Historical Reference
The Hindu Puranas state that this ritual was initially performed by Parvati, the wife of lord Shankar, to please him and to entice him into marrying her. On the day of Chaitra shukla trutiya (the third day of the second half of Hindu month Chaitra), lord Shankar was pleased with her devotion and agreed to marry her. As such the purpose of performing this ritual was served and hence this day of the month Chaitra is treated as the day of ‘Vratpurti’ (completion of the ‘Vrat’). The Puranas also have an evidence about Sita performing this ritual to succeed in her endevour to marry lord Shriram.
Purpose
The Hindu New Year commences with the festival of Gudipadva which is the first day of the Hindu month Chaitra. The ‘Vasant Rutu’, which gives a new attire to mother nature, signifies the start of new life on the auspicious occasion of ‘Gudhipadva’. The prime purpose behind celebration of the festivals or rituals like ‘Chaitragauri’ (in Chaitra) , ‘Mangalagauri’ (in Shravan), ‘Bhondla’ (in Ashvin) must have been sharing the moments of joy and grief and to develop lasting ties between each other by the newlywed brides. The system of joint family resulted in restrictions of all sorts on the girls who were hardly out of their childhood and just about entering the early teens. The burden of all household work, may be of a family of 10/15, would normally result in moments of utter despair for them. Such rituals, which are mostly performed by them at their parent’s place, were designed to provide them much needed solace from such situations where they would fast lose their childhood.
Rituals
This is the very first ritual (Kulachar) of the year, celebrated by most chitpavan Brahmins, from the third day from Gudhipadva till the third day of the next month ‘Vaishakh’ i.e. ‘Akshaytrutiya’. During the entire month, the idol of the ‘Gauri’ (‘Annapurna’ or ‘Parvati’, the wife of lord ‘Shankara’) is separated from the idols of the other gods and is placed in a small plate (‘Tamhan’) or a small glass of brass or silver (‘Panchpatra’) after filling it with grains of rice till the brim. The ‘Annapurna’ being a symbol of the bride, is bathed with milk and water before being placed in the ‘Silver’ cradle which is placed on the topmost step out of the odd number of steps (3 or 5) which are decorated by attractive arrangements of fragrant flowers. The rest of the steps are decorated by placing various fruits, laddus, ‘Karanjya’, Naivedya of ‘Khirapat’ (dry coconut with sugar).