Mangala Gauri Vrat (Shravan Tuesday)
मंगला गौरी व्रत (श्रावण मंगलवार)
The Mangala Gauri Vrat (मंगला गौरी व्रत) is kept on the Tuesdays of the holy month of Shravan in honour of Goddess Mangala Gauri — a form of Parvati (Gauri), the divine consort of Shiva. It is observed by newly married women for the long life and well-being of their husband and marital happiness, and by unmarried girls praying for a good spouse. Parvati herself won Shiva through penance, making Gauri the ideal deity for matters of marriage and devotion.
Fasting Rules & Vidhi
Keep the vrat on each Tuesday of Shravan; newly married women traditionally observe it for the first five years of marriage.
Bathe in the morning, wear clean festive clothes and (for married women) full shringar, and take a Sankalp.
Set up an idol or image of Mangala Gauri / Parvati with Shiva; offer 16 (solah) items — flowers, fruits, bangles, kumkum, mehndi, sixteen types of grains and sweets.
Keep a fast through the day — fruits and milk, or one meal without salt, as your tradition prescribes.
Read or listen to the Mangala Gauri Vrat Katha, recite the Gauri/Durga Chalisa, and chant "Om Gauryai Namah" or "Om Namah Shivaya" 108 times.
Perform the evening aarti and break the fast with the prasad. On completion (after the vow's years), do the Udyapan with a havan and by gifting the 16 items to a married woman or Brahmin.
Significance & Story
Gauri (Parvati) is the supreme example of devoted love: she undertook severe penance to win Lord Shiva as her husband, and so she is invoked for everything concerning marriage — a good spouse, marital harmony, progeny and the long life of one's partner. Observing her vrat through Shravan, the month most sacred to Shiva-Parvati, is held to bless the household with saubhagya (marital good fortune). The offering of sixteen items (solah shringar and sixteen of each article) reflects the completeness and auspiciousness that Gauri bestows.
Mangala Gauri Vrat (Shravan Tuesday) Katha (Vrat Story)
In a certain city lived a wealthy merchant named Dharmapal with his virtuous wife. They had riches in plenty but no child — and though they had kept every vrat, made every pilgrimage and given generous daan, the years passed without the blessing of a son. One day an old brahmani came to their door and was received with great warmth. Sensing the silent sorrow in the home, she asked the merchant's wife the cause of her grief, and the wife wept and told her of their childlessness.
The brahmani counselled her to keep the vrat of Mangala Gauri — Goddess Parvati as the auspicious Gauri — on the Tuesdays of Shravan, worshipping her with sixteen of every offering, for five years. The wife kept the Mangala Gauri vrat with deep faith, and in time was blessed with a son.
But when the astrologers cast the boy's horoscope, they foretold that he was short-lived — that he would die of a snakebite in his sixteenth year. As the fated time drew near, Dharmapal arranged his son's marriage to a beautiful and virtuous girl — and it so happened that the girl's own mother had kept the Mangala Gauri vrat faithfully all her life, so that her daughter was blessed with unbroken saubhagya, the good fortune of a long-married woman.
By the punya of that vrat and the bride's saubhagya, the snakebite was averted and the merchant's son was granted a long and happy life. This is why married women — and mothers praying for children and a good match — keep the Mangala Gauri vrat through Shravan, for marital happiness, progeny and the long life of their family.