Decoding The Midnight Ritual Of Sargi

Every morning, on the occasion of Karwa Chauth, begins with the soft quiet of pre-dawn ritual. It begins with a small, carefully arranged tray of food that includes fruits, pheni or seviyan, dry fruits, sweets and often a little paratha or curd. This meal is called a Sargi, also spelt sergi in Punjabi contexts and is prepared by the mother-in-law for her daughter-in-law to sustain her through the day of fasting, making it an anchor for the ritual and signifying familial ties.

The festival that follows the lunar cycle and falls on the fourth day of the waning moon (Krishna Paksh) in the Kartik month, Karwa Chauth, is considered a vow taken by the women for their husbands’ prosperity. According to the Narada Purana, one of Hinduism’s encyclopedic texts on ritual observances mentions pre-dawn preparation for the Karaka Chaturthi and talks about offerings before fasting, suggesting that the practice may have existed for a very long time.

The Ritual of Sargi

The fast of Karwa Chauth lasts from sunrise to moonrise, a full day without food or water, making the Sargi or the pre-dawn meal a vital source of energy. Traditional calendars revere this time just before sunrise as spiritually very powerful. It marks the transition between two to tithis or lunar days, which is a moment of cosmic alignment that Puranic texts often associate with purity.  The timing of the ritual, additionally, also reflects the moon’s influence, with the early meal creating a bridge that connects night and day.

The ritual of a mother-in-law giving Sargi to her daughter-in-law, besides being ritualistically crucial to the festival of Karwa Chauth, also holds emotional weight since the meal is often accompanied by sweets, jewellery and small gifts known as baya. The act of gifting, along with the Sargi, reflects the affectionate bond that is shared by a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.

Ann Grodzins Gold, Anthropologist, states in her essay, “Fasting, Storytelling and Marriage in Provincial Rajasthan,” offers a vivid account of how fasts like Karwa Chauth don't just blend devotion with storytelling but bring forth the idea of social solidarity. In her fieldwork, she noted that the ritual of a pre-dawn meal was often a shared experience among married women, who would wake up, eat and collectively perform the rituals of the festival. She further found that while the festival on one hand celebrates marital fidelity, on the other hand, it binds women together across generations.

From A Ritual To A Spiritual Restraint

The timing of eating Sargi before sunrise is not just part of a ritual but also physiological and astronomical. According to Ayurveda, the human body digests and absorbs food better before the sun’s heat rises, and water consumed before daylight is believed to balance the body’s fire element or pitta. Several of the Hindu vratas include eating before sunrise to signify entering a state of spiritual restraint.

Not just that, the role of the moon is also crucial, not just for breaking the fast but also for eating Sargi. The festival of Karwa Chauth is governed by the lunar calendar, making the moon a very big part of every stage of the ritual since it follows the moon’s cycle. 

Revered as Chandradev, women are believed to fast under his watchful eye, and Sargi, eaten when the moon is still fading, marks the beginning of a sacred connection between the divine and the devotee.

Sargi: Markers of Transition

The rural origins of Karwa Chauth have been traced to the agrarian communities of northwest India by several historians. It has been noted more specifically among families in Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan that grow wheat. The word ‘karwa’ itself refers to an earthen pot that is frequently filled with grain or water, both of which symbolise fertility and nourishment. Women would pray for their husbands and the well-being of their households during this festival, which takes place after the kharif crop harvest and before the rabi season. 

Sargi's timing in this situation is ideal to fit the agrarian cycle; it's a meal that represents the beginning of a new season while also marking the end of harvest. Anthropologists often regarded rituals like Sargi as “markers of transition” between night and day, one crop cycle and the next, maidenhood and marital womanhood.

In modern times, the concept of Sargi has evolved. In the urban areas, confectioners offer Sargi hampers, carefully curating them with dry fruits, flavoured pheni and gourmet mithai.