West IndiaVrataSavitriMarathi · Gujarati · Maharashtra · Gujarat
Vat Purnima is the married woman's vrata of Maharashtra and Gujarat, kept on the full moon of Jyeshtha (June): a day's fast and the winding of sacred thread around the banyan (vat) tree, invoking Savitri, who won her husband Satyavan back from Yama himself. It is the western-Indian counterpart of the Vat Savitri vrat kept on the Jyeshtha Amavasya in the north.
When: Jyeshtha Purnima — the full moon of Jyeshtha (June); North India keeps the same vrata on Jyeshtha Amavasya, a fortnight earlier
Where: Maharashtra and Gujarat (Vad Purnima), and among Marathi and Gujarati families everywhere
Deity: Savitri and the vat (banyan) tree, revered as the seat of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva; the vrata is kept for the husband's long life
Observance: Day-long fast by married women, puja of the banyan with water, haldi-kunku and flowers, cotton thread wound around the trunk in circumambulations, and recitation of the Savitri-Satyavan katha
Regional name: Vat Purnima (Marathi) · Vad Purnima (Gujarati) · Vat Savitri Vrat on Amavasya in North India
Savitri, who argued with Death
The vrata rests on one of the Mahabharata's most cherished stories, told in the Vana Parva. Princess Savitri chose Satyavan for her husband knowing the sage Narada's prophecy that he had one year to live. When the day came and Yama, lord of death, carried away Satyavan's life, Savitri simply followed — through forest and dusk, answering Yama's every dismissal with words of such dharma and clarity that the god, pleased, granted her boons: sight for her blind father-in-law, his lost kingdom restored, a hundred sons for her own father, and a hundred sons for herself. Only when Yama granted that last boon did he see the trap his own justice had sprung — Savitri could bear no sons without her husband — and, conceding with grace, released Satyavan's life. Tradition holds that Satyavan revived beneath a vat, a banyan tree, which is why the banyan — itself an emblem of longevity, its aerial roots ever renewing it — receives the vrata's worship.
How the vrata is kept
On Jyeshtha Purnima, married women — savashinis — keep a fast, traditionally strict, for the long life and wellbeing of their husbands. Dressed in festive saris, green bangles and full solah-shringar, they gather at a banyan tree with a puja thali: water is poured at the roots, haldi-kunku, flowers, akshata and soaked gram are offered, and a cotton thread is wound around the great trunk as the women circle it — customarily in odd counts, with pradakshina traditions of five, seven or one hundred and eight rounds by family usage. The Savitri-Satyavan katha is read or told, and women bless one another with haldi-kunku; offerings of fruit and soaked gram are exchanged, and gifts may be given to elder women. In Gujarat the same day is Vad Purnima, kept in the same spirit. Many modern women observe the vrata as a shared prayer for the marriage itself, and some couples now fast together — a quiet evolution the tradition has absorbed comfortably.
Keeping Vat Purnima in Ottawa & Canada
The banyan does not grow in Canada, and the tradition has long-standing answers for exactly this situation: where no vat tree is available, women worship a branch or twig of banyan set in a pot, a small potted ficus of the same family, or an image of the tree drawn with rangoli or turmeric on a wall or board — the katha and the fast, not the botany, carry the vrata. An Ottawa household can keep the June fast on Jyeshtha Purnima (the site's Purnima calendar gives the local date, which can differ by a day from India), set up the symbolic vat at the home altar, wind the thread, read the Savitri katha aloud — an excellent story to give children in English — and end with haldi-kunku among friends. June's long Canadian evenings make an after-dinner gathering of families for the katha particularly pleasant.
Each link opens our computed festival calendar with exact dates and timings for your city.
Questions
What is the difference between Vat Purnima and Vat Savitri?
They are the same vrata with the same Savitri-Satyavan katha, kept on different tithis by regional tradition: Maharashtra and Gujarat observe it on Jyeshtha Purnima (the full moon), while North India — following the purnimanta month reckoning — keeps Vat Savitri on Jyeshtha Amavasya, a fortnight earlier. A family follows its own regional custom.
Why is the banyan tree worshipped in this vrata?
Tradition holds that Satyavan's life returned to him beneath a vat (banyan) tree, and the tree itself — long-lived, vast, endlessly self-renewing through its aerial roots — is revered as an abode of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva and a natural emblem of undying continuity. Winding the thread around its trunk binds the prayer for the husband's long life to that living symbol.
Can the vrata be kept where no banyan tree grows?
Yes. Established custom allows worship of a banyan branch set in a pot, a potted plant of the ficus family, or a drawn or rangoli image of the tree where the tree itself is unavailable. The essentials are the fast, the puja, the thread and the katha — all fully possible in a Canadian home.
Source: Household vrata tradition of Maharashtra and Gujarat. Regional versions may vary — this text follows the version most widely used in community worship.