Pajuno puno vrat - Puno Festival - Puno Festival

Pajuno fast will be observed on chaitra shukla purnima. Females observe this fast for the welfare and prosperity of their children with full dedication and faith. Puno means, the last date of Chandramaas or fifteenth day of shukla paksha. This fast is particularly observed on the full moon day of shukla paksha in devotion of Lord Pajuno Kumar.

Lord Kumar is worshipped on the chaitra purnima of shukla paksha with proper rituals and dedication. Females can observe this fast according to their wish and faith. The interesting fact about this fast is that there is no ritual to observe strict fasting, all the significance lies in worshipping and offering prayers to the lord. Females who are blessed with boy child observe this fast.

Rituals for Pajuno Puno Fast

Females blessed with son observe Pujano puno fast for the welfare and prosperity of their son. On this day 5 or 7 earthen pots are worshipped along with karwa.

Paint the pots with lime or chalk soil and Karwa with turmeric paste. After painting them let them dry in a sun for a day. Once the pots and Karwa gets dried, make a picture of Lord Kumar along with the picture of his two mothers’. Establish the Karwa between the earthen pots and fill them with different variety of sweets and food.

Lord Ganesha, goddess Parvati and nine planets are worshipped in this puja along with Lord Kumar and his mother's. After that, the story of Lord Kumar is recited by one women of the family and the other one hears it holding a handful of rice.

On completion of the story, drop these rice over the pots. Shake these pots one by one and keep them back. Now take out the sweet from the pot of Lord Kumar and offer it to the female observing the fast. Rest of the prasad is distributed among all the members of the family . Chant the following mantra while distributing the prasad to family members.

Pujan ke laddu va pajun khaaye

daur-daur wohi kothari me jaye ||

Story of Pajuno Puno Fast

As per the legends, King Vasuki had two wives - Sikoli and Roopa. The king was living a happy and prosperous life with his queens, but was deprived of the pleasure of a child. Roopa was curious to have a child, but all the elder ladies of the kingdom told her that, it is not possible without the blessings of her mother-in-law and sister-in-law. But Roopa’s mother-in-law and sister-in law did not like her much and used to favour the other queen, Sikoli. Roopa asked other females to guide her the way to get their blessings.

As per the suggestions of elder females, Roopa visits her mother-in-law and sister-in-law in a disguise of a milkwoman. She keeps the milk cans before them and bends down to take their blessings. Both of them blesses Roopa with a child assuming her to be someone else.

After sometime Roopa gets pregnant and informs the king about it. She also discloses him the entire incident and trick she played to get the blessing of her in-laws. But, she was scared to tell this news to them and told the king that she is not aware of the procedure of delivering the child. The king told her that he will install bells around the kingdom, and whenever she feels uncomfortable she can ring the bell so that he is able to help her out.

One day Roopa decides to take a test of the arrangements made for her help and rings the bell unnecessarily. The king came running to the queen and got angry on realizing that it was just a prank. He scolds the queen and tell her that he will never come back again. The queen realizes her mistake, but having no other option she decided to tell her in-laws about her pregnancy.

Both of them got angry listening to the news, but promised to help her during the time of delivery.  They told her that whenever the labour pain arises she should sit on the ponder, keeping her face in the corner. Roopa does everything as per the directions of her mother -in-law. When the child takes birth, he slips into the ponder from the womb of the mother. As soon as the mother-in-law hears the cry of the child, she along with her daughter and Sirokali goes to the ponder and throws the child into the dustbin and fills the ponder with stones and pebbles. When Roopa gains her conscious, her mother-in-law informs her that she has given birth to stones and pebbles and not the human.

When the king reaches the kingdom he finds out that her wife has given birth to stones. He gets upset and soon realizes that his mother and sister had played some trick on him, but was unable to question them about it. The child took birth on the full moon day of chaitra shukla paksha. A potter finds the child in a dustbin and takes him home. Potter and his wife adopts him and raise him as their own child.

When the child grows up, the potter gives him a horse made of clay to play with. One day he takes the horse to the river bank and asks it to drink water from the river. All the females present around him started laughing and told him that the horse he is carrying cannot drink water as it is made of a clay. The child defends himself saying that if the queen can give birth to stones and pebbles then even his horse can drink water from the river. Everyone started saying that he is the son of queen Roopa. When Sirokali  hears the news, she compels the king to kill the child. The king refuses to do so, but asks the Potter’s family to leave the state.

After some time the child started visiting the kingdom in disguise and easily gets along with everyone. Once the kingdom was suffering from the drought. The saints advised the king and the queen to pull the cart together on their shoulders with a child sitting on it, who took birth on the full moon day of chaitra shukla paksha. Listening to the advice of the saints the child told the king that he was born on the full moon day of chaitra shukla paksha.

At the time of the cart pulling, the child goes to Roopa and tells her to do every task after Sirokali. Roopa does as per the direction of the child. She asks Sirokali to pull the cart first along with the king. Sirokali had to suffer a lot while pulling the cart. Bright Sun and thorns on the way gave her lots of trouble.

When Roopa’s turn came to pull the cart, the weather got pleasant and it started raining. She did not have to face any problem while pulling the cart. The child touched the feet of her mother and seek her blessings making it evident that he is the son of Roopa only.

Pujan Kumar first visits his grandmother and asks her, “ Dadi hum aaye, kya aapke mann bhaye” ( Grandmother, did you feel happy by seeing me ). His grandmother says, “ naati-pote kisse bure lagte hai” (who doesn’t love grandchildren ). Pujan Kumar did not find the answer according to his wish and cursed his grandmother  to become a threshold in next birth.

Then he goes to his aunt and asks her the same question. Again, not being satisfied with the answer he cursed his aunt to become a pot of soil in her next birth. Then, he goes to his stepmother and asks the same question. Again, he does not get answer according to his wish and cursed her to become a ghandchi.

In the end, he visits his mother and asks her the same question all over again. On this Roopa replied, that “she doesn’t know from where he came and who raised him. She did not get the privilege to raise him and see him growing up”. On the very moment, Pujan Kumar turned into a new born baby and started crying. Roopa takes him into her arms and feeds him her milk. Everyone in the kingdom was happy with the birth of Pujan Kumar and since that day this day is celebrated as Pujano Puno.