How to do the Atla Tadde puja at home

The brahma muhurta: last night's rice soured with curd, gongura pachadi with it, and then nothing until the moon.

1. Before dawn

   Gorintaku, the night before

   1. The evening before, apply the henna — the palms, and the fingertips as far as the first joint.
   2. The women of the house put it on for one another, the girls first.
   3. Leave it on overnight and wash it off before the saddi annam.

   Gorintaku is henna. It goes on the evening before, so the hands are already coloured when the day begins.

   

2. Before dawn

   The saddi annam, before the sun

   1. Wake in the brahma muhurta, bathe, and wear a fresh cotton saree.
   2. Eat the rice kept from last night, soured with curd, with gongura pachadi. This meal is always the previous night's rice.
   3. Eat your fill: nothing more is taken until the moon.
   4. The nirjala begins at sunrise, not at the meal.
   

3. Before dawn

   The sankalp

   1. Sit before the place where the mandapam will stand, with water in the right palm.
   2. In your own words, make the sankalp before Gauri Maa: a nirjala day from sunrise to the moon, kept for a husband's long life — or, by a girl, for the husband she has not yet met.
   3. Release the water at the root of a plant.

   Married women keep it for their husbands, and unmarried girls from about puberty for the husband they will have. It is a saubhagya vrat, and a widow does not keep it.

   

The uyyala is hung, and the women of the street sing the Atla Tadde songs on it through the afternoon.

1. 1. Hang the uyyala
   2. The afternoon, in the shade

   These 2 steps, with their drawings and mantras, are in the app

The mandapam set facing east, Ganesh ji first and then Gauri Maa, with the sixteen offerings where the house makes them.

1. 1. Set the mandapam
   2. The diya
   3. Achaman
   4. Ganesh ji first
   5. Avahan: inviting Gauri Maa
   6. The offerings
   7. Gauri Maa's hundred and eight names

   These 7 steps, with their drawings and mantras, are in the app

The moon seen in water and the arghyam offered, the atlu offered and then taken as prasad — and the vayanam carried to the other women before the house sits down.

1. 1. Wait for the moon
   2. See the moon in the water
   3. Offer the atlu
   4. The katha
   5. Give the vayanam
   6. The parana
   7. Kshama prarthana

   These 7 steps, with their drawings and mantras, are in the app