অহোই অষ্টমী

অহোই অষ্টমী সম্পর্কে

তাৎপর্য

Ahoi Ashtami is a mothers’ fast for the long life and welfare of their children, kept on the eighth day of the waning fortnight, four days after Karva Chauth. It is addressed to Ahoi Mata, a form of the mother goddess whom most households identify with Parvati, and its worship takes place at dusk, when the first stars appear.

The vrata belongs to folk (lokachara) tradition and has no chapter of its own in the Dharmashastra digests. Its best-known katha tells of a woman who, digging earth near her home before Diwali, accidentally killed the cub of a porcupine (sehi); her sons died one after another until, on the advice of older women, she kept this fast and worshipped Ahoi with the image of the sehi and its young, and her sons were restored. Versions differ between families, and many now keep the fast for daughters as well as sons.

কীভাবে ও কোথায় পালিত হয়

The fast is kept mainly in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh. At Radha Kund near Govardhan in Mathura district the same night is known as Bahula Ashtami, and couples bathe in the kund around midnight, a custom traditionally associated with the wish for a child.

আচার-অনুষ্ঠান

An image of Ahoi Mata is drawn on a wall in ochre (geru) or set up as a printed picture, usually with the sehi, its cubs and seven sons around the goddess. Mothers fast from dawn, many without water, and in the evening offer water from a karva, often the one used at Karva Chauth, with grain, sweets and puris, and listen to the katha. In many families a silver pendant (syau) strung with beads, a bead added for each child, is worshipped and then worn until Diwali. The fast is usually broken after offering water to the stars; some families wait for the late moonrise instead.

তারিখ কীভাবে নির্ধারিত হয়

Ahoi Ashtami is Kartika Krishna Ashtami in the Purnimanta calendars of North India, which Amanta calendars name Ashvina Krishna Ashtami. With no ruling of its own in Nirnaya Sindhu or Dharma Sindhu, it is dated by the almanac convention that suits its evening worship: the Ashtami must prevail at Pradosh, the period from sunset lasting a fifth of the night. If Ashtami covers Pradosh on two evenings, the evening with the greater coverage is taken; if on neither, the day on which Ashtami prevails longest.

উৎস

• Ahoi Ashtami vrata-katha (North Indian household tradition, printed vrata-katha collections)
• Nirnaya Sindhu and Dharma Sindhu: no ruling of their own for this lokachara vrata; dated by the almanac Pradosh convention

অঞ্চল, সম্প্রদায় ও পরিবারভেদে রীতি আলাদা হয়; এই বিবরণ পটভূমি মাত্র, কোনো বিধান নয়। ওপরের তারিখটি এই পাতায় দেখানো নিয়ম অনুযায়ী গণনা করা।