🥣 Sheetla Ashtami (Basoda) Puja Vidhi — step by step
This is the household vidhi — cooking on Saptami evening, Sheetla puja and basi bhog at dawn on Ashtami, the hearth off all day.
How to do Sheetla Ashtami (Basoda) — the steps
- Saptami (the day before) evening: cook everything — sweet rice (jaggery/sugar), poori, gulgule/malpua, besan sabzi, curd, rabdi, kadhi, pakodi, ingredients for cold sherbet; clean the kitchen and let the hearth cool; worship the hearth at night (roli, rice, flowers).
- At dawn on Ashtami (before sunrise/Brahma Muhurat — time above) bathe in cold water; clean the house without lighting the hearth; sankalp — 'I keep the Sheetla Ashtami vrat for the health and protection of my children/family.'
- On a thali the basi food (a little of everything), a lota of cold water, turmeric-mehndi, roli, rice, flowers, a neem twig, a winnowing fan/broom (symbolic), a lamp (not lit — in many places no lamp at all); the puja at the neighbourhood Sheetla temple or a water place (near a well, pond or tap) or at the home puja place.
- For Sheetla Mata (picture/stone/temple): cold water, turmeric-mehndi (hand prints), roli-rice, flowers, neem leaves; offer the basi bhog; 'Om Hreem Shreem Sheetalayai Namah' / the Sheetla Stotra ('Vande'ham Sheetalam Devim rasabhastham digambaram'); listen to the Sheetla Mata katha (below).
- With the puja water and turmeric-mehndi make hand prints on the main door and a tilak on the children's foreheads — protection from the evil eye and disease; sprinkle the cool puja water in the house.
- Only basi food all day — the children first, then the elders; no hearth or gas (not even tea — many homes take cold milk/sherbet).
- Charity: cool food, sweet rice, cloth — to the needy/a temple; roti and chana to a donkey (Sheetla's mount) where possible; donation of a broom and winnowing fan too.
- Next day (Navami) light the hearth, first a hot bhog (halwa) for Sheetla Mata, then a normal meal — Basoda ends; no stale food after this.
Puja samagri checklist
Everything prepared a day earlier — no fire on the puja day.
- Basi bhog: sweet rice (jaggery rice/oliya), poori, gulgule/malpua, kadhi-pakodi, besan sabzi, curd, rabdi, chana dal — cooked on Saptami
- A lota of cold water (copper/clay), Gangajal
- Turmeric, mehndi (paste — hand prints), roli, raw rice, flowers
- Neem twig/leaves, a small winnowing fan and broom (symbol/charity)
- Picture/idol of Sheetla Mata (or the stone at the temple/water place), chunari
- Cold sherbet/milk, thandai (nothing hot that day)
- Charity: cloth, food, broom and winnowing fan; roti-chana for donkey and cow
- Sheetla Stotra/katha book
Basoda — a cool kitchen cooked a day before
Cook everything on Saptami evening and keep it covered; on Ashtami bhog and meals without reheating. Sweet rice (oliya) and gulgule are the mark of the day; a full 'thanda khana' thali in Rajasthan.
- Sweet rice/oliya: rice cooked in jaggery water (or sugar), ghee-cardamom-dry fruits; served cold — Sheetla's main bhog
- Gulgule (fried balls of flour, jaggery and fennel), malpua, poori, besan sabzi/gatte, kadhi-pakodi, curd, rabdi, chana dal
- Rajasthan: cold 'basi-oda' — curd rice, bajra roti with jaggery, rabdi, panchkuta; Gujarat: cold poori-shaak, dhebra
- Uttar Pradesh-Haryana: gulgule, sweet rice, poori-kadhi, curd with boora; Madhya Pradesh: cold poha-curd, sweet roti
- Next day: hot halwa first for the Mother, then the family — the end of Basoda
Rules — do's and don'ts
✅ Do
- Cook all the food on Saptami — no hearth/gas on Ashtami
- Puja at dawn with cold water; neem and turmeric-mehndi without fail
- Basi bhog first to the Mother, then the children, then the elders
- Hand prints on the door, tilak for the children — a symbol of protection
- Cleanliness of home, kitchen and surroundings — the real message of Sheetla; children's vaccinations (pox-measles) on time
❌ Don't
- No fire on Ashtami — not even hot tea or milk (take them cold)
- Basi food can spoil in very hot weather — keep it covered in a cool place; check the curd and rabdi in the morning; nothing doubtful to children or elders
- Stop stale food after this day — fresh all summer
- Do not treat the vrat as a substitute for treatment in fever or pox — doctor and vaccination
- Do not hurt or torment a donkey/animal — Sheetla's mount
Vrat katha
In a village every home kept Basoda, but one old woman lit her hearth and cooked hot food. Sheetla Mata came to the village in the form of an old woman — the old woman's house caught fire and her children burnt with feve… Read the full katha →
Frequently asked questions
When is Sheetla Ashtami in {Y}?
The date at the top is this year's Chaitra Krishna Ashtami — from panchang calculations; the dawn puja time (sunrise/Brahma Muhurat) is shown too. Many families observe it on the Saptami (a day earlier) — follow your own custom.
What is Basoda and why is no food cooked that day?
The day of 'basi' food — everything is cooked a day earlier and eaten and offered cold on Ashtami without lighting a fire; Sheetla Mata loves coolness (the katha), and a day of cool food at the change of season is an Ayurvedic custom too.
What is the difference between Sheetla Saptami and Ashtami?
The same festival — many regions of Rajasthan-Gujarat on Saptami, Uttar Pradesh-Haryana on Ashtami; the food is cooked on the evening of Saptami/Shashthi. In Gujarat the 'Sheetla Satam' of Shravana is a separate festival (before Janmashtami).
Who is Sheetla Mata?
The goddess of pox, measles and fever (Skanda Purana), riding a donkey, holding broom, fan, pot and neem — a symbol of cleanliness, coolness and medicine; the subduer of Jwarasura; mothers worship her for their children's protection.
Can the gas/hearth really not be lit at all?
By tradition no — cold all day; if an elder, a patient or an infant needs it (warming milk, medicine), light it as much as needed — the Mother wants coolness, not suffering.
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