Savitri Brata 2023: Married women keep fast, pray for husband’s long life and wellbeing
Hindu Odia married women are observing the Savitri Brata by keeping fast and praying for the long life and wellbeing of their husbands.
Bhubaneswar: All the Hindu Odia married women are observing the Savitri Brata or Savitri Amavasya today. They observe this auspicious day by keeping fast and praying for the long life and wellbeing of their husbands.
As per tradition, the married women early in the morning take purifying baths, wear new clothes and bangles, and apply vermilion to their foreheads. Then they visit different temples and offered Bhoga (offering), which is consists of wet pulses, rice, dates, mangos, jackfruits, palm fruits, kendu, bananas, and several other fruits, and observe the festival with Savitri Vrata Katha.
While fasting during the day, they listen to the story of Savitri and Satyavan. In the afternoon, when formalities of worship are over, they bow to their husbands and elderly people.
Savitri was the beautiful daughter of king Aswapati of Madra Desa. She selected Satyaban as her life partner, a prince in exile who was living in the forest with his blind father Dyumatsen.
Savitri left the palace and lived with her husband and the in-laws in the forest. As a devoted wife and daughter-in-law, she went to great lengths to take care of them.
One day while cutting wood in the forest, Satyaban’s head reeled and he fell down from a tree. Sabitri accompanied him on that day. Then Yamraj, the death God, appeared to take away his soul. However, Sabitri pleaded him not to be separate her husband from her and said if he would take away the soul of her husband, she would also follow. Moved by the devotion of Sabitri, Yamraj returned the life of her husband.
Ms Kalinga