. When she knew that Satyavan's death would come on the fourth day, she took the triratra vow: a fast of three nights and days. The Sanskrit word here, sthita, is taken by some translators to mean that she stood day and night, and by others that she stayed awake. Her father-in-law, grieved, said that this vow was very hard. Savitri said, 'Do not worry; I have taken this vow with resolve, and it is resolve that completes a vow.' Dyumatsena said that he could not tell her to break it; he could only tell her to finish it. Savitri passed the last night in great anguish. The next morning, when the Sun had climbed a little, she did her daily rites and the fire offering and bowed to the elders and her husband's parents. The ascetics of the hermitage blessed her, that her married life should last. Her husband's parents said that the vow was done and she should now eat. Savitri said, 'I will eat when the Sun goes down; that is my resolve.'

Just then Satyavan put his axe on his shoulder and set out for the forest. Savitri said she would go with him. Satyavan reasoned that she had never been to the forest, that the paths were hard and that the fast had weakened her. When she would not be moved, he told her to ask his parents' leave. Savitri told them that today she could not bear to be apart from him, and that she had not left the hermitage for nearly a year. Dyumatsena said that since she came as his son's wife she had never asked for anything; let her go. Savitri went with her husband smiling, though her heart was breaking. In woods full of peacocks Satyavan kept showing her rivers and trees heavy with flowers, and she kept watching only him.

Satyavan gathered fruit and then began to cut branches. As he worked he began to sweat, and a sharp pain rose in his head. He came to Savitri and said that his head ached, he could not stand, and he wanted to sleep. Savitri sat on the ground and laid his head in her lap. The next moment she saw a man in red clothes with a crown on his head, radiant as the Sun, dark in colour, with red eyes and a noose in his hand. Savitri laid her husband's head gently on the ground, stood up with a trembling heart and asked who he was. The answer came, 'I am Yama. You are devoted to your husband and rich in austerity, and that is why I am speaking to you. Satyavan's days are over.' Savitri asked why he had come himself, since she had heard that his messengers came. Yama said that this prince was an ocean of virtues and not fit to be taken by messengers. Then Yama drew out of Satyavan's body a person the size of a thumb, bound it in the noose and set out towards the south. Savitri followed him.

Yama told her to go back and perform her husband's last rites; she had come as far as she could. Savitri said that where her husband went she would go. The wise say, she said, that walking seven steps with someone makes a friendship, and she would speak out of that friendship. Then she spoke of dharma. Yama was pleased with her reasoning and told her to ask for a boon, anything but Satyavan's life. As the first boon Savitri asked that her father-in-law should have his sight and his strength. Yama granted it and told her to return. Savitri said that there was no weariness at her husband's side, and that the company of the good never goes to waste. Yama offered a second boon on the same condition. As the second boon she asked that her father-in-law should regain his lost kingdom and never fall from his dharma. This too was granted.

Savitri went on speaking as she walked: the good do no harm to anyone in thought, word or deed, and show mercy even to an enemy who seeks shelter. Yama said that her words were like water to the thirsty. As the third boon she asked, for her father, who had no son, a hundred sons to carry on his line. That too was granted. Yama said again that she had come very far. Savitri said that beside her husband she did not feel the length of the road. She said that he dealt equal justice to all creatures and so was called the lord of dharma, and that trust rests only on the good. Yama said that he had heard such words from no one but her, and that she should ask for a fourth boon, anything but Satyavan's life. Savitri asked that she and Satyavan should have a hundred strong sons. Yama said it would be so, and told her to go back now.

Savitri spoke again: the good walk in dharma, do good to others without wanting any return, and it is by their truth that the Sun moves. Yama said that the more she spoke the more his respect grew, and that she should ask for a boon beyond compare. This time he set no condition about the life. Savitri said that the boon of a hundred sons he had given could not come true without her husband; without him she wanted neither joy nor heaven nor wealth; so let Satyavan live, so that Yama's own word would also come true. 'So be it,' Yama said, and untied the noose. He said that Satyavan would be free of disease, would live four hundred years with her and win fame through sacrifices; she would have her hundred sons, and her father, by Queen Malavi, his hundred, who would be called the Malavas. Saying this, Yama went back to his own realm.

Savitri returned to the place where Satyavan's body lay and laid his head in her lap again. When Satyavan came to he looked like someone back from a long journey. He said, 'I slept a long time; why did you not wake me? Where has that dark man gone?' Savitri said that the night was deep and she would tell him everything tomorrow. It was dark, and she wished to light a fire and pass the night there, but Satyavan began to worry about his old parents and broke down in tears. Then Savitri hung the wallet of fruit on a branch, took his axe in her hand, put his left arm over her shoulder, and the two of them set out for the hermitage in the moonlight.

Meanwhile Dyumatsena's sight had returned, and with his wife Shaibya he was wandering all night in search of his son, his feet torn by thorns. The sages of the hermitage steadied him; Suvarchas, Gautama, Bharadvaja, Dalbhya, Apastamba and Dhaumya each gave a reason why Satyavan had to be alive, and several named Savitri's austerity and conduct as that reason. A little later that same night the two of them arrived. When the sages asked, Savitri told them everything: Narada's prediction, why she had gone with her husband, Yama's coming and the five boons. She also said that it was for her husband's life that she had kept the vow.

