Somvati Amavasya 2023: According to the Panchang, today is the Amavasya date of Krishna Paksha of Kartik month. According to Hindu beliefs, bathing and donating on Amavasya Tithi has special significance. Somvati Amavasya is due to Amavasya Tithi falling on Monday. Somvati Amavasya occurs only once or twice a year. This Amavasya has special significance in Hindu religion. There is a tradition of fasting on this day for married women to pray for the long life of their husbands. By keeping a silent fast on this day, one gets the result of thousands of Godan. In the scriptures it has also been called Ashwath Pradakshina Vrat. Ashvattha means Peepal tree. On this day, there is a tradition of married women worshiping the Peepal tree with milk, water, flowers, Akshat, sandalwood etc. and circling a thread around the tree 108 times. In some other traditions, there is also a tradition of giving Bhanwari. Along with this, bathing in holy rivers on this Amavasya day also has special significance.
Somvati Amavasya Story
There are many popular stories related to Somvati Amavasya. There is a tradition that these stories are recited ritually on the day of Somvati Amavasya. There was a poor Brahmin family, in which apart from husband and wife, there was also a daughter. The daughter slowly started growing up. All feminine qualities were developing in that girl with time. The girl was beautiful, cultured and talented, but due to being poor she was not able to get married. One day a sage came to the Brahmin’s house, who was very pleased with the girl’s service. While blessing the girl for a long life, the sage said that there is no marriageable line in the girl’s palm. The Brahmin couple asked the sage for a solution as to what the girl should do so that she can get married.
After thinking for some time, the Sadhu told me through his insight that in a village at some distance away, a woman of Dhubi caste named Sona lives with her son and daughter-in-law, who is very well-mannered and has a good husband. Is devoted. If this girl serves him and that woman applies vermillion of her own demand on his marriage, and after that this girl gets married, then the possibility of widowhood of this girl can be erased. The monk also told that the woman does not come and go anywhere. Hearing this, Brahmani asked his daughter to serve as a washerman.
The girl would wake up early in the morning, go to the gold washerman’s house, do the cleaning and all the other things and return to her home. Sona the washerman asks her daughter-in-law that you get up early in the morning and do all the work and you don’t even realize it. The daughter-in-law said, Aunty, I thought that you wake up in the morning and finish all the work yourself. I wake up late, hence both mother-in-law and daughter-in-law started monitoring who is the one who does all the household work early in the morning and leaves. After many days, the washerwoman saw that one by one the girls came into the dark house and left after doing all the work. When she started leaving, Sona the washerman fell at her feet and started asking who she was and thus hiding herself. Why do you work in my house? Then the girl told everything said by the sage.
Sona the washerman was devoted to her husband and was bright. She got ready. Sona Dhobin’s husband was a little unwell. In it he asked his daughter-in-law to stay at home till his return. As soon as the gold washerman applied the vermilion of his maang to the girl’s maang, her husband died. He came to know about this. She left home without water, thinking that if she found a Peepal tree somewhere on the way, she would take water only by offering Bhanwari to it and circling around it. That day was Somvati Amavasya. Instead of the pua-dish found in the Brahmin’s house, he circled the Peepal tree 108 times with pieces of brick and then drank water. As soon as she did this, her husband’s dead body started trembling.
All the gods reside in the Peepal tree. Therefore, starting from the day of Somvati Amavasya, the person who does Bhanwari (circling the orbit) on every Amavasya day, his happiness and good fortune increases, the one who cannot do it on every Amavasya, can buy 108 things on the day of Amavasya falling on Monday. One who gives Bhanwari to the gold washerman and worships Gauri-Ganesh, gets unbroken good fortune.
All the Gods reside in the Peepal tree, hence on Saturday morning, one should put black sesame seeds and flowers in a pot of water on the Peepal tree and in the evening, light a mustard oil lamp and recite Shiv Chalisa, Hanuman Chalisa, Shani Chalisa. By doing this, all the closed doors of man’s happiness and prosperity gradually start opening on their own.
There is a tradition that on the first Somvati Amavasya, Bhanwari of paddy, betel leaves, turmeric, vermillion and betel nut is given. After that, on Somvati Amavasya, Bhanwari of fruits, sweets, suhaag material, food items etc. is given as per one’s capacity. The goods offered on Bhanwari can be given to a worthy Brahmin, sister-in-law or nephew. Donation should not be made in one’s own Gotra or in a Gotra lower than one’s.