Vat Savitri observed across Mithila

BY BINAY KARNA/JAY KRISHNA YADAV

Kalyanpur/Inaruwa, May 17: Married Hindu women across the Mithila region observed the Vat Savitri fast with religious devotion on Saturday, praying for the long life, good health and prosperity of their husbands.

The festival, popularly known as Vat Savitri or Barsait, was celebrated in districts including Saptari and Sunsari with married women gathering around banyan trees to perform rituals rooted in Hindu tradition.

Dressed in colourful traditional attire and ornaments, married women in Saptari district, from newlyweds to elderly devotees, observed day-long fasting and worshipped banyan trees, which are regarded in Maithili culture as symbols of husbands, stability and longevity. They celebrate the festival, wishing for eternal good fortune, children's happiness, and the long life of their husbands. 

Likewise, in several places, women gathered at public sites where banyan trees stood, while others worshipped banyan saplings placed in pots at their homes and courtyards.

In Inaruwa, women celebrated the festival collectively by wrapping yellow and red sacred threads around banyan trees seven times and offering prayers for marital happiness and family prosperity. According to devotee Mamata Kumari Yadav, newly married women are traditionally required to celebrate their first Barsait festival at their husband’s home.

As part of the rituals, women performed ‘Nahaya Khaya’ on the eve of the festival by taking ritual baths and eating pure vegetarian food. Early Saturday morning, devotees dressed in red, yellow and other bright colours gathered beneath banyan trees along with their husbands to perform worship rituals. If available, devotees perform puja where both banyan and bodhi trees stand nearby, and in places where bodhi trees were unavailable, branches of the sacred bodhi tree were placed near banyan trees to symbolically represent both.

During the worship, female priests chanted mantras while devotees offered sprouted gram, rice, fruits and coconuts at the roots of the banyan tree. Women also circumambulated the tree and their husbands while offering water and tying sacred threads around the tree. In some communities, women waved handheld fans toward their husbands and recited the story of Savitri and Satyavan beneath the tree.

Observed every year on the day of Jestha Aunsi (no moon), the festival traditionally involves women observing a fast after worshipping the banyan tree.

According to Hindu scriptures, including the Skanda Purana and the Agni Purana, Goddess Savitri regained the life of her deceased husband Satyavan from Yamaraj through devotion, fasting and worship of the banyan tree.

Priest Kamala Kanta Jha said married women continue to observe the fast in honour of Savitri’s devotion, believing that worshipping and circumambulating the banyan tree brings blessings for marital harmony, happiness and longevity.