Savitri Amavasya (Odisha)

About Savitri Amavasya (Odisha)

Significance

Savitri Amavasya, or Savitri Brata (Sabitri Brata in Odia), is the Odisha form of the Savitri vrata, kept by married women for the long life of their husbands and the welfare of their families. It honours Savitri, who by tradition followed Yama, the god of death, as he carried away the life of her husband Satyavan, and through devotion and reasoning won him back.

The story is told in the Mahabharata, Vana Parva, where the sage Markandeya narrates it, and in Odisha it is retold in the Odia Sabitri Brata katha that women read or hear on the day. The vrata is one of the many oshas and bratas of Odia household religion and appears in the Government of Odisha’s holiday list.

How and where it is observed

The vrata is kept throughout Odisha and by Odia families elsewhere. Its new moon is the same as that of the North Indian Vat Savitri, though the two can be dated a day apart, because the North Indian day is fixed by the Amavasya of the afternoon. The same day is also kept as Shani Jayanti. In Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka the Savitri vrata is kept instead on Jyeshtha Purnima, as Vat Purnima.

Rituals

Women bathe early, put on new clothes and bangles, and draw a long line of vermilion into the parting of the hair. No image of Savitri is made: a grinding stone (sila-pua) is set up to represent her and worshipped with turmeric, vermilion and flowers. Soaked pulses and rice and seasonal fruit such as mango, jackfruit and banana are offered as bhoga, and the katha is recited. Women fast from sunrise, some without water, bow to their husbands and elders after the worship, and break the fast after the evening prayer by eating the offering; where a banyan is near, many worship the tree as well.

How the date is fixed

Savitri Amavasya is Jyeshtha Amavasya, the end of Jyeshtha Krishna paksha in the Purnimanta calendar of Odisha; Amanta calendars call it Vaishakha Amavasya. Following the Odia convention for vratas, the day is the one on which Amavasya prevails at sunrise (udaya tithi), as in the Government of Odisha holiday lists. If Amavasya is present at two sunrises, the first is taken; if it touches no sunrise, the day within which it begins and ends. Because the North Indian Vat Savitri is decided by the afternoon, it can fall a day earlier, as in 2025, when Odisha kept 27 May and the North Indian day was 26 May.

Sources

• Mahabharata, Vana (Aranyaka) Parva, Pativrata-mahatmya: the story of Savitri and Satyavan
• Odisha Review (Government of Odisha), June 2013: the oshas and bratas of Odisha
• Government of Odisha holiday lists (Savitri Amavasya), 2022–2026
• Nirnaya Sindhu, Pariccheda 1: udaya tithi for snana, dana and vratas

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.