Sawan Somvar vrat: the Monday fasts of Shravan, and how to keep them

When

• The fast runs from sunrise to the evening puja, which is done around sunset. The meal is taken after it.
• The morning abhishek is done after bathing, before breakfast would have been. Temples are crowded on Sawan Mondays, so many families do the abhishek at home in the morning and visit a temple in the evening.

What the fast allows

Three forms are all accepted. The strictest is nirjala, without water, until the evening puja. Most people keep phalahar: fruit, milk, curd, sabudana, potato and dry fruit, with sendha namak. The gentlest is one sattvic meal without grain in the evening, after the puja. Choose on Monday morning and keep it.

Onion, garlic, meat, eggs and alcohol are avoided through the whole month by many families, not only on Mondays.

The Monday puja

1. 1

   Morning: bathe and resolve

   Bathe early, wear clean clothes, and with water in your right palm take the sankalp for the Somvar vrat. If you are beginning Solah Somvar, say so: that you will keep sixteen Mondays.

2. 2

   Abhishek

   Pour Gangajal, then milk mixed with water, over the Shivling in a slow stream while chanting Om Namah Shivaya. Rinse with clean water.

3. 3

   Offer

   Chandan, a tripundra of bhasma, bel leaves smooth side down, white flowers, dhatura and akshat. A little mishri as naivedya.

4. 4

   Japa and aarti

   One or more rounds of 108 on the rudraksha mala, then the aarti Om Jai Shiv Omkara.

5. 5

   Evening: katha and the meal

   At dusk, light the diya again, read the Somvar vrat katha, do the aarti, and then take the meal.

Solah Somvar, the sixteen Mondays

Solah Somvar is a vow to keep sixteen consecutive Mondays, often begun on the first Monday of Shravan. The puja each week is the one above. On the seventeenth Monday the vow is closed with an udyapan: a larger puja, often with a pandit, and churma or another sweet shared as prasad. The Solah Somvar vrat guide covers when to start, the churma, missed Mondays and the udyapan in full.

If a Monday is missed through illness or travel, most families add one at the end rather than begin again.

The rest of Shravan

• Tuesdays of Shravan are kept by many women as the Mangla Gauri vrat, for Parvati.
• Kanwar yatris carry Ganga water on foot to Shiva temples through the month.
• Masik Shivratri falls in the month's waning fortnight and is kept like a smaller Mahashivratri.
• Nag Panchami, Hariyali Teej and Raksha Bandhan, which closes the northern Shravan, fall in the same weeks.

What usually goes wrong

• Using ordinary salt in the phalahar. Use sendha namak.
• Offering tulsi, haldi or kumkum on the Shivling. Bel, chandan and bhasma are Shiva's.
• Pouring the milk abhishek into the drain. Give it to a plant.
• Starting Solah Somvar without deciding how you'll close it. Plan the udyapan date when you begin.

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