Vat Savitri Vrat is a day on which married women fast and worship the vat, the banyan tree, and remember the story of Savitri, who is held up as a model of devotion. The festival has two dates in the same season, because the northern and western calendars count the month of Jyeshtha differently. The tables below give both: the Amavasya vrat, kept in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi, and Vat Purnima, kept in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and parts of the south.
Two dates, one vrat
In the purnimanta calendar of north India, the month ends at the full Moon, and the dark fortnight that closes with Amavasya belongs to Jyeshtha. That Amavasya is therefore the Jyeshtha Amavasya of north India, and the day of Vat Savitri there. In the amanta calendar of the west and south, Jyeshtha is the month that follows, and its full Moon, about two weeks later, is Vat Purnima. The two festivals are the same vrat counted in two ways, and in a year with an extra (Adhika) month the table uses the regular Jyeshtha, not the extra one. The amanta and purnimanta guide explains the difference, and the Jyeshtha page describes the month. The tithis are on the Amavasya page and the Purnima page.
The story
The tradition tells of Savitri, the daughter of King Ashvapati, who chose to marry Satyavan, a prince living in exile in a forest, though the sage Narada told her he had only a year to live. When the day came, Savitri went with him into the forest. When Satyavan died, Yama, the god of death, came to take his life. Savitri followed Yama, and her steadfastness and wise words pleased him so much that he granted her several boons. In the last she asked for a hundred sons, which could only come true if Satyavan lived, and Yama returned him. The story comes from the Mahabharata, where it is told to Yudhishthira, and the banyan tree is linked to it as the place where Satyavan’s body lay.
How the vrat is kept
Women bathe and dress in new clothes, often red, wear bangles and sindoor, and go to a banyan tree with a plate of offerings: water, rice, flowers, fruit, roli and a thread. They walk around the tree, tying a cotton thread around its trunk several times, and listen to or read the story. Some fast for the whole day; in many families the fast is broken with fruit in the evening, and where no banyan is near, a drawn picture or a cut branch is used.
Different regions add their own customs. In Maharashtra some women keep the three days before Vat Purnima, and in Odisha the vrat is called Savitri Brata. Tamil Nadu has a related Savitri vrat, Karadaiyan Nonbu, at a different time of year.
How the days are fixed
Both days follow Drik Panchang. For the Amavasya vrat, the day is the one on which Amavasya is in force in the Madhyahna, the middle fifth of the day, and when it covers it on two days, the first. For Vat Purnima, the day is the one on which Purnima is in force at sunset, and when it is in force at the sunset of two days, the second. The tables give both dates for each city, with the times the tithi begins and ends.
Why cities differ
The tithi starts and ends at one instant, but midday and sunset are at different clock times in each city. A Purnima that runs from the afternoon to the evening of the next day can pass the sunset in two cities on different days. The table shows each city’s result, and the any-city tool works out the same for other places.
A calm note
A day-long fast is a personal vow, not a requirement. If you are pregnant, elderly, nursing or on medicine, a lighter fast is acceptable, and a doctor can advise. The tree, the thread and the story are the centre of the day, and your family’s own tradition comes first.