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Fasting (vrat): not simply going without
Desi fasting usually isn't abstention from all food. It's a switch to a different, restricted set of permitted foods — which is why "I'm fasting" may be said over a plate of something.
What "vrat" actually restricts
| Not allowed | Grains (wheat, rice), most pulses, ordinary table salt, often onion and garlic |
| Allowed | Fruit, milk and curd, potatoes and certain vegetables, sabudana (tapioca pearls), kuttu and singhara flours, and sendha namak (rock salt) |
| Typical vrat food | Sabudana khichdi, kuttu puris, fruit chaat, potato sabzi, and milk-based sweets |
Common fasts
- Ekadashi — the eleventh day of each lunar fortnight; observed by many Vaishnava households.
- Weekly fasts — Monday for Shiva, Tuesday for Hanuman, Thursday for Sai Baba or Vishnu, Saturday for Shani. Which day depends on the household deity.
- Navratri — nine days, twice a year; one of the most widely observed.
- Karva Chauth — a day-long fast without food or water, kept mainly by married women in North India, broken after sighting the moon.
- Ramadan — in Muslim households, a month of complete fasting from dawn to sunset, broken at iftar. Different in kind from vrat: total abstention, including water.
- Jain fasting — among the most rigorous of all, including extended fasts and eating only in daylight hours.
If someone tells you they're fasting
Don't press food on them, and don't assume it means no food at all. The useful question is simply "what can you have?" — people are used to explaining and rarely mind.
Not medical advice
This page describes a traditional practice and what people believe about it. It isn't treatment, and it isn't a substitute for a doctor. If something hurts, persists, or worries you, see a medical professional.
Last updated: 2026-08-11
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