The next morning a large party of people from Shalva came to the hermitage. They said that Dyumatsena's enemy had been killed by his own minister, and that the people had declared with one voice that this was their king whether he could see or not. They had brought a chariot and an army. They were astonished to see the king with his sight restored. Dyumatsena was installed on the throne and Satyavan became the crown prince. In time Savitri had her hundred sons, and Ashvapati too had a hundred sons by Queen Malavi.

Markandeya told Yudhishthira that just as Savitri had lifted her father, her mother, her husband's parents and her husband's line out of their trouble, so would Draupadi lift them all. What is worth noticing in this story is that Savitri neither cursed anyone nor worked a miracle. She made her decision herself, did not look away from the sorrow ahead, asked first for others, and did not stop saying what was right. Even the god of death went on listening to her.

The Mahabharata's story names neither the banyan nor a tithi for this vrat. The trees it does name are the sal at the hermitage and the palasha on the way back. The banyan and the Jyeshtha tithi come from the later vrat tradition; the method of this vrat is often traced to the Skanda Purana, and the tellings in homes say that Savitri laid Satyavan down under a banyan and that his life returned there. This is folk tradition, and it is right to know it as that.

It is easy to see why the banyan holds this place. It lives very long, its hanging roots come down and form new trunks, and one tree slowly becomes a whole grove. So it stands for endurance and for a family's growth. A common belief holds that Brahma dwells in the banyan's root, Vishnu in its trunk and Shiva in its branches, though some tellings place them a little differently. In the burning sun of Jyeshtha its shade is a gift in itself.

The date box on this page shows the day of Jyeshtha Amavasya, the day on whose sunrise the Amavasya tithi is running. This is the north Indian day: the tradition of states such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab and Haryana. In the Mithila region of Bihar it is called Barsait. In north India's purnimanta calendar the month ends on the full moon, so this dark fortnight already counts as Jyeshtha. In the amanta calendar the month ends on the new moon, so there the same new moon is called Vaishakha Amavasya. The month has a different name, but the day is the same. Shani Jayanti is also kept on this day in north India.

Families in Maharashtra, Gujarat and parts of the South keep this vrat on Jyeshtha Purnima, which usually comes about a fortnight after the Amavasya; in a year when an adhika month falls between them, the gap is much longer. There it is called Vat Purnima, and many homes keep a three-day fast from Jyeshtha Shukla Trayodashi. The story is the same and the puja nearly so. This day is not in the box on this page, so those families should not fast on the box's date but take the Purnima day from their own panchang.

Neither day is right and the other wrong. Whichever day a family has followed is its tradition; many women take up the custom of their husband's home after marriage. The box's times are for New Delhi; for another city, open the panchang for that day.

For the worship of the tree: a skein of raw cotton thread (white or dyed with turmeric), a lota of water, roli, turmeric, sandal paste, akshat, flowers and a garland, a ghee lamp, incense, a bamboo fan, soaked black gram, fruit of the season (mango and litchi in many homes), jaggery or sweets, a few coins as dakshina, and a picture of Savitri and Satyavan or small clay images, where that is the custom.

For yourself and for gifts: sindoor, bangles, bindi and other things of a married woman's adornment, and a small bamboo basket, in which many women carry the puja things. If you cannot gather everything, do not worry: a little water, raw thread, a flower, some soaked gram and the katha are enough for the puja.

1. The night before: soak the black gram in water and lay out the samagri in a basket. Women who keep the three-day fast begin on Trayodashi, two days before the Amavasya; in most homes the fast is of the Amavasya day only.

2. Morning: rise around sunrise, bathe and put on clean clothes; many women wear their wedding clothes or red and yellow on this day, and dress with care. At home take water in your hand and make the sankalp in your own words: that today you will keep the Vat Savitri fast for the welfare of your husband and family, as far as you are able.

3. The time: the puja is usually done in the morning. The date box shows the pratah window, from sunrise for a fifth of the day, for New Delhi. If the tree is crowded or you cannot reach it then, do the puja with faith whenever you can during the day.

4. At the tree: women often go to the banyan in a group. Lightly clean the ground near the root, place the picture or image of Savitri and Satyavan where that is the custom, and light the lamp and the incense. Keep the lamp well away from the thread and dry leaves. First remember Ganesha, saying 'Om Gam Ganapataye Namah'.

5. Water and offerings: pour water at the banyan's root. Mark the trunk with roli, turmeric and sandal paste, offer akshat and flowers, and place fruit, sweets and soaked gram. In many homes the bamboo fan is waved at the tree and at Savitri and Satyavan: a gesture of service in the heat of Jyeshtha.

