Anant Chaturdashi

Anant Chaturdashi is dedicated to Ananta, the endless form of Vishnu. Its vrat-katha tells of Sushila and her husband, Sage Kaundinya. Sushila learned the Ananta Vrat from women performing worship beside a river and tied the sacred thread with fourteen knots after the ritual. Kaundinya, not understanding its meaning, angrily removed and burned the thread. Their prosperity then collapsed, and Kaundinya came to believe that his disrespect toward the vow had brought the decline. He undertook a long search for Ananta, repented, and finally observed the vrata properly, after which his fortunes were restored. The story is also narrated to Yudhishthira, whom Krishna advises to perform Ananta Vrat during the Pandavas' hardship. The day therefore represents perseverance, humility and faith in Vishnu's sustaining presence. In many places it also marks the final major day of Ganeshotsav and Ganesh Visarjan.

Anant Chaturdashi is valued for devotion, family tradition and the spiritual or seasonal meaning attached to the day.

A cotton or silk thread with fourteen knots is worshipped and tied - on the right arm for a man, the left for a woman - and kept for the year. Fourteen of everything is offered. The Ganesh immersion processions run the same day, and in Gujarat the two have grown together until most people know it only as the immersion.

The Ganesh immersion is Maharashtra and Gujarat; the Anant vrat with its thread is kept more widely and quietly. Jains keep the same day as the last of Paryushan in the Digambar reckoning, the Kshamavani that asks forgiveness of everyone.