Somvar Vrat Vidhi, 16 Somvar Niyam & How Many to Keep

Somvar vrat is a Monday fast kept for Shiva, usually with Parvati. You bathe in the morning, take a sankalp, worship Shiva, read the vrat katha, and eat once or take phalahar after the evening puja. Families keep it in four common forms:

• Regular Monday vrat: kept every Monday, either for a number of Mondays your family chooses or without counting.
• Solah Somvar: 16 Mondays in a row, followed by an udyapan.
• Shravan Somvar: the Mondays of the month of Shravan, which has four or five of them.
• Som Pradosh: a Pradosh Vrat that falls on a Monday. The next one is on Monday 21 December 2026, although in Delhi Trayodashi begins at 5:37 pm, just after sunset, so some calendars may show a different day. See our Pradosh Vrat dates.

The puja itself is the same in all four. What changes is the count, the katha and how the vrat is closed.

Many families begin the Somvar vrat on a Monday in Shukla Paksha, the bright half of the lunar month, and many choose to begin in Shravan. Your family priest can suggest a suitable Monday. On a Monday morning, our daily panchang shows whether it is Shukla or Krishna Paksha.

How many to keep depends on the form:

• Solah Somvar: 16 Mondays, then udyapan.
• Shravan Somvar: every Monday of Shravan, often repeated each year.
• Regular Monday vrat: some families set a count at the sankalp, others keep it for a year or for as long as they wish.

Say the count clearly in your first sankalp. Start at a time when you do not expect long travel or illness in the coming weeks. If you miss a Monday because you are unwell, many families continue the count and add one Monday at the end instead of starting again. Customs differ, so ask an elder if you took the vow with a specific rule.

What you need: a Shivling or a picture of Shiva and Parvati, water or Gangajal, raw milk, bilva leaves, white flowers, akshat, sandal paste, a ghee lamp, dhoop, fruit and a simple sweet for bhog.

1. Morning: wake early, bathe and wear clean clothes. Many people choose white or light colours.
2. Sankalp: sit before your home altar facing east or north. Say your name, your gotra if you know it, which Somvar vrat you are keeping and, for a counted vrat, the number of Mondays.
3. Ganesh first: offer a flower and a short prayer to Ganesh.
4. Abhishek: pour water or Gangajal on the Shivling, then a little raw milk, then water again, chanting Om Namah Shivaya.
5. Offerings: sandal paste, akshat, bilva leaves, white flowers, fruit and the sweet as bhog. Light the lamp and dhoop.
6. Recitation: read the Shiv Chalisa or the Shiv Panchakshar Stotram, or chant Om Namah Shivaya on a mala.
7. Katha: read or listen to the Somvar vrat katha. Solah Somvar has its own katha.
8. Aarti: sing Om Jai Shiv Omkara and close with the Karpur Gauram shlok, then ask forgiveness for any mistake in the puja.
9. Evening: many families repeat a short puja and lamp around sunset, and eat only after it.

At a Shiva temple on Monday, the same order works in short: offer water or milk to the Shivling, then bilva and flowers, and join the temple aarti if you can. Tulsi, ketaki flowers, haldi and kumkum are traditionally not offered on the Shivling.

These rules vary by family and region. Follow the ones your family keeps.

• One meal: many eat once, after the evening puja. Others take only phalahar, meaning fruit, milk and fasting foods, through the day.
• Salt: some families use sendha namak instead of ordinary salt on the vrat day.
• Sattvic food: no onion, garlic, meat, eggs or alcohol.
• Water: most families allow water. A nirjala fast is a personal vow, not a rule of the Somvar vrat.
• Solah Somvar bhog: in Solah Somvar, many families make a sweet churma of wheat flour, ghee and jaggery as bhog and take it as prasad.
• Conduct: avoid anger, quarrels and gossip, and keep the day simple.
• Katha: the Somvar vrat katha tells of a merchant who worshipped Shiva every Monday and was blessed with a son, and of how the family's devotion carried them through the trials that followed. Read the full text from a vrat katha book your family trusts.

The puja and a steady mind matter more than how strictly you fast.

Udyapan is the closing puja of a counted vrat. For Solah Somvar it is commonly done on the seventeenth Monday, though some families hold it on the sixteenth. Keep it simple:

1. Bathe, take a sankalp saying you are completing the Solah Somvar vrat.
2. Worship Shiva and Parvati as on every Monday, with abhishek, bilva, flowers and bhog.
3. If a priest is available, a small havan can be added.
4. Feed a few people, or a brahmin family, according to your means.
5. Give daan of clothes, grain or fruit within your budget.

Some families mark the udyapan with a bigger Shiva puja such as a Rudrabhishek; our Rudrabhishek guide explains what that involves. It is a choice, not a requirement.

On health: people who are pregnant, diabetic, elderly, on regular medication or unwell should speak to their doctor before a strict or nirjala fast. Tradition itself allows a lighter fast with milk and fruit for anyone whose body needs it. Somvar vrat is about the Monday puja, not about going hungry.

The home puja above is complete on its own. If you would also like an offering made at a temple in your name on a Monday, you can book a Shiva Archana at Sree Vinayak Mandir in Delhi. The temple's pandit chants the Shiva Ashtottara, the 108 names of Shiva, and offers bilva patra, dhatura and akshat. It takes about 30 minutes and costs Rs 299 at the time of writing.

When you book, enter your name, gotra (optional), date of birth and your prayer, and choose a Monday as your preferred date. You receive photo proof and a completion certificate by email, usually within 24 hours. Prasad can be delivered to your address if you add it when you book (₹250 within India at the time of writing). If you cancel before the archana is performed, you get a full refund.

An archana is an offering on your behalf. It does not replace your own vrat or count as one of your Mondays unless your family's practice says so.