PARV 13 OF 30 · BHADO
हरतालिका तीज
Bhado Shukla Tritiya (August–September)
"तीज के निर्जला, आम के गाछी में झूला"
Katha · The story
Parvati, daughter of the mountain king Himalaya, loved Shiva from childhood, but her father promised her to Vishnu. Her friend (ali) stole her away (harit) to a cave in the forest, which gives the vrat its name, Hartalika. There she made a Shivling of sand and worshipped it without food or water through the night of Bhado Shukla Tritiya. Shiva appeared and accepted her as his wife. For a woman in Bihar, Teej is Parvati's vow: a nirjala fast for the husband's life, and for an unmarried girl, for a husband like Shiva.
In Malinagar the Teej of Bhado is the great Teej; the Sawan one is kept less. Daughters come home to the naihar if they can, the mango gachhi fills with jhulas, and the night before every hand in the tola is red with mehndi.
Mahatva · Significance
It is the most widely kept women's vrat of Bihar and eastern UP, harder than Karwa Chauth: no water from the sargahi meal before dawn to the next morning's parana. It is also a festival of return, like Rakhi and Chhath, for married daughters.
"कच्चे नीम की निंबोली, सावन जल्दी आइयो रे"
A line everyone at the festival knows
Vidhi · How it is done in Malinagar
Sargahi (puri, kheer, fruit before dawn), then nothing. Parana with dahi-chura, pedakiya (gujiya) and kheer.
Pedakiya, the Bihari gujiya, is made in the days before Teej in every house, and this is the week it is at its best.