ಶನಿ ಪ್ರದೋಷ | Shani Pradosha

Shani Pradosha is a pradosha that falls on a Saturday. The pradosha vrata belongs to the trayodashi, the thirteenth tithi, and is kept in each fortnight with a fast through the day and the worship of Shiva in the hour or so after sunset. When the evening that carries it is a Saturday, the day takes the name of Shani, the planet Saturn, whose day Saturday is, and it is kept with particular care. It is observed across India, in the Tamil country as Sani Pradosham, and the evening worship at Shiva temples is usually more crowded than on other pradoshas.

Why Shiva on Shani’s day

Shani is the planet people most often seek relief from: in the seven and a half years of sade sati, while Saturn passes through the sign of one’s birth moon and the signs on either side of it, in its other difficult transits, and in its dasha. The remedy most widely given for Shani’s trouble is not the worship of Shani alone but the worship of Shiva, who is regarded as Shani’s guru; Shani is held to be a devotee of Shiva and to yield to him. A pradosha, the hour sacred to Shiva, falling on Shani’s own day brings the two together, and that is the whole reason for the name. Nothing in the ritual itself has to change.

How it is kept

The day is kept as any pradosha. There is a bath and a sankalpa in the morning, and a fast through the day: some take fruit only, others nothing, and those who keep it strictly avoid grain and salt. Before sunset there is a second bath. At pradosha Shiva is worshipped with Parvati and with Nandi, the linga is bathed with milk, curd, honey and water, and bilva leaves are offered. The fast is broken after the puja.

To this many add something for Shani: the chanting of Om Namah Shivaya together with a Shani mantra, the recitation of the Mahamrityunjaya mantra, or, as is the custom in the North, a lamp of oil lit in the evening under a peepal tree. Those going through sade sati or a Shani dasha are the ones most often told to keep it. Other reasons given are relief from long illness, success in disputes and court cases, and the recovery of lost property.

Which day Anudina gives

Anudina first finds the pradosha day as it always does: the day on which trayodashi is running at pradosha, the hour after sunset. That is not always the day trayodashi holds at sunrise. If trayodashi is running at pradosha on two evenings, the first is taken; if on neither, the day it holds at sunrise. When the day so found is a Saturday, it is Shani Pradosha. The date therefore follows the evening, not the morning: a trayodashi that begins on a Saturday afternoon makes that Saturday a Shani Pradosha, while one that is current on Saturday morning but ends before sunset does not. Because pradosha depends on local sunset, the weekday can differ between places in a close case.

Of the twenty-four or so pradoshas in a year only a few fall on a Saturday. The next dates Anudina gives are 20 March, 31 July and 14 August 2027. It is shown in every regional setting, and the evening window and the time to break the fast are those of the pradosha. A pradosha on a Monday is Soma Pradosha, and the dark fortnight’s pradosha is followed the next night by Masa Shivaratri.