👑 Gangaur (Gauri Tritiya) Puja Vidhi — step by step

This is the Rajasthani household vidhi — beginning with the Holi ash, a small daily puja, the big puja and farewell on the last three days.

How to do Gangaur (Gauri Tritiya) — the steps

1. Beginning (the day after Holi, Chaitra Krishna Pratipada): make small figures of Isar-Gaur from the Holika fire's ash (or clay) and install them on a board/tray at the puja place; barley-wheat jawara alongside; every morning after bathing sprinkle water with durva stalks (jhula), a tilak of turmeric, mehndi and kajal, flowers and leaves, songs — 16 days.
2. The daily rule: puja after sunrise before eating; 16 things for Gauri (16 durva, 16 bindis, 16 bangles…) — 'sixteen' is the number of suhag; girls with the friends of the neighbourhood; the songs tease Isar and Gaur.
3. On the eighth day (Chaitra Krishna Ashtami — Sheetla Ashtami): the ghudla — girls carry a perforated clay pot with a lamp inside on their heads from house to house in the evening, asking for ghee, jaggery and grain (the ghudla fair of Jodhpur).
4. The last three days (Chaitra Shukla Pratipada-Dwitiya-Tritiya): the Badi Gangaur — wooden/clay idols of Isar-Gaur (or paper pictures), lehenga-chunari-jewellery for Gauri, a turban for Isar; solah shringar, mehndi; the 'ghudla/night vigil' on Dwitiya night and 'pithaur' (a flour paste) for Gauri; the final puja on Tritiya morning — kumkum-mehndi-kajal, 16 gune (Gauri's bhog), a lota of water, durva.
5. In the Tritiya puja: girls/married women with a kalash on the head and Gangaur in the lap; the katha (below); the sankalp for the husband's longevity and, for girls, for a husband; 'bayana' (gune, mehndi, bangles, sweets) to the mother-in-law/elder and touching her feet.
6. The farewell (Tritiya evening): singing, Gangaur is carried on the head to a pond/stepwell/river; the final water offering there, Gauri is sent off to her husband's home (Kailash) — the idol immersed in water or (if wooden) brought home for next year; the royal procession from Tripolia Gate in Jaipur, the boat farewell at Gangaur Ghat in Udaipur.
7. Breaking the fast: after the farewell; the new bride keeping the 16-day vrat receives 'Gangaur ka bayana' from her parents' home — ghewar-feeni, clothes; gifts from the married women of the in-laws' home.
8. Those who cannot keep 16 days — the last 3 days (or only the Tritiya) are also valid; girls keep the vrat every year until marriage.

Puja samagri checklist

The Gangaur idol (or ash-clay figures), Gauri's shringar, durva and the items of sixteen — the main things.

• Holi ash/clay (Isar-Gaur figures) or wooden-clay Gangaur idol, Isar idol; tray/board
• Durva stalks (jhula/for sprinkling water), kalash, lota of water
• Gauri's shringar: lehenga-chunari/saree, bangles (16), bindis (16), sindoor, kajal, mehndi, jewellery; Isar's turban-dhoti
• Turmeric, kumkum, roli, akshat, flowers and leaves, pithaur of flour
• Barley-wheat jawara, wheat grains (in the hand during the katha)
• Ghudla: perforated clay pot, lamp
• Bhog: 16 gune (of flour and jaggery), ghewar-feeni, churma-laddoo, mehndi sweets, kheer-poori, fruit
• Bayana: ghewar, mehndi, bangles, cloth, dakshina (mother-in-law/parents' and in-laws' homes)
• Gangaur katha book/songs

🛍 Puja samagri

Gune, ghewar, churma — the Marwari kitchen of Gangaur

The Gangaur bhog has 16 gune (small sweet flour cakes, kachori-like), ghewar, feeni, churma — these come in the bayana from the parents' home; kheer-poori on Tritiya; in the 16-day vrat one meal without salt (some homes) or fruit.

• Gune (16): flour with ghee, jaggery/sugar and fennel, thick little cakes fried in ghee — offer 16 to Gauri and share
• Ghewar, feeni (sweets of the winter-summer junction), malpua, churma-laddoo, mohanthal
• Tritiya: kheer, poori, dal-bati-churma (Rajasthan), aam panna in Malwa, dahi-bade
• 16 days: one meal — without salt (sweet) in many homes; or fruit and milk; girls eat only after the morning puja
• Prasad: the women, girls and neighbours of the house; no Gauri prasad to the husband/men (folk custom)

Rules — do's and don'ts

Vrat katha

Once Shiva and Parvati (Isar-Gaur), wandering the earth with Narada, came to a village — it was Chaitra Shukla Tritiya. The women of the high families were busy preparing fifty-six dishes and came late; the poor women ca… Read the full katha →

Frequently asked questions

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