The Story Of The Channi: Why Women Look Through A Sieve During Karwa Chauth

The evening of Karwa Chauth is an eventful moment for the married women as the moon finally rises after a day of fasting. A familiar image unfolds across households. But what is interesting is the ritual when women lift a metal sieve toward the sky, peering through its lattice at the moon and then lowering it to look at her husband.

While this ceremonial moment is observed across several families, what still remains a curious question in the minds of most is the origin of this tradition. The sieve or, popularly, the channi is one of the most definitive elements that has been noticed across Karwa Chauth and while its use is as obvious as it gets during the ritual, it is layered with symbolism, and ancient folklore.

The puja of Karwa Chauth follows a very strict ritual structure that begins with the telling of the tale of Queen Veeravati and the sieve only comes into the ritual at the very end of the puja. As the women gear up to break their fast after moonrise, they offer arghya (water) to Chandradev or the lord of moon in prayer for their husbands’ well-being. They then look at the moon through the sieve before looking at their partners in the same way. 

Sieve As A Mediator Between Humans And The Divine

This ritual is symbolic as the moon itself holds the key position in the Hindu Vedic traditions as Chandradev. He is revered as the deity of calm, emotional balance and fertility. Thus, observing the moon through a sieve or particularly through a filter, rather than a direct gaze, is believed to soften its radiance and sanctify the moment of vision. Several oral traditions suggest that the sieve acts as a mediator between the divine and a human.

Mediation is considered sacred across many of the Hindu traditions and cultural historians often described the sieve’s surface as a metaphor for filtering, and thereby, looking at the moon through the sieve during the ritual of Karwa Chauth is also described as inviting positive energy and filtering out the negative energy. It also signifies that a woman filters intentions and blessings before receiving them.

Ritual Of Karwa Chauth Is A Reflection Of Households

According to anthropologists, many elements of the ritual of Karwa Chauth are derived from household implements. She noted that the sieve was once a central part of a household, similar to the Karwa or the earthen pot, to filter out grains, and therefore it became an important element in the domestic ritual.

The ethnographers who have studied women’s vratas in the Northern part of India have noted similar filtering motifs in rituals involving cloth, veil or latticework. Hence, a sieve is not only an object but also a visual instrument that separates the worshiper and the god by means of a protective and purification boundary. In certain households, the moon, which is seen through the channel, is compared to the first look of the new bride through a ghoonghat — far away, holy and respectable.

Many popular stories associated with Karwa Chauth promote the ritual that entails seeing and being seen by a medium. The story of Queen Veeravati, which is very often told in households during the evening katha, includes a moment where the misleading moonlight (from lamps) changes the destiny of the protagonist. The idea that the moon should be seen in its true form, and acknowledged intentionally, seems to have woven itself into the modern use of the sieve.

Protector Against Illusions

In some local versions, the sieve is portrayed as a protector against illusion — a means of ensuring that the moon one sees is the true moon, duly witnessed and honoured. Anthropologist Ann Grodzins Gold, who has written extensively on women’s vratas in Rajasthan, has argued that narrative and ritual often reinforce one another, giving tangible form to cautionary story elements.

Once the moon is viewed through the sieve, the woman then turns to look at her husband in the same way, reflecting the sentiment that the cosmic ritual has become a personal vow. Such an act indicates that, like the moon is perceived as a witness and a guardian, so is the marital bond between husband and wife. By putting the husband in the same framed view as the moon, the ritual congruently lends the lunar boon to marital life.

Some cultural commentators interpret the sieve as a boundary between the physical world and the world of vows — a temporary screen that holds love, longing and protection within it. The sieve, in this view, becomes less about separation and more about sanctification.

Karwa Chauth is a festival built as much on sight as on fasting. The sieve is both frame and filter — it creates a pause between the ritual’s climax and its completion. It marks the moment when devotion becomes visible, when hunger meets hope, and when the fast gives way to blessing. Its use may not be prescribed directly in ancient texts, but its evolution through folklore, custom and household culture has made it essential to the identity of the festival.