Hartalika Teej

About Hartalika Teej

Significance

Hartalika Teej honours Parvati’s resolve to win Shiva as her husband. The vrata-katha recited on the day, traditionally attributed to the Bhavishya Purana, tells that her father Himavan had promised her to Vishnu; distressed, Parvati was led away by a friend into a forest cave, where she made a linga of sand and worshipped Shiva in fasting and vigil on the Tritiya of Bhadrapada, until Shiva accepted her. The name is explained from harat, carried off, and alika, a woman friend.

The vrata therefore celebrates devotion and steadfast choice in marriage. Married women traditionally keep it for the long life and welfare of their husbands and the harmony of the household, and unmarried girls in the hope of a husband of their choice, following Parvati’s example. The fruits ascribed to it in the katha are matters of faith, kept in that spirit.

How and where it is observed

The vrat is kept in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra, where it falls the day before Ganesh Chaturthi, and in Nepal, where Haritalika Teej is a major women’s festival with gatherings at Pashupatinath. On the same tithi Karnataka keeps Gowri Habba and Andhra Pradesh and Telangana the Swarna Gowri vratam, both worshipping Gauri on the eve of Ganesha’s festival.

Rituals

Women traditionally keep a nirjala fast, without food or water, from sunrise until the next morning. Images of Shiva and Parvati, and often of the friend, are shaped from sand or clay and worshipped with bel leaves, flowers, fruits and the adornments of a married woman; the women dress in new clothes, often green or red, apply mehndi and hear the katha together. Many keep vigil through the night with songs and bhajans, and the fast is broken after the morning worship, when the images are immersed.

How the date is fixed

Hartalika Teej is Bhadrapada Shukla Tritiya, the same month name in the Amanta and Purnimanta calendars. The deciding time is Pratahkal, the first fifth of the daytime after sunrise. The Nirnaya Sindhu rules that Hartalika is kept on the Tritiya joined with Chaturthi, never on the one joined with Dwitiya, so when Tritiya touches the morning of two days the later day is taken. If it touches only one morning, that day is taken; if it touches neither, the day on which it prevails longest.

Sources

• Nirnaya Sindhu, Pariccheda 2, Bhadrapada (Hartalika-nirnaya: the Chaturthi-joined Tritiya)
• Vrata Raja (Haritalika-vrata and its katha)
• Bhavishya Purana (Haritalika vrata-katha, as traditionally attributed)

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.