Solah Somvar Puja Vidhi: Samagri, Steps and Udyapan

The Solah Somvar vrat is a fast on sixteen consecutive Mondays for Shiva and Parvati, with a simple home or temple puja, an abhishek of water and milk, bel leaves, the hearing of the katha, and a churma prasad divided in three parts. In outline: take a sankalp on the first Monday, worship Shiva and Parvati each Monday, hear the katha, divide the prasad, eat once, and on the seventeenth Monday hold the udyapan.

Many begin in Shravana, and the Sawan Mondays for the year are on the Sawan Somvar date page. The story read every Monday is on the Solah Somvar katha page.

Samagri: what to keep ready

• A small Shiva linga, or a picture of Shiva and Parvati; many go to a nearby temple instead
• A lota of clean water, Ganga water if you have it
• Raw milk, and for a fuller abhishek curd, honey, ghee and sugar
• Bel patra (bilva leaves), ideally with three leaflets, washed and unbroken
• White flowers, dhatura or aak flowers if available, akshat, chandan
• For Parvati: a red chunri, kumkum, bangles or a few shringar items
• A ghee diya, incense, camphor
• Churma ingredients: wheat flour, ghee, jaggery or sugar
• A copy of the katha

Nothing here needs to be costly. A lota of water and a few bel leaves on a temple linga are a complete offering.

Step by step: each Monday

1. First Monday: the sankalp. After bathing, sit before Shiva with water, akshat and a bel leaf in the right hand, and say in your own words that you are keeping sixteen Mondays, for whom and with what wish. On later Mondays a short prayer is enough.
2. Make the churma. Knead a stiff dough of wheat flour and ghee, make thick rotis or balls and cook them slowly, then crumble them and mix with ghee and jaggery or sugar. Some families shape the churma into ladoos.
3. Abhishek. Pour water slowly over the linga while saying Om Namah Shivaya, then raw milk, then water again. Families who do a fuller abhishek add curd, honey, ghee and sugar between the water.
4. Shiva-Parvati puja. Offer chandan, akshat, white flowers and bel patra to Shiva, smooth side down, and kumkum, the chunri and shringar to Parvati. Light the diya and incense.
5. Offer the prasad. Place the churma before Shiva and Parvati.
6. Hear the katha. Read or listen to the Solah Somvar katha, holding a few grains of rice or a flower, and offer them at the end.
7. Aarti. Sing the aarti Om Jai Shiv Omkara.
8. Divide the prasad. As custom, divide the churma into three parts: one for Shiva, given to a cow or kept at the shrine; one shared with those present; one eaten by the person fasting.
9. The rest of the day. Many eat only the prasad, or one simple meal after the evening puja, avoiding salt in some families.

The udyapan on the seventeenth Monday

1. Do the full puja as on other Mondays, with a larger abhishek if you like.
2. Prepare a larger quantity of churma; some families make it with a fixed amount of flour set by family custom.
3. Many families do a small havan, or invite a priest to do it.
4. Feed a priest, a married couple, or family and neighbours according to custom, and share the churma widely.
5. Thank Shiva and Parvati, and remember the apsaras of the story who first passed the vrat on.

Checking the time

The Monday puja is usually done in the morning after bathing, or in the evening at pradosh, the period around sunset that many hold dear to Shiva. There is no fixed muhurat. Families who avoid rahu kaal check the Monday rahu kaal for their city, which on Mondays falls in the morning in most places, and begin before or after it. For a good starting window the choghadiya is useful. To choose the first Monday or the seventeenth, look at the panchang for the tithi and to see whether a Monday is also a Pradosh day, which many consider especially fitting.

Customs families keep

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

• Many begin in Sawan or Kartik, and few begin during the inauspicious months that a family's priest advises against.
• If a Monday is missed because of illness, travel or a period, many simply keep the next one and add a Monday at the end.
• Some avoid salt on the vrat Mondays; others eat one ordinary vegetarian meal.
• Unmarried girls often keep the vrat hoping for a good husband, and married couples keep it together.
• Bel leaves are not plucked on Mondays in some families, so they are gathered the day before.
• The fast can be light: fruit and milk are taken by many, and pregnant, unwell or older people eat as needed. A doctor's advice comes first.

Regional ways

• Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh: the churma prasad, temple jalabhishek on Monday mornings, and the katha read at home.
• Rajasthan: churma is especially loved, and the udyapan is often a family gathering with dal-bati-churma.
• Delhi, Haryana and Punjab: the vrat is very popular with young women, often started in Sawan alongside the Mangla Gauri vrat on Tuesdays.
• Maharashtra and Gujarat: Shravan Mondays are widely kept; the sixteen-Monday vrat follows the same pattern, often with a sheera prasad.

After the puja

Pour the abhishek water at the root of a plant, keep the dried bel leaves for immersion, and share the churma. A related story is the Pradosh vrat katha, the evening fast for Shiva on the thirteenth tithi.