श्री अहोई अष्टमी व्रत कथा
Shri Ahoi Ashtami Vrat Katha
Puja Samagri
The following items are gathered for the Ahoi Ashtami Vrat puja, kept in the evening for the well-being of one’s children. This list covers what is needed especially for the vrat, and not the items of everyday worship.
- An image of Goddess Ahoi for the wall — drawn with eight corners (for the Ashtami), with the syahu (porcupine) and her young beside her — or a printed image of Ahoi Mata
- A kalash filled with water, with an earthen lid
- A small earthen karwa, set upon the kalash
- Seven grass-shoots (sarai seenka)
- Akshat (rice), roli, and milk for the offeringअक्षत, रोली
- Eight puris, eight pua, and halwa to offer
- A silver Ahoi — the syahu mala — with two silver beads, where a household keeps one
- A ghee lamp (diya) and incense (dhoop or agarbatti)
- A copy of the Shri Ahoi Ashtami Vrat Katha
Puja Vidhi
The vrat of Ahoi Ashtami is kept by mothers for the well-being and long life of their children, and is also kept by women who long for a child. It is observed on the Ashtami of the Krishna Paksha of Kartik — about eight days before Diwali. The one keeping the vrat fasts from sunrise, without food, until the stars appear in the evening sky.
On a wall of the home an image of Goddess Ahoi is drawn — traditionally with eight corners (ashtha koshthak), for the Ashtami — and beside her are drawn the syahu (a porcupine) and her young; where this is not done, a printed image of Ahoi Mata is used. The image is set up for the evening worship.
For the puja a kalash is filled with water and covered, and a small earthen karwa is set upon it. The worship is done in the sandhya hour after sunset: Goddess Ahoi is worshipped, halwa and puris are offered along with grass-shoots for the syahu, and offerings of akshat, roli, and milk are made. Many households keep a silver Ahoi — the syahu mala — which is worshipped and afterwards worn at the neck on a thread with two silver beads. The women gather to hear the Ahoi Ashtami Vrat Katha, and the aarti of Ahoi Mata is sung.
When the stars appear, the one keeping the vrat offers argha to the stars — in some families to the moon — with the water of the kalash, and then breaks the fast. The water of the kalash is kept, and is used for bathing on Roop Chaudas.
The Katha
Chapter 1
सात पुत्रों की कथा
The Story of the Seven Sons
Long ago, in a village at the edge of a dense forest, there lived a kind and devout woman who had seven sons. She loved them dearly, and the household was a happy one.
In the month of Kartik, a little before Diwali, the woman went into the forest to dig clay, for she wished to repair and adorn the walls of her house for the festival. As she dug with her spade she did not see that she was digging into the den of a syahu — a porcupine — and her spade struck and killed the syahu’s young.
When she saw what she had done, the woman was filled with sorrow and guilt. She had meant no harm, but the harm was done; she gathered her clay and returned home heavy-hearted.
Within that year a great grief came upon her. One after another her seven sons fell ill, and one after another they died, until not one of them was left. The woman and her household were sunk in sorrow, and in her heart she believed that this calamity had come upon her because of the syahu's young that her spade had killed.
In her grief she opened her heart to the elder women of the village and told them of the syahu’s young she had killed in the forest, all unknowing. The elders heard her, and said that because she had confessed her fault with a true and repentant heart, half of it was already lifted from her.
They counselled her to worship Goddess Ahoi — Ahoi Bhagwati — on the Ashtami of the Krishna Paksha of Kartik: to draw upon her wall the likeness of the syahu and her young, to keep a fast, and to worship the Goddess with a sincere and repentant heart, begging her forgiveness.
The woman did exactly as she was told. On the Kartik Krishna Ashtami she drew the syahu and her young, kept the fast, and worshipped Goddess Ahoi with all her devotion, praying for forgiveness. Goddess Ahoi was pleased with her sincere repentance and her devotion, and by the Goddess's grace her seven sons were restored to her, alive and well.
From that time the vrat of Ahoi Ashtami has been kept. On the Kartik Krishna Ashtami mothers worship Goddess Ahoi and keep her fast for the well-being and the long life of their children — and the Goddess, the protector of children, grants them her grace.
॥ Iti Shri Ahoi Ashtami Vrat Katha Sampurna ॥