Hartālikā Tīj

When it falls

The third lunar day (tṛtīyā) of the bright half of Bhādrapada, the day before Gaṇeśa Caturthī, in late August or September.

The Phala almanac gives the exact day for your own city; the lunar and solar rules above are what it computes from.

The story

Pārvatī wanted Śiva and no one else. Her father had settled on Viṣṇu, so her friend carried her off to a forest cave — hariṇa, taken away, and ālikā, the friend, is one reading of the name Hartālikā. There she made a liṅga of sand and kept a fast without food or water until Śiva came and agreed to marry her.

The day is therefore about a woman choosing, and keeping the choice through a hard fast. Married women keep it for their husbands; unmarried women keep it for the husband they hope for.

In Karnataka the same tithi is Gauri Habba, and the frame is different: Gauri comes home to her parents for the day, and her son Gaṇeśa arrives the next morning to fetch her back. A house that installs Gaṇeśa on caturthī installs his mother the evening before.

How the day is kept

• A nirjala fast — without food and without water — through the day and often through the night, broken the next morning.
• Sand or clay images of Śiva and Pārvatī are made, dressed and worshipped through the night with lamps, song and the reading of the story.
• In Karnataka a decorated Gauri image or a turmeric cone stands in the house, and married women exchange bāgina, a winnowing basket of grain, bangles, turmeric and a blouse piece.
• Green is the day's colour in the north, with mehndi on the hands and new bangles; in Nepal the women dance in red at Paśupatinātha.

More fasts and vigils