Anant Chaturdashi
The Shukla paksha Chaturdashi of Bhadrapada, kept for Vishnu as Anant — the endless one, resting on Shesha. The mark of the vrat is the anant sutra, a thread of fourteen knots worshipped in the puja and then tied on the arm, the knots standing for the fourteen lokas. Tradition takes it as a fourteen-year vow, and its katha is Kaundinya's — prosperity thrown away in pride and won back through the vrat. The same day closes Ganeshotsav with Ganesh visarjan, but the vrat is its own observance, older and separate.
Next date: 2026-09-25
vidhi
Bathe in the morning, wear clean yellow clothes, and take the sankalp before Vishnu for the Anant vrat — naming it as a fourteen-year vow if you are beginning one.,Set a kalash on a clean chowki and place a picture of Vishnu reclining on Shesha on or beside it; where the tradition is kept, shape an Anant of kusha grass with seven hoods.,Prepare the anant sutra — raw cotton or silk thread coloured with haldi and kumkum, tied into fourteen knots — and lay it before the deity.,Worship with chandan, akshat, yellow flowers, tulsi leaves, dhoop and a ghee lamp, and offer the bhog — kheer, or a wheat-and-jaggery preparation, with seasonal fruit.,Recite the anant sutra mantra and tie the thread — on the right upper arm for men, the left for women.,Read or listen to the katha of Kaundinya and do the aarti.,Take the vrat meal after the puja — traditionally a single meal without salt; if you are wearing last year's sutra, remove it now and immerse it in water.katha
Sage Kaundinya was travelling with his newly married wife Sushila when she saw women on a riverbank worshipping Anant — Vishnu of the endless form — and tying a fourteen-knot thread on their arms. She kept the vrat and tied the sutra, and from that day the couple's fortunes rose. When Kaundinya noticed the thread and heard its purpose, pride spoke before sense: this prosperity, he said, was earned by his own learning, not by a string — and he tore it off and threw it into the fire. What they had melted away. Understanding what he had burned, Kaundinya went into the forest asking everything he met — trees, cattle, rivers — where Anant could be found, until he fell exhausted. Then Vishnu appeared and showed him that Anant is not found in one place, being present in all of it, and told him to keep the vrat for fourteen years. He did, and everything returned. In the Mahabharata it is Krishna who tells this katha to Yudhishthira, prescribing the same vrat to the Pandavas after their kingdom was lost. It is a vrat for rebuilding what has slipped away.mantra
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A picture or murti of Vishnu reclining on Shesha, or kusha grass to shape the Anant,A kalash with water, mango leaves and a coconut,Raw cotton or silk thread for the anant sutra, with haldi and kumkum to colour it,Yellow flowers, tulsi leaves, chandan and akshat,Ghee lamp with a cotton wick, and dhoop,Kheer or a wheat-and-jaggery pakwan, and seasonal fruit for the bhog,Panchamrit for the abhishekUpcoming dates
- 2026-09-25