🐄 Bachh Baras (Govatsa Dwadashi / Vasu Baras) 2026

The mothers' vrat of worshipping the cow and her calf — on Bhadrapada Krishna Dwadashi (Bachh Baras: Rajasthan, UP, MP) and on Kartika Krishna Dwadashi (Govatsa/Vasu/Vagh Baras: Gujarat, Maharashtra, the day before Dhanteras): no cow's milk and nothing cut with a knife, millet-moth-kadhi, a prayer for the children's welfare; both dates above.

**Bachh Baras** (Bachh Dwadashi, Govatsa Dwadashi, Vasu Baras, Vagh Baras) is a vrat of mothers in which the cow and her calf (vatsa) are worshipped — all the gods dwell in the cow and the calf stands for one's children; mothers apply tilak, turmeric and kumkum to the cow and calf, feed them sprouted moth beans, millet and jaggery and circumambulate them for the long life, health and happiness of their children. On this day cow's milk, curd and ghee are not consumed (they are left for the calf) and nothing cut with a knife is eaten — hence a meal of millet roti, moth, kadhi and whole grains.

The vrat is kept on two different dates in two forms: in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana on **Bhadrapada Krishna Dwadashi** (four days after Janmashtami) as 'Bachh Baras', and in Gujarat and Maharashtra on **Kartika Krishna Dwadashi** (the day before Dhanteras, the first day of the Diwali festival) as 'Vagh Baras / Vasu Baras / Govatsa Dwadashi' — both dates are above; check the one for your region. Below: vidhi, samagri, katha, food, regional customs and FAQs.

Significance — why this vrat

Cow-and-calf worship: thirty-three crore gods dwell in the cow (Kamadhenu) — worshipping the cow with her calf on Govatsa Dwadashi pleases them all; the Bhavishya Purana describes Govatsa Dwadashi — worship of the cow Nandini, the calf standing for one's children; hence a mothers' vrat.

For the children: it is believed that serving the cow and calf makes children long-lived and healthy and gives children to the childless; in the katha, harming the cow or calf brings the loss of a child and serving them restores the child — this is the root of the vrat.

Giving up milk and the knife: that day the cow's milk, curd and ghee are the calf's due — hence buffalo milk or a milkless meal; vegetables or fruit cut with a knife are forbidden (a symbol of not hurting the cow and calf) — whole moth beans, millet, kadhi, kheench; produce plucked by hand from the field.

The start of Diwali (Gujarat, Maharashtra): the five or six days of Diwali begin with Vagh Baras / Vasu Baras — Vasu Baras (cow and calf), Dhanteras, Kali Chaudas, Diwali, Bestu Varsh / Padwa, Bhai Beej; in Gujarat traders close their ledger transactions and settle accounts on this day ('vagh' = tiger, the day to clear debts).

Puja vidhi (step by step)

The household vidhi of Bachh Baras / Govatsa Dwadashi — worship of the cow and calf in the morning (a gaushala or a neighbour's cow; if none, a clay cow and calf), a milkless, knife-free meal in the day, the katha; in Gujarat and Maharashtra in the evening at godhuli.

1. Morning: bathe, clean clothes; find a milch cow with her calf — at a gaushala or a neighbour's; if none, make a cow and calf of wet clay or worship a picture.
2. Sankalp: 'I (name) keep the Bachh Baras / Govatsa Dwadashi vrat for the long life and happiness of my children (names); today I will take no cow's milk and nothing cut with a knife' — release the water.
3. Bathing and adorning the cow and calf: wash the cow's feet, apply a tilak of turmeric, kumkum and roli (on the forehead and horns), a flower garland, a chunri or red cloth on her back, tilak and garland for the calf too; a bell for the cow (some homes); wind raw thread around the cow and calf (a thread of protection).
4. Worship: akshat, flowers, lamp and incense (away from the cow), an offering of water; the food — sprouted or soaked moth beans, millet, gram, jaggery, green fodder, banana, millet roti (torn by hand); feed the cow and calf with your own hands; 'Om Surabhyai Namah' / 'Sarvadevamaye Devi Sarvadevairalankrite, Matar Mamabhilashitam Saphalam Kuru Nandini'.
5. Circumambulation and prayer: 3 or 7 rounds of the cow and calf, a prayer for the children's protection, a blessing with the cow's tail (some customs); let the children touch and feed the cow and calf.
6. Katha: hear the katha of Bachh Baras / Govatsa Dwadashi (below — the merchant's wife and the pond) from the eldest woman of the house; after the katha the aarti of 'Bachh Baras Mata' (Rajasthan) or of the Cow Mother.
7. Food: in the day no cow's milk, curd, ghee or butter, no vegetables or fruit cut with a knife, no wheat (some homes) — millet roti or kheench, moth and gram (whole or sprouted), kadhi (buffalo curd or gram-flour buttermilk), whole vegetables (pumpkin or gourd broken by hand — some homes), whole fruit (banana, guava); one meal (many homes two meals of the same).
8. Gujarat-Maharashtra (Vagh/Vasu Baras): aarti and worship of the cow and calf in the evening at godhuli, millet and jaggery for the cow; rangoli and lamps at home (the start of Diwali), traders close the ledger transactions; a milkless dinner (urad or moong, millet).
9. Closing: green fodder and jaggery for the cow and calf; leftover offering to the cow; normal food the next day; on Bachh Baras the clay cow and calf are placed in water; teach the children to serve cows.

