Vat Savitri Vrat
वट सावित्री व्रत
Vat Savitri Vrat (वट सावित्री व्रत) is a fast kept by married women for the long life, health and prosperity of their husbands. Observed in the month of Jyeshtha, it commemorates Savitri, who by her devotion won back her husband Satyavan's life from Yama, the lord of death. Women worship the vat (banyan) tree, tying a sacred thread around it, and pray for unbroken marital good fortune (akhand saubhagya).
Fasting Rules & Vidhi
Married women keep a day-long fast (nirjala — without water — in the strict tradition).
Wear the 16 shringar (bridal adornments) and new or auspicious clothes.
Go to a vat (banyan) tree, offer water, roli, akshata and flowers, and circle it 7 times while winding a raw cotton thread (kaccha sutra) around the trunk.
Worship Savitri and Satyavan, offer fruit, bhiga chana (soaked gram), and a hand-fan, and listen to the Vat Savitri Vrat Katha.
Chant prayers for the husband's long life and offer the bel/banyan and pray to Goddess Savitri.
Break the fast after the puja, taking the soaked-gram and fruit prasad.
Significance & Story
Vat Savitri honours Savitri, the ideal of wifely devotion, who followed Yama and through her wisdom and steadfastness won back the life of her husband Satyavan. The banyan (vat) tree is worshipped because Satyavan regained his life beneath it, and the tree symbolises longevity and the enduring bond of marriage. Married women keep the vrat for their husband's long life, health and a happy, lasting marriage.
Vat Savitri Vrat Katha (Vrat Story)
King Ashvapati of Madra, long childless, worshipped the goddess Savitri and was blessed with a radiant daughter whom he named Savitri. When she came of age, her father bade her choose her own husband. She chose Satyavan — the noble, virtuous son of a blind, exiled king living in the forest. But the sage Narada warned that, for all his goodness, Satyavan was destined to die exactly one year from that day. Unshaken, Savitri replied that a woman gives her heart but once, and she married Satyavan.
She lived devotedly in the forest, serving her husband and his blind parents. As the fated day neared, Savitri took a severe three-day fast. On the appointed day she followed Satyavan as he went to gather wood. Beneath a great banyan (vat) tree he grew weary, laid his head in her lap, and his life departed. Then came Yama, the lord of death, to carry away his soul.
Savitri followed Yama, step after unyielding step, refusing to turn back. Moved by her devotion and wisdom, Yama offered her boons — anything but the life of Satyavan. First she won back her father-in-law's sight and lost kingdom; then a hundred sons for her own father. At last, pleased, Yama granted that she herself would be the mother of a hundred sons. Gently Savitri reminded him that this could not be without her husband — and Yama, bound by his own word and her cleverness, relented and restored Satyavan to life.
Savitri returned to the banyan tree, where Satyavan awoke as if from sleep, and every boon came true. This is why, on Vat Savitri, married women circle and worship the banyan tree, winding a sacred thread around it and praying — as Savitri did — for the long life of their husbands.