Hartalika Teej 2028: Date, Vrat Vidhi & Significance

The fast is broken the next morning, after the images are immersed and a final Gauri-Shiva puja is done, with charnamrit and fruit, then a sattvic meal.

It is the strictest of the three Teej fasts of the monsoon — Hariyali, Kajari and Hartalika — kept nirjala, without food or water, for roughly a full day and night, with a jagran.

The name is read as harat (carrying off) plus aalika (a female friend): Parvati's companions took her to the forest so her father could not marry her to Vishnu, and there she did tapas and made a Shiva-linga of sand, winning Shiva as her husband.

Married women keep it for the husband's long life and an unbroken marriage; unmarried women for a good husband. It is a shringar day — the sixteen adornments, mehndi, green-and-red bangles and clothes, and swings.

Hartalika Teej is a women's Gauri vrat, strongest in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, and among Marwari and Bihari communities across India.

In Nepal, Teej (Haritalika) is the largest women's festival of the year — the red sari, days of song and dance, and the queue at Pashupatinath.

The Gauri processions of Bundelkhand and Rajasthan, in which an image of the goddess is carried and swung, are an old public form of the same tithi.

• Skanda Purana — the Hartalika vrata and its phalashruti
• Nibandha literature on the Bhadrapada Shukla Tritiya Gauri vrata
• Nepali Teej tradition — the largest women's festival of the year

1. The fast is kept nirjala from the previous night or sunrise; the day is spent in the sixteen shringar, mehndi and green clothes, without food or water.
2. In the pradosh (early evening) a bedi is set and images of Shiva, Parvati and Ganesha are made of river sand or clay, given prana-pratishtha, and worshipped with bel patra, dhatura, shami, kevada and champa flowers, and the sixteen shringar items offered to Parvati.
3. The Hartalika Vrat Katha is heard with its aarti, and a night vigil is kept with bhajan.
4. The next morning, after the katha and a final aarti, the images are immersed and the fast is broken.

Phala: An unbreakable marriage and akhand saubhagya for the married; a husband like Shiva for the unmarried — by the katha, the same grace Parvati won.

Parvati, reborn as the daughter of the Himalaya after her life as Sati, resolved to have Shiva again and undertook severe penance. The sage Narada persuaded her father, Himavan, to promise her to Vishnu.

Distraught, Parvati confided in her sakhi, who led her away to a forest cave. There, on the night of the Bhadrapada Shukla Tritiya, she made a linga of river sand and worshipped it without food or water until dawn. Shiva appeared and granted that she would be his wife; Himavan, when he found her, accepted, and the marriage followed.

Shiva declared that any woman who kept this vrat as Parvati had kept it would gain a marriage that could not be broken. That is the Hartalika vrat.

Source: Skanda Purana; the Hartalika Vrat Katha

1. Sankalpa. Bathe and, in green clothes with the sixteen shringar, take the vow to keep the nirjala Hartalika Teej vrat for the husband's long life or for a good husband; name the tithi, paksha and month.
2. The day's fast. Take no food and no water through the day and night. No anger or untruth, no daytime sleep; keep to Gauri-Shiva smarana and the company of other women keeping the vrat.
3. Evening image-making and puja. In the pradosh set a bedi and make images of Shiva, Parvati and Ganesha of river sand or clay; do prana-pratishtha and worship with bel patra, dhatura, shami, kevada and champa, and offer the sixteen shringar to Parvati.
4. Katha and jagran. Hear the Hartalika Vrat Katha with its aarti; keep the night awake with bhajan and the retelling of Parvati's tapas.
5. Visarjan and parana. The next morning, after the katha and a final aarti, immerse the images in water; break the fast with charnamrit and fruit, then a sattvic meal.

• River sand or black clay for the images, and a wooden bedi with a red cloth
• Bel patra, dhatura, shami, kevada and champa flowers, tulsi and durva
• The sixteen shringar items and a green chunri for Parvati
• Roli, akshat, kumkum, sindoor, a ghee lamp, incense and camphor
• Fruit, sattu and sweets for the parana and for sharing
• The Hartalika Teej Vrat Katha book

• Keep the fast nirjala for the day and night (a phalahar form where health does not allow).
• No daytime sleep, no anger, no untruth; keep the sixteen shringar and, for married women, the mangalsutra and sindoor.
• Hear the Hartalika Vrat Katha before the parana.
• Keep the vrat every year once it has been begun, where that is the family custom.
• Immerse the sand images the next morning; do not leave them unattended overnight.

Who should not keep this fast: Pregnant and nursing women, the ill, the elderly and anyone for whom a waterless day-and-night fast is unsafe should keep a phalahar (fruit and water) form and consult a doctor. The vrat asks for devotion, not for harm to the woman keeping it.

• Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand. The nirjala fast, the sand images and the night jagran; married women in green and red, and a return to the natal home in some families.
• Rajasthan and Bundelkhand. Teej processions of Gauri on a palanquin, with swings, ghewar and folk songs; the palace Teej of Jaipur.
• Nepal. The Dar khane din (a pre-fast feast) the evening before, then the red-sari fast and dancing, and darshan at Pashupatinath and the local Shiva temples.

• Dar / sargi the night before — In many traditions a rich meal is eaten the evening before, after which the nirjala fast begins; ghewar and kheer are typical.
• Nothing during the vrat — Nirjala — no food and no water for the day and night until the parana.
• Parana meal — Broken the next morning with charnamrit and fruit, then a sattvic meal; sweets and sattu are shared.

Hartalika Teej is kept on the day when Tritiya of Bhadrapada Shukla paksha prevails at sunrise. This year it falls on Tuesday, 22 August 2028. Tritiya does not hold at sunrise on any of the nearby days. Tritiya begins after sunrise on Tuesday, 22 August and ends before the next sunrise.

at sunrise

Tithi skipped (kshaya)

Hartalika Teej is the Shukla Tritiya of Bhadrapada — the third tithi of the waxing fortnight, a thin waxing crescent 24°–36° ahead of the Sun (sidereal Lahiri). The puja is kept in the pradosh, the period straddling sunset, and the Tritiya joined with the Hasta nakshatra is considered the best; where the tithi is short, the day whose pradosh the Tritiya covers is taken. The Sun stands in sidereal Simha or Kanya. The Gregorian date drifts about 11 days earlier each year and jumps back ~19 days in an adhika-month year.

A lunar date: Tritiya of the bright half of Bhadrapada drifts about 11 days earlier each solar year, then jumps back ~19 days when a leap (Adhika) month is inserted.