অনন্ত চতুর্দশী

About অনন্ত চতুর্দশী

Significance

Anant Chaturdashi is the worship of Vishnu as Ananta, the Endless, who rests on the serpent Ananta Shesha, on the fourteenth day of the bright half of Bhadrapada. The vrata centres on the Ananta sutra, a cord of fourteen knots that is worshipped and then tied on the arm as a sign of the vow, traditionally believed to protect the wearer and to restore lost fortune.

The Bhavishya Purana (Uttara Parva) tells, as Krishna’s counsel to the exiled Yudhishthira, the story of Sushila and her husband, the sage Kaundinya: Sushila kept the Ananta vrata and the household prospered, but Kaundinya, taking the cord on her arm for a charm, threw it into the fire and fell into misfortune, until after long wandering he found Ananta and was forgiven. Some families keep the vrata for fourteen years in succession.

How and where it is observed

The vrata is kept across North India, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Odisha and Bihar, often by families with a hereditary vow. In Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and parts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana the day is best known as the close of Ganeshotsav, when the public and household images of Ganesha installed on Ganesh Chaturthi are carried in procession for immersion; in Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad the processions last through the night. For Digambara Jains it is the last day of the ten-day Das Lakshana Parva.

Rituals

An image of Ananta is made of darbha grass, often with seven hoods, and set over a pot of water representing the ocean on which Vishnu rests, and it is worshipped with fourteen kinds of offerings. The cord of fourteen knots, dyed with turmeric or saffron, is consecrated and tied on the right arm by men and the left by women, and the katha of Sushila and Kaundinya is read. Many observers eat a single meal, in some families without salt, and offer puris or malpuas to the deity.

How the date is fixed

Anant Chaturdashi is Bhadrapada Shukla Chaturdashi, the same month in both reckonings. Following Nirnaya Sindhu and Dharma Sindhu, the Chaturdashi is taken at sunrise, provided it lasts at least three muhurtas (each a fifteenth of the daytime) after sunrise; if it lasts less than that, the previous day, on which Chaturdashi began, is kept. If Chaturdashi is present at two sunrises, the first day, which it covers entirely, is taken. Some almanacs, and the Ganesh immersion custom, keep the sunrise day even when the Chaturdashi is that short, so the two can differ in such years.

Sources

• Bhavishya Purana, Uttara Parva: Ananta-vrata (Sushila and Kaundinya)
• Nirnaya Sindhu, Pariccheda 2, Bhadrapada Shukla Chaturdashi (Ananta-vrata)
• Dharma Sindhu, Pariccheda 2, Ananta-chaturdashi

Customs differ between regions, communities and families; this description is background, not a prescription. The date above is calculated by the rule shown on this page.