Rishi Panchami 2026

Quick facts

• Also known asRushi Panchami, Saptarishi puja
• WhereMaharashtra, above all its villages and the Konkan; Nepal
• Puja forThe seven rishis (Kashyapa, Bharadvaja, Vishvamitra, Gautama, Jamadagni, Vasishtha, Atri) and Arundhati
• In one lineWorship of the seven rishis and Arundhati, and respect for food grown by your own hands.

Rishi Panchami, in a little more detail

1. 01

   About the festival

   The rishis are our oldest teachers. Today you bow to them, and remember what they taught.

   Today's rule is special: nothing ploughed, nothing grown with a bullock's labour. Not even fruit or the usual fasting food: only what grows on unploughed land, by human hands.

   By tradition it is also a vrat of atonement: you ask forgiveness for the slips, known and unknown, in your daily duties. It is kept mostly by women.

2. 02

   The seven rishis in the sky

   Look north at night: seven stars make the shape of a ladle. Those are the Saptarishi, the seven rishis: Kashyapa, Bharadvaja, Vishvamitra, Gautama, Jamadagni, Vasishtha and Atri.

   Right beside Vasishtha is a small, faint star: Arundhati, Vasishtha's wife. Svaha, Agni's wife, could take the form of the other six rishis' wives, but never Arundhati's. That's how true she was.

   So at a wedding the groom shows the bride Arundhati's star: may we be a pair like them. And on Rishi Panchami Arundhati is worshipped along with the seven.

3. 03

   In Maharashtra and beyond

   The dish of the day is rishichi bhaji: colocasia leaves, suran, val beans, red pumpkin, peas, okra and tender amaranth, all cooked together.

   In the morning you brush your teeth with an aghada twig, bathe, and do the sixteen-step puja of the seven rishis and Arundhati, with eight betel nuts set out for them.

   Sant Gajanan Maharaj of Shegaon took samadhi on this tithi. And many of the Ganpatis brought home on Chaturthi go into the water today.

   Women in Nepal keep this vrat too. Among the Maheshwari and Kayastha communities, though, this is the day of Raksha Bandhan.

How to do the puja

In short: An aghada twig for your teeth, a bath, the seven rishis and Arundhati on eight betel nuts, and only rishichi bhaji all day.

1. 1In the morning, clean your teeth with an aghada twig.Aghada twigs are sold in the markets these days.
2. 2Bathe; some homes add baths with earth, cow dung and sacred ash.A plain bath is enough too.
3. 3Set eight betel nuts on a patta: the seven rishis and Arundhati.The seven: Kashyapa, Bharadvaja, Vishvamitra, Gautama, Jamadagni, Vasishtha and Atri.
4. 4Worship them with the sixteen steps: water, sandalwood, akshata and flowers.Place Arundhati beside Vasishtha.
5. 5Cook the rishichi bhaji from vegetables grown without a bullock's work.All the vegetables cooked together, in most homes in oil, with little spice.
6. 6Offer it as naivedya, and eat only that through the day.One day a year of food from your own labour: that's the rule today.
7. 7If your Ganpati stays a day and a half, his visarjan is today.The uttarpuja, the aarti, and a visarjan in a bucket at home or an artificial pond.

What you needTick as you go

• Aghada twigs
• Eight betel nuts
• A patta and a clean cloth
• Sandalwood paste, haldi, kunku and akshata
• Flowers
• A diya, ghee and incense
• For the bhaji: colocasia leaves, suran, val, red pumpkin, okra, tender amaranth
• An aarti plate

Frequently asked questions