Vrat refers to religious vows or observances in Hinduism involving restrictions on food and behavior. Vrats can be undertaken for religious purposes, to celebrate cultural traditions, or to seek divine help. They typically involve fasting, purity practices, and rituals focused on deities. Vrats can vary in duration from a day to a year and involve different levels of austerity. The goal is spiritual discipline and purification of mind and body to gain worldly and otherworldly benefits as well as express religious devotion.

1. BA III Sem
Topic: Vrat
By
Prachi Virag Sontakke

2. Vrat
• Derived from Sanskrit root ‘vr’ meaning vow, resolve, devotion, restrain, choose.
• Refers to the practice of austerity, particularly in matters related to foods and
drinks.
• The concept evolves as a form of religious votive rite which is personally &
privately observed
• A pious observance or prayers seeking health, fertility, long life or happiness for
her loved ones.
• A Detailed explanation of concept of Vrat in Grihya-sutras and Puranas.

3. Meaning
• Meaning changed with time
• Rgveda 9.112.1: Every man's vocation is his Vrata.
• Rgveda 1.93.8: The act of sacrifice is also called a Vrata
• Upanishads: An ethical and behavioral discipline process, one where food is respected, the needy
helped, the stranger welcomed, the student carries on the pursuit of knowledge.
• Meaning of the word in the Vedic era was not as a personal pious observance but was related to ṛta
and dharma, in the sense of inner principles and universal laws that keep order in the cosmos.
• Mahabharata 1.191.5 (Kunti to Draupadi): Be thou the wife at their sacrifices, strict in thy vows [vrat]
• Puranas & Dharmasastras link the practice to the empowering concept of Shakti of a woman and
also as a form of penance through the concept of Prāyaścitta for both men and women
• Post-Vedic texts use the term as a form of self-imposed restrictions on food & behavior.

4. Why Vrat?
• For religious purpose
• For nonreligious reasons.
➢Celebration of one's cultural
tradition.
➢A form of quid pro quo sacrifice to
get or give divine help to someone.
➢A form of sorry, self-correction,
penance and expiatory (prāyaścitta)

5. Elements of Vrat
• Each vrat has a specific significance attached to it.
• Observance of certain rules: purity, morality, fasting etc.
• Fluid in its rules: One can skip in certain situations.

6. Observance of Vrat
• A personal practice, typically involving no priest.
• May be accompanied by personal prayers, chanting, reading of spiritual texts, social get
together of friends and family, or silent meditation
• The śmrtis go into great detail on the subject of vrat discussing even the details pertaining
to what type of flowers should be used in worship.
• May involve a fast for a fixed period of time, usually a full day, where either no food is
eaten/ only one meal is eaten in the entire day/only a certain food is consumed during the
period of the Vrata.
• Other observances include sleeping on the ground or a short sleep, or alternatively yoga
with meditation, reading scripture and charitable giving (dāna)

7. Types of Vrat: On the basis of
purpose
• Nitya: observed regularly without any specific
aim. Eg Ekadashi, Pradosh etc.
• Naimittika: Vrat specially for some diety. Eg On
Sunday for Surya, Monday for Shiva etc.
• Kaamana: In anticipation of fulfilment of a
particular wish. Eg. Karwa Chauth, Jyutiya etc.

8. Types of Vrat: On the basis of
Medium
• Kayika-vrat: Pertaining to the body. The stress is on
physical austerity like fasting.
• Vaicharika-vrat: Pertaining to speech. Here much
importance is given to either remaining silent /
speaking the truth and reciting the scriptures.
• Manas-vrata: Pertaining to the mind. The emphasis
here is on controlling the mind, by controlling the
passions and prejudices that arise in it.

9. Types of Vrat: On the basis of duration
• Classified by its time period.
• such as Vrat for a day, a paksha (week or
fortnight), a month or a year

10. Types of Vrat: On the basis of Food
• Ayaachit Vrat: accepting only that which you get without asking.
• Mitbhukta: Fasting with restricted food.

11. On the basis of scale
• Simple Vrat:
• Elaborate Vrat: Those associated with major festivals or tirtha or rite
of passage ceremonies, involving weeks of preparation, the drawing
of Vrata mandala from various colored grain flour, wall decoration,
cleaning of the house, special bath and festive dress, charity, a visit to
a Hindu temple for a darśana of the inner sanctum

12. Significance
• Purity of mind & body: Peace and contentment
• In observance of Vrat mind & body undergoes similar process as in
Tap/penance.
• Performance of Vrat bestows this worldly & other worldly prosperity.
• Vrat also acts as a show of faith & piety.
• For prāyaścitta, the Vratas are the second most discussed method in the
Puranas, after the Tirtha
• Expresses solidarity with religious tenets.