Govardhan Puja (Annakut)

Overview

Govardhan Puja is the day after Diwali — Kartika Shukla Pratipada — and its story is one of the most told of Krishna’s youth. The cowherds of Braj are preparing their yearly offering to Indra, god of rain; the boy Krishna asks why they honour a distant god rather than the hill that feeds their cattle, and persuades them to offer the feast to Govardhan instead. Indra answers with a week of storms, and Krishna lifts the hill on the little finger of his left hand and shelters the whole village beneath it until Indra gives up. The day is kept with a hill of cow dung or food, walked around in circumambulation, and — in temples — the Annakut, a mountain of cooked dishes offered and then shared.

The story and its source

The account is in the Bhagavata Purana, tenth canto, chapters 24 and 25: the argument with Nanda about the Indra-yajna, the offering to the hill, the storm, the seven days under Govardhan, and Indra’s apology. The Vishnu Purana (5.10–11) and the Harivamsha tell it with small differences. Gaudiya and Pushtimarg commentators read the hill as Krishna’s own form — he both lifts it and, in the story, appears as a huge figure on the hilltop eating the offering — which is why Govardhan itself is worshipped, not only Krishna.

The hill is real: a low ridge near Mathura, circled by a parikrama route of about 21 kilometres that pilgrims walk barefoot, many on this day.

How the day is kept

At home. A small hill is shaped from cow dung in the courtyard or on the doorstep — in cities, from a mound of rice or a drawing — decorated with flowers, and worshipped as Govardhan with lamps, incense and food. The family walks around it. Sweets and cooked food are offered and then eaten.

In temples. Annakut is the centre. Fifty-six kinds of dish (chhappan bhog) is the conventional number, and large temples offer hundreds, arranged in tiers before the deity and distributed as prasad afterwards. In Vrindavan and Mathura the day draws crowds for the parikrama and for the darshan of Annakut at the Govardhan temples; the Pushtimarg havelis of Nathdwara and the Swaminarayan temples treat Annakut as one of the year’s largest events.

Jaap. The day’s texts are Krishna’s: the Hare Krishna mahamantra, and — for the hill itself — the Giriraj Chalisa and the Govardhan aarti linked below. Cowherd communities keep the day as Gau Puja and worship their cattle.

Regional forms

• Braj (Mathura–Vrindavan): the pilgrimage and the parikrama; Annakut at every temple.
• Gujarat: the same day is Bestu Varas, the Gujarati new year; Annakut is offered in temples and homes, and the Govardhan story is told alongside the new-year greetings.
• Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala: Bali Pratipada (Padva), marking Bali’s return — the Vamana story from the Bhagavata Purana’s eighth canto — with the Govardhan puja secondary or absent. In Maharashtra the day is also kept as a day for husbands and wives, with the wife performing aarti for her husband.
• Punjab, Haryana, UP, Bihar: Govardhan Puja with the cow-dung hill; Gau Puja in farming families.

The date

Pratipada is taken at sunrise; the observance is the day on which Kartika Shukla Pratipada is current at sunrise in one’s own city. Because it follows Amavasya, a year in which Diwali’s date differs between regions carries the difference into this day too.

Mantra, aarti and chalisa for Govardhan Puja (Annakut)

Aarti Shri Govardhan Maharaj Aarti श्री गोवर्धन महाराज Chalisa Giriraj Chalisa गिरिराज चालीसा