In the month of August or September, the people of Maharashtra welcome their beloved and tutelary deity, Lord Gaṇeśa, with great zeal and zest. Immediately after the arrival of Gaṇeśa, they welcome another goddess, Jyeṣṭhā / Gaurī, or the goddesses, Jyeṣṭhā and Kaniṣṭhā / Mahālakṣmī, for three days. In the entire Maharashtra, the vrata is very devotionally performed by the Marathi-speaking community as a clan ritual (kulācāra) for gaining prosperity and good fortune. But the difference is in the number of goddesses worshipped in different regions of Maharashtra. In coastal Maharashtra, an individual goddess Jyeṣṭhā who is also known as Gaurī is worshipped whereas in Deccan Maharashtra two goddesses, Jyeṣṭhā and Kaniṣṭhā, who are popularly known as Mahālakṣmī, are worshipped.
Name of Vrata
The vrata is known as Jyeṣṭhā vrata or Jyeṣṭhā Gaurī vrata because the goddess Jyeṣṭhā is the supreme deity of the ritual. In coastal Maharashtra, the ritual is more famous by the name Gaurī vrata. In the Deccan region of Maharashtra, where there is a tradition of worshipping Jyeṣṭhā and Kaniṣṭhā, the goddesses are popularly known as Mahālakṣmyā (the plural of word Mahālakṣmī in Marathi).
Celebration Time of the Vrata
Gaurī vrata is celebrated in the state of Maharashtra in the month of Bhādrapada, according to the Indian lunar calendar. According to the Gregorian calendar, it falls in the month of August and September. It is a three-day celebration where on the first day, the Anurādhā constellation, the goddesses are invoked. Elaborate worship and food offerings are done on the second day, the Jyeṣṭhā constellation. On the following day which is the third, Muḷa constellation, the goddesses are immersed.
Gauri Vrata in the Scriptures
Scriptural references to the vrata are mainly found in Purāṇa literature and Nibandha literature. In Skanda Purāṇa, an episode of the importance of Jyeśthā vrata is narrated in the form of a dialogue between Lord Kṛṣṇa and Yudhiṣṭhira. On the question ‘How the poor, helpless, those who are in pitiable condition will get happiness?’ of Yudhiṣṭhira, Kṛṣna has replied, ‘When Jyeśthā constellation will arise in the first half of Bhādrapada month, on that night, one should worship Jyeśthā. The one who will worship Jyeśthā in this way, all his troubles will be destroyed as the salt dissolves in the water.’ Skanda Purāṇa also narrates the ritual and the importance of the Jyeṣṭhā vrata. While citing the same episode, Nibandha literature also states the importance of the Jyeṣṭhā vrata as one of the rituals to be performed by a man every year. Nibandha literature is a manual of yearly ritual; we find a reference to the type of worship, the rituals and the chants used during the worship in it. The citation for Jyeṣṭhā vrata is:
atra jyeṣṭhādevīpūjanavratam
atraiva jyeṣṭhāpūjoktā … māsi bhādrapade śuklapakṣe jyeṣṭharkṣasanyutā rātriryasmindinekuryājjeṣṭhāyaḥ paripūjanamiti |
mantrastu jyeṣṭhāyai te namastubhyam śreṣṭhāyai te namo namaḥ |
śarvāyai te namastubhyam śāṅkaryai te namo namaḥ ||
In the author’s translation:
... Here the Vrata of the worship of goddess Jyeṣṭhā ... Here the worship of goddess Jyeṣṭhā is given … In the first half of the month of bhādrapada, on the constellation of Jyeṣṭhā, at night goddess Jyeṣṭhā should be worshipped.
Goddess Jyeṣṭhā, who is also known as Alakṣmī, is the elder sister of Goddess Lakṣmī. Being an elder sister and having an opposite nature to Lakṣmī, Jyeṣṭhā-Alakṣmī is the goddess of poverty, ruin and misfortune. Her worship turns misfortune into fortune and allows Lakṣmī to enter one’s life (Padma Purana 6.118.4). According to Nibandha literature, Jyeṣṭhā is worshipped for obtaining good fortune. There are legends narrated as an explanation of the ritual practise: ‘In earlier times, troubled by demons, consorts of gods went to goddess Mahālkṣmi. They asked her to save the lives of their husbands. Then Mahālkṣmi defeated demons’ (Joshi 1967). According to this legend, Gaurī worship started in the memory and gratitude of this incident. Hence, in this vrata (festival), women worship Goddess Mahālkṣmi.
