Vat Savitri Vrat 2027
4 June 2027

Vat Savitri Vrat, kept in North India on Jyeshtha Krishna Amavasya, is the day married women fast and worship the vat (banyan) tree for their husband’s long life and the family’s wellbeing. They take as their example Savitri, who, as the Mahabharata’s Vana Parva tells, won her husband Satyavan’s life back from Yama, the god of death, through her devotion and her unshaken, clear-headed words to him. In the Amanta calendar of Maharashtra and Gujarat, the same vrat is kept a fortnight later, at Jyeshtha Purnima, as Vat Purnima.

The banyan is worshipped because tradition holds that Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva dwell in its roots, trunk and branches, and because of its long life and wide, sheltering shade, which women ask be theirs in their own marriage. The katha of Savitri and Satyavan is read or heard through the day, usually at the tree itself, as the vrat’s central story.

• A branch of the vat (banyan) tree, if the tree itself is far
• Kaccha sutra (raw cotton thread)
• Seasonal fruits and soaked chana (gram)
• Roli, akshat and kalava
• Sindoor and bangles
• New or clean clothes
• A decorated bamboo fan (pankha)
• Water in a lota
• Savitri-Satyavan katha book

Source: Mahabharata, Vana Parva

Savitri, daughter of King Ashvapati, chose Satyavan, a prince living in exile in the forest with his blind father, as her husband, even after the sage Narada warned that he was fated to die within a year. She would not change her mind, and they married.

On the foretold day, Savitri followed Satyavan into the forest and kept beside him. When Yama, the god of death, came himself to take his soul, Savitri followed Yama too, walking behind him on foot as he carried Satyavan’s soul away, answering his questions with such wisdom and devotion that he offered her a boon, any but Satyavan’s life.

Savitri asked, in turn, for her blind father-in-law’s eyesight and kingdom to be restored, for a hundred sons for her own father, and finally for a hundred sons for herself, born of Satyavan. Bound by his own word, and unable to grant the last boon without Satyavan alive, Yama returned Satyavan’s soul, and the two walked home together.

What to do

• Keep the fast with devotion rather than as hardship for its own sake, since Savitri’s strength lay in her steadfastness, not in the fast itself.
• Tie the thread and walk the parikrama with care, naming your husband’s wellbeing with each round.
• Keep the vrat at whatever strictness your health allows, and follow a doctor’s word if you are pregnant, elderly or unwell.

What to avoid

• Avoid breaking or damaging branches of the vat tree; take only what is needed for the puja, with care, since the tree itself is worshipped.
• Avoid rushing the puja; the parikrama and the katha are meant to be kept slowly, with attention.

In Maharashtra, Gujarat and much of the south, where the Amanta calendar is kept, the same vrat is called Vat Purnima and falls at Jyeshtha Purnima, a full fortnight after the north’s Vat Savitri; this is a genuine difference in the day kept, not only in the month’s name, since one region worships at the dark-moon Amavasya and the other at the full-moon Purnima.

In the Amanta calendar, this same Krishna paksha Amavasya that North India keeps is named Vaishakh Krishna Amavasya, a month earlier than the north’s Jyeshtha; the day itself is the same, only the month’s name differs.