BY PRATIMA ACHREKAR | NT NETWORK
Monsoons rejuvenate the mind and soul. This season is marked with a series of festivities–yesterday was Sao Joao and today is Vat Pournima.
Vat Pournima is celebrated on the full moon day of the Hindu month of Jyeshta. On this day women pray for the well-being and long life for their husbands by winding threads around a banyan tree. The festival honours Savitri, the legendary wife of Satyavan, who brought her husband back from the dead.
“The Hindu mythology behind this ritual is that Savitri faced the God of Death, Yama, to recover the life of her husband (Satyavan). Married women fast for a day–a ritual practiced in honour of Savitri,” informs Mr Vinayak Pendse, a priest at Shantadurga Temple, Kavlem.
Giving added information, the priest said that women follow this fast to pray that they get the same man as their husband for the next seven births. Therefore they take seven rounds around the banyan tree, every round signifying one birth. On this moon day ‘vat Savitri puja’ is also observed in honour of Savitri.
But is there any scientific reason behind worshiping the Banyan tree during the rains? Not really, he says. “The festival comes during the monsoon because as per the Hindu calendar, Vat Pournima is celebrated on the full moon day of the Jyeshta month,” informed Mr Pendse.
Moreover, in this fast-paced world, how do these women still manage to make time to observe such rituals? More importantly, do they still follow this ritual? “There is lot of difference between then and now. Before women used to go to the banyan tree in the forest and perform pooja there. This also gave them the opportunity to be with other women and exchange news about their lives, share ideas and give and take advice regarding their marital life. However, nowadays hardly anyone has the time to go far away in search of a banyan tree. So the modern ritual is to buy a branch of the banyan tree and worship it at home. In addition, earlier women would wake up at five in the morning to perform this ritual, but today they do it at a time and place of their convenience,” adds Mr Pendse.
Lastly when asked whether unmarried girls can perform the rite, Pendse said that now for some girls it is a fashion to observe it, but as per tradition girls cannot perform this ritual.
The major rituals performed by the women on this day include arti, puja, reading books on ‘vat pournima’ and then distributing fruits among the women. The fruits served are jackfruit, mango, cucumber, grapes, apple and peas.
