The Santoshi Mata vrat is a Friday fast for the goddess of contentment, kept with a simple puja, an offering of jaggery and roasted gram, and the hearing of her katha, usually for sixteen Fridays in a row. In outline: on the first Friday take a sankalp for the number of Fridays, each Friday set up the kalash and the goddess's picture, offer gur-chana, hear the story, sing the aarti, avoid sour food for the day, and after the last Friday hold an udyapan feeding eight boys.
The vrat has no festival date of its own, since any Friday can begin it; many who keep it also keep Sharad Navratri, and the year's other festivals are in the festival calendar. The story read each Friday is on the Santoshi Mata katha page.
Samagri: what to keep ready
- A picture or small image of Santoshi Mata
- A chowki with a red cloth
- A kalash or lota of water, with a small bowl on its mouth
- Gur and chana: a little jaggery and roasted gram, in a small bowl; this is placed in the bowl on top of the kalash
- Roli, haldi, akshat, red flowers, a small garland
- A ghee diya and incense
- A copy of the katha
- For the udyapan: ingredients for puri, a dry chana sabzi, kheer or halwa, and small gifts or a bit of money for eight boys, with nothing sour in the menu
That is all. The vrat began as a puja anyone could do with a few coins, and it still needs no more than that.
Step by step: each Friday
- Bath and sankalp. On the first Friday, bathe early, sit before the picture and, with water and akshat in your right hand, say in your own words the number of Fridays you will keep and your wish, if you have one. On later Fridays a short prayer is enough.
- Set up the puja. Place the picture on the chowki. Fill the kalash, put the small bowl on its mouth, and put the gur-chana in the bowl.
- Worship the goddess. Offer roli, haldi, akshat and flowers. Light the diya and incense.
- Hear the katha. Hold a few grains of gur and chana in your hand and read or listen to the katha. Families often read together, children included.
- Aarti. Sing the aarti Jai Santoshi Mata, then offer the grains you were holding.
- The water and prasad. Many women sprinkle the kalash water around the house and pour the rest at the root of a tulsi plant. The gur-chana is shared as prasad, and a little is often given to a cow.
- The day. Take one simple meal or fruit during the day, avoiding anything sour, and give no sour food to others from your hand that day.
The udyapan
After the last Friday of the vow, on the next Friday, the udyapan is held:
- Do the usual puja and hear the katha.
- Cook puri, chana and kheer or halwa, with nothing sour, not even curd or lemon in the dishes.
- Invite eight boys, often from the family or neighbourhood, and serve them the meal with love.
- Give each a small gift, a fruit, or a sweet in place of money, if you like; many families avoid giving cash, remembering the story.
- Offer thanks to the goddess and share the prasad.
Checking the time
The Friday puja is usually done in the morning after bathing, and there is no fixed muhurat. Families who prefer to avoid rahu kaal check the Friday rahu kaal for their city, which falls in the late morning on Fridays in most places, and begin before or after it. Those who like to start in a good period can look at the choghadiya. For the first Friday or for the udyapan, some families also check the panchang so that the day does not fall on Amavasya or during the family's own observances.
Customs families keep
These are customs, not conditions; your family's practice comes first.
- No sour food on the day: no tamarind, lemon, curd, pickle, raw mango or anything soured. Many extend this to everyone in the house; others keep it only for the person fasting.
- If a Friday is missed because of travel, illness or a period, many simply continue the next week and count that Friday later.
- The eight boys at the udyapan are not given money in many homes; a fruit or a toy is given instead.
- Some women wear red or orange on the vrat Fridays.
- The fast is light by design. Pregnant, unwell or older women can keep only the puja and the katha without fasting; the tradition allows it.
Regional ways
- Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh: the most widespread form, with the gur-chana bowl on the kalash and the katha read from small printed books.
- Rajasthan: the vrat is very popular, and there are temples dedicated to Santoshi Mata in many towns where women gather on Friday mornings.
- Gujarat and Maharashtra: the vrat is kept in many homes with the same pattern; the udyapan meal may follow local habits but always without anything sour.
- In some families the udyapan is done with seven or eleven children rather than eight, according to their own custom.
After the puja
Share the gur-chana with anyone at home and keep the picture in its place for the next Friday. Related kathas are the Satyanarayan katha and the Solah Somvar katha, the Monday vrat kept for sixteen weeks.