Kajari Teej कजरी तीज
Parvati and Shiva · Full-day vrat
Kajari Teej, also known as Kajli Teej or Badi Teej, falls on the third day of the dark fortnight of Bhadrapada and is the second of the three monsoon Teej festivals dedicated to goddess Parvati, the others being Hariyali Teej in Shravana and Hartalika Teej in Bhadrapada Shukla. The festival is observed with greatest fervor across Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar where it marks the height of the post monsoon greenery and the seasonal longing of married women for their husbands and of unmarried girls for the divine union of Shiva and Parvati that they seek to emulate. The name kajari derives from the dark monsoon clouds and the folk songs by the same name that are sung in groups by women on the swings tied to neem and peepal trees, the lyrics weaving the themes of viraha, monsoon beauty, and the lila of Radha and Krishna. In Bundi and Banaras the festival is observed with grand processions of the Teej Mata idol through the city streets, accompanied by camels, horses, folk dancers, and the gathered citizenry. Married women fast through the day from food and water for the long life of their husbands, sing kajari songs in courtyards through the evening, and break the fast only after sighting the rising moon and offering arghya with neem leaves, sattu, and seasonal fruits.
Rituals (vidhi)
- 1.Wake before sunrise and bathe with water infused with neem and tulsi leaves, then dress in green or red bridal finery with full shringar.
- 2.Take a sankalpa for the long life and prosperity of your husband or, if unmarried, for receiving a worthy life partner like Shiva.
- 3.Set up a small altar with images of Shiva, Parvati, and Ganesha and offer green bangles, sindoor, mehendi, kajal, and sixteen items of shringar.
- 4.Observe a complete nirjala fast through the day, refraining from food, water, and even the swallowing of saliva from sunrise until moonrise.
- 5.Gather with women of the household and neighborhood in the courtyard to sing kajari songs and swing on jhoolas tied to neem or peepal trees.
- 6.Recite the Kajari Teej Vrata Katha which narrates the devotion of Parvati through one hundred and eight births to win Shiva as her husband.
- 7.Break the fast at moonrise by sighting the moon through a sieve, offering arghya with water mixed with sattu and curd, and then taking a satvic meal with family.
Significance
Kajari Teej is regarded as a powerful sumangali vrata for married women across the Hindi belt and is held to confer akhand saubhagya, the unbroken state of marital auspiciousness, when observed with the prescribed discipline. The choice of the dark monsoon clouds as the festival image reflects the deep cultural association in Sanskrit poetry between the rain bearing clouds and the longing of separated lovers, an emotion that becomes a spiritual upayoga in the form of the women longing for the divine union of Shiva and Parvati within their own hearts. Acharyas explain that the nirjala fast for the husband is in essence a transmutation of personal love into the cosmic love of Parvati for Shiva, and that the merit of the vrata accrues not only to the marriage but to the soul evolution of both partners across lifetimes. The kajari folk songs, performed only during this brief window of the year, preserve a continuous oral tradition that goes back at least to the medieval period and contain layers of bhakti, viraha, shringar, and Krishna lila themes that have shaped the devotional sensibility of north India. In Banaras the festival is paired with the famous Kajari ki Lavani performances and the swing rituals at Manikarnika and Dashashwamedh ghats, where the goddess is taken on a procession to the river for a ritual bath. For unmarried girls, the vrata is believed to grant a worthy husband within the same year, and for married women it is held to ensure widowed status is never experienced in this life or the next.
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