Vat Purnima 2025 Date

About Vat Purnima

On Jyeshtha Purnima, married women in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa tie raw thread around a banyan trunk and circle it seven times — one round for each of the seven lifetimes in which they ask for the same husband. The day marks Savitri's argument with Yama under that very tree.

The story comes from the Mahabharata's Vana Parva. Savitri chose Satyavan despite sage Narada's warning that he would die within a year. When Yama came to take his soul, Savitri followed. She won three boons through her arguments — and used the third to ask for sons by Satyavan, which forced Yama to return him to life. The encounter is said to have taken place beneath a banyan, which is why the tree itself receives worship. The banyan is chosen for more than the story. Its aerial roots keep dropping and re-rooting, so the tree effectively never dies — a living image of the long life women ask for. Maharashtrian tradition identifies its three parts with the Trimurti: Brahma in the roots, Vishnu in the trunk, Shiva in the branches. Women offer soaked chana, mango and water at the base.