Over a period of time, in some places, Jyeṣṭhā and Kaniṣṭhā started being worshipped together for obtaining good fortune and prosperity. In contemporary society, the celebration of the vrata has gone on beyond any particular reason and has become a yearly mandatory ritual in the family (kulācāra).
Types of Gaurī Vrata
After acquiring the status of kulācāra, multiple factors—social, economic and cultural—affected the ritual of Gaurī Vrata. The ritual is now considered a status symbol and part of the tradition; depending on the part of the state, the ritual now has regional variations within the family, social strata, village, etc. Within Maharashtra itself, various versions of this vrata (festival) exist. People worship this deity in the following forms:
Though the time and reason for celebrating the Vrata are similar, it is celebrated differently in the two regions. In coastal Maharashtra, an individual goddess, Jyeṣṭhā Gaurī, is in worship in the form of a facemask, pebbles, picture or local flowering plants as an illustration of the goddess. But in the Deccan region of Maharashtra, an additional goddess, namely, Kaniṣṭhā is also worshipped along with Jyeṣṭhā; the deity here is only in the form of terracotta or metal masks. Those who worship goddess/es in the form of metal or terracotta image have special facemasks in use. Those who worship goddess/es in the form of facemask/s call their ritual type Mukhavaṭyācyā Gaurī (Gaurī in the form of facemask/s) to highlight their type of worship and to portray the skill of making idols.
Types of Rituals in Coastal Maharashtra
In coastal Maharashtra, Jyeṣṭhā is worshipped. Some people consider her as Jyeṣṭhā-Alakṣmī. However, the majority of people believe that she is the mother of Lord Gaṇeśa. As the Gaurī festival follows the Gaṇeśa festival, it is believed that the mother comes to take her son back or to see how people are fulfilling his wishes on the earth. Another reason for this belief is that Gaurī is an epithet of Goddess Pārvatī, mother of Lord Gaṇeśa. Some people also believe that Goddess Pārvatī (Gaurī) comes to her maiden home to enjoy the freedom which is why she must be pampered.
Here, the goddess is welcomed from the water bodies such as rivers, streams, lake, ponds, well, etc. On all three days, three different sets of food offerings are made and, on the third day, the immersion of Gaurīs is performed.
Types of Rituals in Deccan Maharashtra
In the Deccan region of Maharashtra, as mentioned before, Jyeṣṭhā and Kaniṣṭhā are worshipped. As sisters, they are identified with the goddesses Alakṣmī and Lakṣmī respectively. They are opposite in nature. In the company of Lakṣmī, the status of Alakṣmī is augmented and, in the vrata, she is treated as an equal of Lakṣmī. A view prevalent about them is that they are the sisters or wives of Gaṇapati; however, for the group of people who consider them as mothers of Gaṇeśa, one of them is Pārvatī and the other Ganga (co-wife of Pārvatī).
In the Deccan region of Maharashtra, on the first day, women either welcome the goddesses from the water bodies which is similar to the practice in coastal Maharashtra, or else they welcome them from the sanctum of the house where the Tulasī tulasī plant is situated on the threshold. If the goddesses are brought individually inside the house, they are made to meet each other, usually at the main door or the sanctum of the home. After entering the house, people take their deities to every corner and show wealth and prosperity in different forms like water, food, money, jewellery, etc. This is followed by carrying the goddess around the house with chants of ‘goddesses arrived with prosperity’. At last, facemasks are kept on the draped and decorated body structures. In this way, the goddesses are welcomed and installed in the form of idols.
This vrata is exclusively performed by women. Hence, on the second day, only women worship the goddesses but even then, in some places, they can only invoke them as the remaining vrata is performed by men reflective of the social hierarchy of the society. On the same day, in the afternoon, people offer nēvedya to them in a very elaborate form. Sixteen types of food items are offered to the goddesses.
Finally, on the third day, people perform symbolic immersion and keep the facemasks aside for the next year. In this way, the same vrata is performed differently in different parts of Maharashtra, its various cultural patterns reflecting its rich spectrum of socio-religious diversity.
Bibliography
Apte, Chintamani Mahadev. Padma Purāṇa. Pune: Anandashram. 1894.
Joshi, Mahadevshastri. Bharatiya Sanskrutikosh. Pune: Bharatiya Sanskrutikosh Mandal. 1967.