Madhushravani 2028: Date, Vrat Vidhi & Significance

Each morning the bride and her friends collect specific flowers and leaves; the day's puja is done and an elder woman tells that day's katha — the Bihula–Lakhindar snakebite legend, the stories of Gauri and Shiva, Nag-Nagin tales. On the final day comes the tem, an ordeal in which burning betel-leaf wicks or embers are pressed to the bride's knees and feet; the marks are read as a sign of her husband's love and long life. Naina-Jogin, Mangala Gauri and a rich sidha (gift of provisions) attend it.

Madhushravani teaches the new bride the ritual and story-world she is entering, over her first monsoon as a married woman. The central legend is of Bihula, whose husband Lakhindar died of snakebite on their wedding night, and who journeyed to the gods with his body until Manasa (Vishahari) restored his life — a charter-story of the wife's devotion holding death itself at bay.

Source: Regional / sectarian festival tradition and the sources named in the text

Madhushravani is a distinctively Maithil (Mithila, north Bihar and the Nepal Tarai) women's observance, described in Maithil folklore and ritual studies; the tem ordeal and the flower-gathering cycle are its most characteristic features.

• Wikipedia

1. Newly married women in Mithila keep this festival for about two weeks in their first Shravan, at their parents' home.
2. Each day they gather flowers (basi phool) to worship the snake deities and Gauri, and elder women tell the kathas of Shiva, Parvati and the Nagas.
3. On the last day the tem ritual is performed on the bride's knee, and gifts and clothes arrive from her husband's family.

• Mithila (north Bihar) and the Nepal Tarai. The new bride's fortnight-long vrat in her natal home — daily flower-gathering, Gauri and Nag-Vishahari puja, the story cycle, and the tem on the last day.

• Arwa bhojan — The bride eats a single saltless meal each day, sent from her husband's family.

Madhushravani is kept on the day when Panchami of Shravana Krishna paksha prevails at sunrise. That day is Wednesday, 12 July 2028. Panchami holds at sunrise only on this day.

at sunrise

Madhushravani runs through the fortnight of Shravana, from Krishna Panchami to Shukla Tritiya by the purnimanta reckoning of Mithila, in July or August.

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