How to do the Jivitputrika · Jitiya puja at home

A bath, and one clean meal — madua roti, noni saag and what the house makes with them — eaten in full, for only the othgan comes after it.

1. The day before

   Nahai-khai, the day before

   1. Bathe — in a river or a pond where there is one, at home where there is not.
   2. Then one clean meal: madua roti and noni saag is what the houses of Bihar and Jharkhand make for it, with jhor-bhaat, nenua and kushi kerao beside them. A rice roti does where madua cannot be had.
   3. No onion, no garlic, nothing from the market, nothing from yesterday.
   4. Maithil houses often eat fish with the madua today and keep the rest the same.
   5. Eat a full meal. After this there is only the othgan before dawn, and then nothing until the parana.

   Noni — purslane — and madua, the finger millet, are what the body is given before a day and a night without water, as the houses that keep this vrat have long done.

   

2. The day before

   Set the things out tonight

   1. Soak the kusha so it is soft enough to shape tomorrow.
   2. Put out the thread, the diya, the mustard oil and the khali, the nenua leaves, the akshat, and the fruit.
   3. Set out what the othgan needs — curd, chura, something sweet, a full lota of water — so that all is ready before first light.
   4. Cook nothing for the vrat day. Cook tomorrow evening, for the parana.
   

The othgan while it is still dark, the last food and water. Then, from sunrise to tomorrow morning, nothing at all — not even water. Say what you are keeping, and for whom.

1. Before dawn, and sunrise

   Othgan, before first light

   1. Wake while it is still fully dark.
   2. Eat a little and drink as much water as is needed: curd and chura, something sweet, a fruit.
   3. Finish before the sky begins to lighten. This is the last food and the last water until the parana.
   4. Rest again if you can; the day ahead is long.

   Othgan — sargahi in some houses — is the food that carries the body through the day. It belongs to the vrat; leaving it out does not make the vrat more complete.

   
3. 2. The sankalp, in your own words
   3. Through the day and the night

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

Jimutvahan ji shaped of kusha, the jackal and the kite of cow dung beside Him, and the katha read with the other mothers.

1. 1. Jimutvahan ji, shaped of kusha
   2. The jackal and the kite
   3. The diya
   4. Achaman
   5. The offerings
   6. The katha, with the other mothers
   7. The thread, kept through the night
   8. Through the night

   These 8 steps, with their drawings and mantras, are in the app

Water offered to Surya Dev, then water and the food kept aside for the parana — and the thread put on, for which the night was kept.

1. 1. The parana
   2. The thread, and the oil on the children
   3. Visarjan of Jimutvahan ji

   These 3 steps, with their drawings and mantras, are in the app