Sheetala Ashtami, or Basoda, is kept by cooking the day's food on the evening before and offering it cold to Sheetala Mata on the Ashtami morning, with cool water, haldi and flowers. In short: cook on the Saptami, keep the stove unlit on the Ashtami as custom, worship the goddess and the neem with water, hear the katha, and eat the basi food together.
The date for your city is on the Sheetala Ashtami date page; the Ashtami at sunrise is what most families look for, and the panchang shows it. No times are written here, because they change from city to city.
Samagri: what to keep ready
Cooked on the Saptami evening (the basi food):
- Sweet rice (meethe chawal or rice cooked with jaggery), or curd-rice
- Puri, and in Rajasthan bajre ki roti or pua
- Rabri or thick sweetened milk
- Gulgule (sweet wheat-and-jaggery fritters) or malpua
- Curd, raita, and a dry sabzi that keeps well
- In some homes pakodi, kadhi or a sweet halwa
For the puja:
- A lota of cool water, and a small pot of water for the neem
- Haldi, roli or kumkum, akshat, mehendi, a few flowers
- Mauli (red thread)
- A lamp only if your family's custom allows one; many homes light none on this day
- An image or printed picture of Sheetala Mata, or a visit to her shrine
- Neem leaves
The puja, step by step
- The Saptami cooking. On the evening before, clean the kitchen and cook the next day's food. Keep a separate portion for the goddess, covered and set aside. Many families then wash and wipe the stove and leave it cold.
- Bath on the Ashtami. Wake early and bathe with cool water, as many families do on this day, and wear clean clothes.
- Set out the thali. Arrange a little of each dish on a thali, with the lota of water, haldi, roli, rice, flowers, mauli and mehendi.
- Worship Sheetala Mata. At home, place her picture on a clean cloth; or go with the thali to her shrine in the village or lane, often a simple stone daubed with sindoor under a neem. Pour cool water before her, apply haldi and roli, offer rice, flowers and mehendi, tie a little mauli, and set down the cool food as bhog. Remember the donkey, her vahana, who is often shown beside her.
- The neem. Pour water at the foot of a neem tree, and offer a little haldi and roli there. Many families touch their eyes with a drop of the offered water.
- Hear the katha. Sit together and hear the Sheetala Ashtami vrat katha of the old woman and the potter's wife. Some also recite the Sheetalashtakam.
- Prayer. Pray in your own words for health in the household, especially for the children.
- Back home. Many families sprinkle a little of the offered water around the house, and some put a haldi handprint by the door. Then the whole family eats the basi food.
Checking the time
There is no evening muhurat to wait for; the puja is done in the early morning while the Ashtami tithi runs. Look up the tithi at sunrise in the panchang. Those who visit a crowded temple sometimes choose a good morning window from the choghadiya. The date page explains how the day is set when the Ashtami is short or spans two sunrises.
Customs families keep
These are customs, not conditions. Your family's way comes first.
- No fire in the kitchen on the Ashtami, and only food made the day before.
- The kitchen and the house are swept and washed the day before, and the broom is honoured as one of the goddess's emblems.
- In some homes clothes are not washed and hair is not washed on the day.
- The basi food is shared with neighbours, relatives and anyone in need, and some is given to a donkey or a cow.
- Babies, the sick and older people eat what suits them, and food that needs heating is heated; the goddess is about health, not hardship.
- In some families a newly married bride or a mother with a new baby keeps the first Basoda with special care.
About health
The goddess was once prayed to during smallpox and fevers with rashes. Smallpox has been eradicated by vaccination, and any illness, fever or rash today is for a doctor; children's vaccines are the real protection the old prayers were asking for. Food that has stood overnight should be kept covered and cool, and anything that smells off is not eaten.
Regional ways
- Rajasthan: Basoda is one of the biggest days of the spring. The fair at the Sheetala Mata temple at Chaksu near Jaipur draws large crowds, and many towns hold melas. Bajre ki roti, rabri and ker-sangri are part of the cold meal.
- Gujarat: Shitala Satam falls on the dark Saptami of Shravana by the Gujarati calendar. The day before is Randhan Chhath, when every dish is cooked in advance; on Satam the stove rests and the family eats cold food.
- Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh: many families keep Basoda on the Saptami or Ashtami, depending on their custom, with puri, gulgule and sweet rice, and women go in groups to the Sheetala shrine.
- Haryana and Delhi: the Gurugram Sheetala Mata temple is crowded through this season, and mundan (first haircut) ceremonies are held there by many families.
After the puja
Share the bhog. The last festival before Basoda is Holi; read the Holika Dahan katha for the story of Prahlad, and for another mothers' Ashtami, Ahoi Ashtami.