Hartalika Teej Puja Vidhi

Hartalika Teej is a fast and worship of Shiva and Parvati kept on Bhadrapada Shukla Tritiya, the third day of the bright fortnight of Bhadrapada. Married women keep it, traditionally without food or water, for the wellbeing of their husbands, and in Nepal and Maharashtra unmarried women keep it to be given a good husband. The name is explained as harat, abduction, and alika, a woman friend, from the story in which Parvati's friend takes her into a forest. The stories are in the Teej festival page. Here is the worship, in order.

It is not the only Teej. Hariyali Teej falls on the third day of Shravana, in the monsoon, with swings and green clothes. Kajari Teej falls on the third day of the dark fortnight of Bhadrapada, about fifteen days after Hariyali Teej, and women break its fast with sattu. This page is about Hartalika.

The day is Bhadrapada Shukla Tritiya, usually the day before Ganesh Chaturthi and about a month after Hariyali Teej. Sources disagree on the hour of the puja. Drik Panchang, citing the Vratraj, treats the morning as good and says the pradosha, the evening twilight, is also considered good if the morning is missed. India TV and Bhakti Bharat give the pradosha as the time, and several other almanac pages give a morning window. Because the tithi can run across two civil days, even the date differs between pages in some years, so use a local panchang and the practice of your family.

Sand or clay images of Shiva, Parvati and Ganesha, made on the day, or a Shivalinga of clay or river sand. A wooden stool covered with a red cloth, or a banana-leaf stand, and a kalash of water with a coconut and mango leaves. For Shiva: bel leaves, dhatura, shami leaves, white flowers, sandalwood paste and a thread. For Parvati: the items of a married woman's adornment, such as bangles, kajal, a bindi, kumkum, sindoor, a comb, mehndi, alta and a red cloth, often bought as a ready set. Panchamrit of milk, curd, ghee, honey and sugar, a ghee lamp, camphor, fruit, a cucumber and halwa for breaking the fast, and offerings cooked without onion or garlic.

The numbered steps above follow the order most pages give. In the morning, after a bath, the fast begins and the images are made and set up. After the sankalp, Ganesha is worshipped first, then Shiva, then Parvati, with the full adornment offered to her. The katha is heard, the aarti is sung, and many women keep a vigil through the night with songs, offering leaves to Shiva at each watch. In the morning a last aarti is done, the sindoor offered to Parvati is taken by the married women, and the fast is broken.

The mantras below are given by Bhakti Bharat and Drik Panchang. Neither names an early text for them, and they are in the form of plain name-mantras with the name in the dative and namaḥ, so they are better understood as worship formulas than as scripture.

The sankalp, as printed by Bhakti Bharat: उमामहेश्वरसायुज्य सिद्धये हरितालिका व्रत महं करिष्ये। Romanised: umāmaheśvarasāyujya siddhaye haritālikā vratam ahaṃ kariṣye. It states the aim as union with Uma and Maheshwara, that is, Parvati and Shiva.

To Parvati: ॐ उमायै नमः, ॐ पार्वत्यै नमः, ॐ जगद्धात्र्यै नमः, ॐ जगत्प्रतिष्ठायै नमः, ॐ शान्तिरूपिण्यै नमः, ॐ शिवायै नमः. Romanised: oṃ umāyai namaḥ, oṃ pārvatyai namaḥ, oṃ jagaddhātryai namaḥ, oṃ jagatpratiṣṭhāyai namaḥ, oṃ śāntirūpiṇyai namaḥ, oṃ śivāyai namaḥ.

To Shiva: ॐ हराय नमः, ॐ महेश्वराय नमः, ॐ शम्भवे नमः, ॐ शूलपाणये नमः, ॐ पिनाकवृषे नमः, ॐ शिवाय नमः, ॐ पशुपतये नमः, ॐ महादेवाय नमः. Romanised: oṃ harāya namaḥ, oṃ maheśvarāya namaḥ, oṃ śambhave namaḥ, oṃ śūlapāṇaye namaḥ, oṃ pinākavṛṣe namaḥ, oṃ śivāya namaḥ, oṃ paśupataye namaḥ, oṃ mahādevāya namaḥ.

India TV prints a slightly different list, and Amit Ray's panchang suggests ॐ नमः शिवाय (oṃ namaḥ śivāya) through the vigil. Any of these may be used; the sankalp and the names above are the ones with a printed Devanagari text.

Drik Panchang says it follows the Vratraj, a later digest of vows, and adds that nowhere in the Vratraj is the puja said to be for women only. No page we read names a Purana as the source of the vrat, and we do not name one. The story, as the pages tell it, is that Parvati, daughter of Himavan, wished for Shiva as her husband, and a friend took her into a forest so that she would not be married to Vishnu. There she made a linga of sand and worshipped it through the night, and Shiva accepted her on this day, under the star Hasta. Making the idols, the adornment of Parvati, the gift of the set to a Brahmin woman and touching the feet of the mother-in-law are customs, and no early text we found prescribes them.

In Nepal the festival lasts three days: a feast and dancing on the first, a fast with a visit to a Shiva temple on the second, and Rishi Panchami after it. In Rajasthan an image of Parvati is carried in procession, and Jaipur holds a two-day procession. In Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh it is a major festival, with mehndi, green clothes, swings and songs. In Maharashtra it is called Haritalika, with images of Shiva, Gauri, a friend and Ganesha, and night bhajans. In Karnataka and parts of the south the same day is Gowri Habba, which the pages we read do not describe. The waterless fast is not required of everyone: one almanac suggests fruit for the ill, pregnant, nursing and elderly, and pregnant women should ask a doctor.