Ahoi Ashtami Puja Vidhi: Samagri and Steps at Home

The Ahoi Ashtami puja is a mother's fast for her children, kept from sunrise until the stars appear, with an evening worship of Ahoi Mata drawn on the wall beside a sehi (porcupine) and its cubs. In outline: take a sankalp in the morning, keep the fast through the day, draw or put up the Ahoi Mata picture, worship her at dusk with a kalash of water and hear the katha, then offer arghya to the stars and break the fast.

The day and the sunset time for your city are on the Ahoi Ashtami date page; this page does not repeat them, since they shift every year and from place to place.

Samagri: what to keep ready

• The Ahoi Mata picture: drawn on the wall with geru, or on paper, or a printed sheet; a wall drawing needs a patch cleaned and dried in the morning
• A kalash or lota of water; in many homes this is the same karwa used on Karwa Chauth
• Roli, haldi, akshat (unbroken rice), a few flowers, a little milk
• A diya with ghee or oil, a cotton wick, incense
• Wheat grains: a few for each woman to hold during the katha
• The bhog: puri, halwa, pua, or sweet mathri; some families make eight puris and eight puas for the eight of Ashtami
• A thali for the puja and a small bowl for the arghya
• The syau mala: a silver Ahoi pendant with silver beads on a red thread, if the family keeps one
• The baya for the mother-in-law: some of the bhog, a little money, sometimes a sari or a sweet
• A chowki or a clean mat to sit before the picture

None of this needs to be special. A plain steel lota is a good kalash, and a picture drawn by a child with a crayon is a perfectly good Ahoi Mata.

Step by step

1. Morning. Bathe, and if you like, eat a little before sunrise; many mothers drink water and eat something light at dawn. The fast runs from sunrise to the stars.
2. Sankalp. Sit facing east, hold a little water and a few grains of rice, and say in your own words that you are keeping the Ahoi Ashtami vrat for the health and long life of your children. Let the water fall.
3. The picture. Clean a patch of wall near the puja place or the kitchen. Draw Ahoi Mata with geru, and beside her the sehi and its young. Many women make an eight-cornered border, a little house, the children of the family, and stars or a moon. If you are using a printed picture, fix it on the wall or rest it on the chowki.
4. The kalash. Towards dusk, fill the kalash with water, mark a swastika on it with roli and tie a mauli thread round its neck. Place it before Ahoi Mata. Put the syau mala, if you have one, in the thali.
5. Ganesh first. Light the diya. Remember Ganesh with roli, akshat and a flower.
6. Ahoi Mata puja. Offer roli, haldi, akshat, flowers and a little milk to Ahoi Mata and to the sehi and her cubs in the picture. Offer the bhog of puri and halwa. Apply roli to the syau pendant and the beads.
7. Hear the katha. Sit with the wheat grains in your hand and hear or read the Ahoi Ashtami vrat katha. Children often sit with their mother.
8. The syau mala. After the katha, string any new bead onto the thread and put the mala on. Families who add a bead for a new child or each year do so now.
9. The baya. Touch your mother-in-law's feet and give her the baya. If she is not near, it goes to an elder woman of the family.
10. Arghya to the stars. When the first stars are clearly visible, take the kalash or a lota of water outside or to the roof with the wheat grains from the katha, offer the water towards the stars, and pray for your children.
11. Break the fast. Take water and a little of the bhog, then eat with the family.

Checking the time

Two things matter: an evening slot for the puja and the moment the stars become visible. The stars come out a little after sunset, depending on the sky, so the sunset time on the Ahoi Ashtami date page is the best guide. Families who break the fast with the moon can see the late moonrise for their city on the moonrise page. Some mothers like to start the puja in a good evening slot; the choghadiya for your city shows it. In towns with bright lights the first stars can be faint, so most mothers simply go by the sky and the sunset time together.

Customs families keep

These are customs, not conditions; your family's own way comes first.

• In many homes the mother avoids digging, gardening and cutting into the earth on this day, in memory of the story.
• The water from the Ahoi kalash is kept and, in some families, sprinkled around the house on Diwali or given to the children.
• The syau mala is often worn from Ahoi Ashtami until Diwali, then taken off, wrapped and kept safely until the next year.
• Some families make eight of each sweet, or eight puris, in honour of the Ashtami.
• The fast is kept for daughters as much as for sons, and women hoping for a child keep it too.
• Pregnant or nursing mothers, and anyone diabetic or unwell, keep it with water, milk or fruit, and do not wait late into the night.

Regional ways

• Uttar Pradesh and Delhi: the geru wall drawing is common, the fast ends with the stars, and the karwa from Karwa Chauth is reused as the Ahoi kalash in many homes.
• Haryana and Punjab: printed Ahoi pictures are widespread, and the baya to the mother-in-law is an important part of the evening.
• Braj: on this night many couples bathe in Radha Kund near Govardhan, praying for a child or giving thanks for one.
• Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh: the worship is much the same, with local differences in the picture and the bhog; in some families the fast ends at moonrise.

After the puja

Share the bhog with the children first. Keep the Ahoi picture on the wall until Diwali if it is drawn there; many families let it fade naturally. The next fasts and festivals of the season are Dhanteras and Diwali. Mothers who keep Jitiya in the Ashvin month will find its story familiar in spirit, and the wives' fast of the same fortnight is Karwa Chauth.