Umā Vrata in the Harivaṃśa

The Umā Vrata is a group of observances taught by Devī Pārvatī (also called Umā) in the Vishṇu Parva of the Harivaṃśa, Chapters 82–83. Each practice aims to bring beauty, good character and auspiciousness to one part of a woman’s body: the hair, forehead, eyebrows, ears, eyes, lips, teeth, face, breasts, stomach, voice and feet. Each has its own tithi (lunar day), food rule and dāna (gift).

Pārvatī gave this teaching to Arundhatī and the gathered divine women in the same talk in which she taught the general Puṇyaka Vrata. So the Umā Vrata completes and extends the Puṇyaka Vrata.

The Setting

These practices form the second main part of Pārvatī’s teaching to the divine women. After explaining the general Puṇyaka Vrata, Pārvatī said to Arundhatī: “O Arundhatī! Now I will describe the observances for women who wish to make particular parts of their body more beautiful. Listen carefully.”

Each practice follows the same pattern: a particular tithi or time, plus a particular food rule, plus a particular dāna, brings out one kind of beauty or good quality. Every practice lasts for one year (saṃvatsara).

The Observances, Part by Part

1. Hair (Long, Wavy, Reaching the Waist)

  • Tithi: Ashṭamī (eighth day) of the dark fortnight
  • Practice: fast, wear white clothes, perform pūjā to the devas, and eat only fruit
  • Dāna: a meal and dakshiṇā (a gift of money) to one brāhmaṇa
  • Result: the hair grows wavy and falls to the waist, and her husband holds her especially dear

2. Head and Its Shape

  • Tithi: Caturdaśī (fourteenth day) of the dark fortnight
  • Practice: wash the head with a mix of cow dung (gomaya), āmalaka fruit (āmla) and bilva (bael)
  • Result: freedom from ailments of the head, and a beautifully shaped head

3. Forehead

  • Tithi: Pratipadā (the first day of each fortnight)
  • Practice: eat only once a day for the whole year
  • Result: a beautiful, glowing forehead

4. Eyebrows

  • Tithi: fast on Pratipadā; on Dvitīyā (the second day) eat only vegetable food (śākāhāra)
  • Practice: continue for one year
  • Result: shapely, beautiful eyebrows

5. Ears

  • Tithi: days of the Śravaṇa nakshatra only
  • Practice: eat only on days when the Śravaṇa nakshatra (lunar mansion) is current, and fast on all other days
  • Result: beautiful, well-formed ears

6. Eyes

  • Practice: take only milk or ghee for one full year, and no other food
  • Result: beautiful, shining eyes

7. Lips

  • Practice: for one year, eat only what comes on its own without asking (asking for food is forbidden)
  • Result: beautiful, well-formed lips

8. Teeth

  • Tithi: Ashṭamī of the bright fortnight
  • Practice: fast on this tithi every month for one year
  • Result: bright, beautiful teeth

9. Glow of the Face (Mukhakānti)

  • Tithi: Pūrṇimā (full moon)
  • Practice: after bathing, give kshīrānna (rice cooked in milk) to a brāhmaṇa on every Pūrṇimā for one year
  • Result: a radiant, glowing face

10. Breasts

  • Tithi: Daśamī (tenth day)
  • Practice: keep mauna (silence) on Daśamī, and eat only what comes without asking
  • Result: beautiful, full, well-formed breasts

11. Stomach (Slimming)

  • Practice: eat only once a day all through the year, and fast on the Pañcamī (fifth day) of each fortnight
  • Result: a slender, beautiful stomach

12. Voice (Sweet Speech)

  • Practice: give up salt completely for one year
  • Result: a sweet, musical voice

13. Feet

  • Tithi: Shashṭhī (sixth day)
  • Practice: on every Shashṭhī, pour water over oneself and then eat; never touch fire or a brāhmaṇa with the feet (kept through the year and afterwards as a lasting rule)
  • Dāna at the end: silver tortoises (rajata-kacchapas) given to a brāhmaṇa
  • Result: beautiful, auspicious feet

Beauty of the Whole Body

  • Dāna: give ghee (ghṛta) and salt (lavaṇa) to brāhmaṇas
  • Result: beauty of the whole body

For a Virtuous Family

  • Tithi: Saptamī (seventh day)
  • Practice: eat only once, and only on Saptamī, for one full year
  • Dāna at the end: a golden tree (suvarṇa-vṛksha) and dakshiṇā to a brāhmaṇa
  • Result: every member of the family becomes virtuous and good-natured

The Gift of a Lamp (Dīpa-dāna)

  • Offer a lamp (dīpa-dāna) under a karañja tree (Pongamia) and give a golden lamp to a brāhmaṇa
  • Result: the woman brings joy and contentment to everyone she meets

The Highest State: Beyond All Vratas

Pārvatī ends by describing the woman who needs no vrata or fast at all:

“A woman who eats only after everyone else in the house has eaten, who causes no one grief, who sees her husband as her devatā, who speaks sweetly, who is devoted to serving her parents-in-law and who holds to dharma: such a woman of the highest character needs to keep no vrata, no fast, nothing more than this.”

Widows

Pārvatī also speaks directly to widows (vidhavās) in this teaching:

“For a woman whose husband has passed away by divine will, I will describe the vratas given in the Purāṇas. She should always honour an image (paṭa) of her husband. Every act, whether a vrata, a fast or a meal, should be done with the permission of that image. Through this she reaches her husband’s loka (world).”

How the Teaching Spread

At the close of the teaching Pārvatī declared: “From this day on, the divine women, Aditi, Indrāṇī and all the others, will be the source of this knowledge. You will become its teachers. And through the avatāra of Bhagavān Kṛshṇa, his wives will come to know it especially.”

After the teaching:

  • All the devoted wives gathered there bowed to Pārvatī and left
  • Aditi kept the vrata and offered the Pārijāta tree (tied to Kaśyapa) to Nārada as its closing dāna
  • Sāvitrī kept it
  • Satyabhāmā kept it and gave it its own name, Tīvrataka, “the intense vrata”, declaring that by keeping it the husband’s line, the father’s line and the woman herself are all uplifted
  • Indrāṇī kept it
  • All the devoted wives who had heard the teaching kept it

Sources

  • Harivaṃśa Purāṇa, Vishṇu Parva, Chapters 82–83