Ṛṣi Pañcamī 2017

Ṛṣi Pañcamī falls on the fifth day of the bright fortnight (Śukla Pakṣa) of Bhādrapada, the day after Gaṇeśa Caturthī, and is dedicated to the Sapta Ṛṣis, the seven sages Kaśyapa, Atri, Bharadvāja, Viśvāmitra, Gautama, Jamadagni, and Vasiṣṭha, along with Arundhatī, the embodiment of wifely and ascetic virtue.

It is observed mainly by women as a purificatory vrata, an expiation (prāyaścitta) for any lapses in the traditional rules of ritual purity kept during the year. Observers typically fast, bathe with earth turned up by a cow's hoof or a special herbal paste, and eat only foods that grow without ploughing the earth: forest produce and root vegetables rather than grains raised by tilled cultivation.