6. Thread and parikrama: hold one end of the raw thread to the trunk and walk around the tree, so that with each round the thread winds on to the trunk. The number of rounds follows custom: seven in many homes, eleven in some, a hundred and eight in others. As you walk, say the names of Savitri and Satyavan in your mind or pray quietly for your family. Take care not to pull away other women's thread, and not to break any branch or hanging root.

7. The katha: sit under the tree with a few soaked gram in your hand, and read or hear the story given above. If one woman in the group reads while the rest listen, so much the better.

8. Aarti and bowing: wave the lamp in aarti, bow to the tree and ask forgiveness for any slip. Then touch the feet of older women, and share sindoor and things of adornment among yourselves where that is the custom.

9. Giving: give fruit, gram, cloth or whatever you can to someone in need, or to a brahmin as your family's custom has it. This hot season is also a time for giving water and shade; giving a pot of drinking water to a person or a water stall is a fine gift.

Soaked gram: this is a well-known custom of the vrat, but nothing in the Mahabharata supports it. Some homes tell a folk story that Yama returned Satyavan's life in the form of gram. It is a folk story only, not the Mahabharata's. In many homes the fast is opened with soaked gram and water. Follow your own home's custom.

If there is no banyan: if no banyan is nearby, look for one at a temple or in a park. Many homes, along with the worship of the tree, also draw the banyan, Savitri, Satyavan and Yama on the floor or a wall with a paste of sandal and rice and worship the drawing. If the tree cannot be reached, the puja can be done at home before this drawing; the spirit of the puja stays the same. Avoid cutting a branch and bringing it home: it is not fitting to hurt the very tree being worshipped. Planting a young banyan in a suitable spot and watering it is a good deed for this day.

Other differences: in some places the vrat ends by touching the husband's feet, in others by first marking and feeding married women. In some places a daughter-in-law, after the puja, gives her mother-in-law a bayana of soaked gram, fruit and a little money and touches her feet. Whatever custom runs in your home is your method; no single one of these alone is right.

The rule of this fast differs from home to home. Some women go without water until the puja or through the day, some take fruit, milk and water, some one fruit meal. Given the heat of Jyeshtha, even where health is good it is wise to take enough water the day before, not to stay long in the sun, and to go to the tree in the cool of the morning. Savitri kept her vow out of her own resolve and not out of anyone's fear; the spirit of the vow is resolve, not hurting the body.

The ill, pregnant and nursing women, the elderly, children, anyone on medicines, and anyone with diabetes, blood pressure or a kidney problem should not keep a waterless or full fast. They keep this vrat in spirit with water, fruit and their medicines on time, or with the puja and the katha alone. A doctor's advice comes first. If dizziness, weakness or unease comes, take water and food without hesitation. And if someone at home is ill, the vrat does not take the place of their treatment; the treatment is as much a duty.

During periods: the traditional view is that in those days a woman does not touch the puja materials; she may keep the fast, hear the katha and pray in her mind, while another woman of the household does the worship at the tree. Many families and teachers today also hold that devotion knows no such bar. Follow your family's tradition and your own heart.

The parana of this vrat is not tied to any one time, and that is why the date box gives no parana time. In many homes the fast is opened right after the puja and the katha, with soaked gram and water. In many others women eat after sunset, and in some the next morning. The Mahabharata's Savitri too told her husband's parents that she would eat only when the Sun went down. Follow your home's custom, and if the body does not keep up, do not hesitate to eat earlier.

Before the parana take the prasad of the puja, bow to your elders and give something away. After a day's fast it is good to take a little water and something light first, such as gram, fruit or sherbet, and a simple sattvic meal a while later. In many homes the woman keeping the fast eats only after first feeding a married woman.

Not every woman does an udyapan of Vat Savitri; many keep it every year for life. Those who took a vow of a set number of years, or who because of age or health can no longer keep the fast, do its udyapan. After how many years changes with family and region; we found no single rule, so ask your family's custom or a priest. Old manuscript manuals of the udyapan also exist, so in homes where the full method is the custom it is right to have a priest do it.

The simple form is this: on the day of the vrat worship the tree as always, hear the katha, and then feed a few married women or couples. Give them fruit, gram, cloth, things of adornment and a fan in a bamboo basket, as far as you are able. At the end bow to Savitri and Satyavan and ask forgiveness for any slip. Some people also have a new banyan planted on this occasion.

By tradition this vrat is kept for a husband's long life, for lasting married happiness and for peace at home, and it is said that whoever hears Savitri's story with faith finds happiness; the Mahabharata's own episode closes on this note. Do not take it as a promise of any result. It is a practice of faith, restraint and love, and no count of vows decides the length of a life.

The story's own message is larger than that. Savitri makes her own decision, does not draw back even on knowing a hard truth, asks first for others, and says what is right with humility even before the highest. Walking around the banyan on this day is a reminder of that same patience and endurance.

This vrat has no single fixed aarti; sing whichever aarti your home sings. Many homes end the puja with the Ganesh aarti 'Jai Ganesh Deva' and the Vishnu aarti 'Om Jai Jagdish Hare', whose full texts are in this library. Do the aarti with a ghee lamp, then pass your hands over the flame, touch them to your eyes and share the prasad.