Santoshi Mata Vrat (16 Fridays) संतोषी माता
The 16-Friday vrat of Santoshi Mata — its one strict rule: nothing sour (khatai) the whole day.
Vrat mantra
ॐ श्री संतोषी मात्रे नमः
Om Shri Santoshi Matre Namah
What you can eat — and what to avoid
✓ You can have
- Gud (jaggery) and roasted chana — the vrat's own prasad
- One sattvik meal after the puja — completely free of sour items
- Fruits and fresh fruit juices
- Milk, curd, paneer, butter, ghee
- Sabudana — khichdi, kheer or vada
- Kuttu (buckwheat) and singhara flour rotis / puris
- Samak (barnyard millet) rice
- Makhana, dry fruits and nuts
- Potato, sweet potato, arbi — cooked with sendha namak
- Sendha namak (rock salt) only
- Tea, coffee or coconut water in moderation
✗ Avoid
- Anything sour (khatai) — pickle, lemon, tamarind, curd, raw mango, amla — for you and ideally the whole household that day
- All grains — wheat, rice, semolina (sooji), besan, oats
- Pulses and legumes — dal, chana, rajma, soy
- Regular table / sea salt (use only sendha namak)
- Onion and garlic
- Non-vegetarian food and eggs
- Alcohol and tobacco
- Heavy spices — keep to jeera, kali mirch, green chilli
Step-by-step vrat vidhi
Sankalpa — the vrat morning
Wake early, bathe and wear clean clothes. With water, akshat and a flower in the right palm, state your name, the vrat (Santoshi Mata Vrat (16 Fridays)), its count if it is a series, and your prayer — then release the water.
Morning puja
Bathe early, take the sankalpa of 16 Fridays, set a kalash with water before Santoshi Mata, and worship with flowers, dhoop-deep and the gud-chana (jaggery and roasted gram) offering.
Keep the fast through the day
Keep the fast as prescribed — day fast · one meal · strictly nothing sour (khatai). Spend free moments in japa of "Om Shri Santoshi Matre Namah", and keep the mind sattvik: no anger, gossip or harsh speech.
Katha & evening puja
Read the Santoshi Mata vrat katha (holding gud-chana in hand), sing the aarti "Jai Santoshi Mata", distribute the gud-chana prasad, then take the single meal.
Paran — breaking the fast
After the Friday puja, katha and gud-chana prasad — one sattvik meal with absolutely nothing sour in it.
Daan & prasad
Share the prasad with everyone present and give some daan (food, fruit or dakshina) as per capacity — the vrat is completed by giving.
Special rules for this vrat
- The no-khatai rule is the defining discipline of this vrat — even touching sour food is traditionally avoided on the vrat day.
- On the 17th Friday do the udyapan: feed 8 boys a meal of kheer-puri (no sour dish) and give dakshina.
- Keep the vrat with santosh (contentment) — the Mata's very name.
Family and regional traditions (parampara) vary — where yours differs, follow your parampara. Children, the elderly, pregnant women, and anyone unwell or on medication should keep a softened vrat (fruit and milk) or skip it — a vrat is bhakti and restraint, never hardship to the body.
Choose another vrat
What is a Vrat Vidhi?
A vrat vidhi is the procedure for keeping a sacred fast — from the morning sankalpa (vow), the deity's puja, the discipline of the fast through the day, the katha (vrat story) and aarti, to the paran (breaking of the fast) at its proper time. Each vrat has its own food rules: most allow phalahar (fruits, milk, sabudana, kuttu and singhara flour, samak rice, with sendha namak only), some are kept nirjala (without even water, like Karwa Chauth), and a few carry one defining rule — no grains on Ekadashi, nothing sour on the Santoshi Mata vrat, no salt on the Ravivar vrat.
Pick a Dev or Devi to see the complete vidhi of their vrat — the day, the fast type, what you can eat and what to avoid, the paran rule, mantra, katha and aarti — and use the linked samagri checklist where one exists. A vrat is bhakti and self-restraint, never hardship: children, the elderly, pregnant women and the unwell should keep a softened form, and family traditions (parampara) always come first.