Puja samagri checklist

Adornment for the cow and calf, a feed-offering of moth, millet and jaggery, and a milkless, knife-free meal — the Bachh Baras list.

• A cow and calf (gaushala or neighbour) — otherwise a clay cow and calf or a picture of the Cow Mother; kalash (water)
• Adornment: turmeric, kumkum, roli, akshat, flower garland (marigold), red chunri or cloth, raw thread, a bell (optional), mehndi on the horns (some customs)
• Feed-offering: sprouted or soaked moth beans, millet, gram, jaggery, green fodder, banana, millet roti (torn by hand), wheat-flour laddoos (some homes)
• Puja: ghee lamp (away from the cow), incense, camphor, aarti plate, paan-supari, coconut; the 'Govatsa Dwadashi / Bachh Baras' katha booklet
• Food: millet flour, moth beans, gram, gram flour or buffalo curd (kadhi), kheench (whole wheat-millet — some homes), whole vegetables and fruit, rock salt; nothing from cow's milk
• For the children: fodder to feed the cow and calf, new clothes (some homes); a gift to a gaushala (as one can — fodder, jaggery, money)

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Vrat katha (the story)

The katha of Bachh Baras (the merchant's wife and the pond): a merchant had a pond dug in the village, but for years it held no water; the pandits said it would fill only with the sacrifice of the eldest son or daughter-in-law. The merchant's wife sent the daughter-in-law to her parents and sacrificed the eldest son and grandson — the pond filled to the brim. That very day was Bachh Baras — she looked for a cow and calf for the puja; finding no calf, she took small grains of wheat as the 'calf' and cut and ground them by hand (in the folk telling she 'cut a handful of wheat in place of the calf'); in some versions she mistakenly slaughtered the very calf of the cow for the puja.

After the puja and katha she prayed to 'Bachh Baras Mata' — 'forgive my son and daughter-in-law; the sacrifice and killing I did unknowingly…'; pleased with her faith, the Mata restored the son, the grandson and the calf to life; when the daughter-in-law returned she found the house whole again. Since then the rules of Bachh Baras — serving the cow and calf, cutting nothing with a knife (the wheat/calf katha), leaving the cow's milk for the calf; and the lesson that no sacrifice or violence in the name of one's children — only service bears fruit.

Govatsa Dwadashi (Purana): in the Bhavishya Purana — the woman who worships the cow Nandini (daughter of Kamadhenu) with her calf on Kartika Krishna Dwadashi and that day gives up cow's milk, curd, ghee and fried food, has long-lived sons and grandsons — this is the Vasu Baras of Maharashtra and Gujarat; folk belief also places Kamadhenu's emergence from the churning of the ocean on this day.

Millet roti, moth, kadhi, kheench — no cow's milk, no knife; moth, millet and jaggery for the cow and calf

The food of Bachh Baras is its identity — no cow's milk, curd or ghee that day (it belongs to the calf), nothing cut with a knife, in many homes no wheat either (the katha) — hence millet roti or kheench, moth and gram, kadhi (buffalo curd or buttermilk), whole vegetables and fruit; for the cow and calf sprouted moth, millet, jaggery, green fodder and banana.

• Feed-offering for the cow and calf: sprouted moth beans, millet, gram, jaggery, green fodder, banana, millet roti, flour laddoos
• The family's meal: millet roti (torn by hand), whole moth curry, kadhi (buffalo curd or gram-flour buttermilk), kheench (whole wheat, millet and pulses), pumpkin or gourd (broken by hand — some homes), dal-baati without cow's ghee (some Rajasthani homes)
• Fruit: banana, guava, apple — whole or broken by hand; dry fruits
• Gujarat-Maharashtra (Vasu Baras): bajri roti, moong or urad, jaggery; no cow's milk; nothing fried (Purana rule — some homes)
• Forbidden: cow's milk, curd, ghee, butter, paneer, kheer, knife-cut vegetables or fruit, wheat (the katha — some homes), fried food (some customs), meat and alcohol

Regional customs

Bachh Baras of Bhadrapada (Rajasthan, UP, MP, Haryana) and Vasu/Vagh Baras of Kartika (Gujarat, Maharashtra) — one spirit, two dates, different customs.

Do's and don'ts

Frequently asked questions

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Also read: Hal Shashthi (Lalahi Chhath) · Krishna Janmashtami · Dhanteras (the day after Vasu Baras) · Govardhan Puja (cow worship) · Jivitputrika

⚠️ This description follows traditional practice and folk belief (the Bachh Baras katha, the Bhavishya Purana); the custom of your own family and region comes first. The two regional dates above are by the udaya-tithi of Delhi (IST) (the Kartika one by the pradosh rule); do not fast when unwell.

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