ഹരിയാലി തീജ്

About ഹരിയാലി തീജ്

Significance

Hariyali Teej, the green Teej, celebrates the monsoon and the union of Shiva and Parvati. In the popular telling, Parvati performed long penance, over many births in some versions, to win Shiva as her husband, and he accepted her on this day; married women keep the fast for a happy married life and unmarried girls for a good husband. The Shiva Purana (Rudra Samhita, Parvati Khanda) tells of Parvati’s penance, while the Teej customs themselves are folk tradition.

Teej is one of three Gauri festivals of the rains: Hariyali Teej on Shravana Shukla Tritiya, Kajari Teej on the Krishna Tritiya that follows, and Hartalika Teej on Bhadrapada Shukla Tritiya. Hariyali Teej is also called Sindhara Teej, after the gifts sent to married daughters, and Shravani or Chhoti Teej.

How and where it is observed

The festival is most widely kept in Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab, where it is the women’s festival of Teeyan. In Jaipur a procession of Teej Mata sets out from the City Palace through the old city, as the Rajasthan Department of Tourism describes, and towns such as Bundi hold processions of their own. Nepal’s great Teej is the Bhadrapada Hartalika Teej rather than this one.

Rituals

Swings are hung from trees and in courtyards, and women in green clothes and bangles, with henna on their hands, swing and sing songs of the rains. Parents send a married daughter the sindhara of clothes, bangles, henna and sweets, especially ghewar. Many women fast, some without water, worship Parvati with Shiva, often with clay images or pictures, and hear the Teej katha before breaking the fast.

How the date is fixed

Hariyali Teej is Shravana Shukla Tritiya, the same month in Amanta and Purnimanta reckoning. With no ruling of its own in the Dharmashastra digests, it is dated by the almanac convention of the udaya tithi: the day on which Tritiya prevails at sunrise. If Tritiya is present at two sunrises, the first day is taken; if it touches no sunrise, the day that contains it. Hartalika Teej has its own Nirnaya Sindhu rule preferring the Chaturthi-joined day; calendars that apply that preference to Hariyali Teej as well would give the next day in such years.

Sources

• Shiva Purana, Rudra Samhita, Parvati Khanda (Parvati’s penance)
• Rajasthan Tourism (Government of Rajasthan): Fairs and Festivals (Teej, Jaipur)
• Nirnaya Sindhu, Bhadrapada (Hartalika Tritiya), for the contrast with the Chaturthi-joined rule

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.