सनातन पुस्तकालय Sanatan Cultural Library

The katha, told from the Skanda Purana tradition, begins with a slight: Gowri, seated beside Shiva, was teased that she held no share in her lord's own being. Resolving to become inseparable from him in the most literal sense, she sought the counsel of the sages, who taught her the Kedara vrata — austere worship of Shiva as Kedareswara, lord of Kedara. Gowri kept the vrata with perfect devotion, and Shiva, pleased beyond measure, granted her the unmatched boon: the left half of his own body. Thus arose Ardhanarishvara, the Lord who is half Goddess, the icon of the inseparability of Shiva and Shakti. The katha continues with the tale of Bhringi, the devotee who would honour Shiva alone and circumambulate only him — until the united form left him no way to exclude the Goddess, teaching that the two cannot be worshipped apart.

In its full form the vrata runs twenty-one days, beginning in the bright fortnight of Ashwayuja and culminating on Deepavali amavasya; households today most commonly perform the concluding pooja as a single day's observance, and family custom decides the span. A kalasha is dressed and Kedareswara invoked in it, often with a lingam or image of Shiva–Gowri beside it. The number twenty-one patterns the worship: a doram of twenty-one threads with twenty-one knots is placed at the deity's feet, and offerings — flowers, bilva leaves, fruits, and naivedyam such as purnam boorelu or family sweets — are made in twenty-ones where possible. After shodashopachara pooja the katha is read, and the doram is tied on the right wrist for men and left for women, worn as Kedareswara's protection. Both husband and wife traditionally take part, and the vrata concludes with udyapana after the years a family has vowed.

As a household kalasha vrata, this observance transfers readily to a Canadian home. The date is tied to Deepavali amavasya, so use a panchang computed for Ottawa — the amavasya can fall a calendar day away from Indian listings, and Deepavali week here often lands on working days, in which case the pooja is traditionally done in the evening with the sankalpa made that morning. The 21-knot doram is easily prepared at home from cotton thread and turmeric. Families keeping the full 21-day form can maintain a simple daily worship — lamp, japa of Om Namah Shivaya, one offering — with the elaborate pooja on the final day. Since the vrata's own teaching is the unity of Shiva and Gowri, couples here often keep it together on the Deepavali weekend, joining it naturally to the season's Lakshmi pooja.