The puja
Bathe early, dress as a bride and make the sankalpa for the vrat. Take a plate with water, roli, rice, flowers, soaked black gram, fruit, sweets, raw cotton thread, a small fan and images or pictures of Savitri and Satyavan, and go to a banyan tree, or worship a branch of one at home.
Pour water at the roots of the tree, apply roli, sindoor and turmeric, and offer flowers, gram and fruit. Worship Savitri and Satyavan, and Brahma with Savitri, who are said to dwell in the tree. Wind the cotton thread around the trunk while walking round it, seven, twenty-one or a hundred and eight times, praying for your husband's life.
The katha and the close
Sit under the tree and hear the katha of Savitri and Satyavan. Fan the tree with the hand fan, as Savitri fanned her husband. Give soaked gram, fruit and clothes or money to the mother-in-law or a married woman and touch her feet. Many break the fast by swallowing a banyan bud with water, and eat only after the puja.
The banyan tree
The banyan lives for centuries and sends down new roots from its branches, so it is a symbol of long life and an unbroken family. Brahma is said to dwell in its roots, Vishnu in its trunk and Shiva in its branches, and Savitri held her dead husband in its shade until she won him back. Women who cannot reach a banyan tree worship a branch of one, or a picture, at home.