Vat Savitri 2026 Date

About Vat Savitri

On the Jyeshtha new moon, married women tie raw thread around a banyan trunk and circle it seven times — re-enacting Savitri, the princess who argued the god of death Yama into returning her husband Satyavan from under that very tree.

The story comes from the Mahabharata's Vana Parva, told by sage Markandeya to Yudhishthira. Savitri, daughter of King Ashwapati, chose the exiled prince Satyavan even after the sage Narada warned her he had only a year to live. On the fated day he collapsed while cutting wood under a banyan — which is why the Vat tree is worshipped, not any other. Yama carried his soul away, but Savitri followed and out-argued him. He offered boons on the condition that she not ask for Satyavan's life back. She asked instead for her blind father-in-law's sight and kingdom, a son for her own father, and sons of her own — a request Yama could not grant without releasing her husband. In Odisha the day is called Sabitri Brata; women break the fast by sipping water used to wash their husband's feet.