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13/08/2026
Coinciding with Independence Day, Hariyali Teej falls on Saturday, August 15, 2026. Teej is observed by married women in Bihar and is one of the most significant fasting days of the Shravan month, observed to pray for their husbands' long life and a harmonious marriage. The Hariyali Teej vrat is typically a sunrise-to-sunset nirjala fast, broken the next morning, and in Bihar, you find the likes of pidukiya, kasaar, thekua, pua, chandrakala, khasta kachori, and puri bhaji.
Hariyali Teej falls on the third day of Shukla Paksha in the month of Shravan, and this ritual is associated with Hindu mythology, which marks the reunion of Goddess Parvati and Lord Shiva after her long penance. Legend has it that she took 108 lifetimes and endured years of austerity before he accepted her as his consort. This story is at the heart of why the festival is observed almost entirely by women, who celebrate devotion, patience, and marital bonds, and the rituals around it, with mehendi, shola shringar, new green clothes, decorated swings (jhulas), and folk songs. Everything revolves around the idea of love and endurance.
During Hariyali Teej, women wake up early, bathe, dress in green (a colour associated with monsoon and fertility), apply mehendi, and observe a nirjala vrat, meaning no food or water, throughout the day. In the evening, a puja is performed for Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati, the Teej vrat katha is read out and listened to, and women swing on decorated jhulas while singing traditional songs, a practice that marks the day as much as the fast itself. Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh are more associated with ghevar, malpua and kheer, while Bihar keeps it homely with its jaggery and rice flour, used for Chhath Puja and weddings.
Amid songs of divine love and monsoons, indulge in the classics of Bihari food this Teej season, some you might be familiar with, and some new.
This sweet dish is Bihar's take on the gujiya, a half-moon pastry made with refined flour, with a shell that envelopes a coconut and jaggery filling. What makes the pidukiya unique is that it is deep-fried and not dipped in sugar syrup, unlike similar sweets. So you get a treat that is crispy, not sticky, and because of that, pidukiyas can be stored for several days without refrigeration. Bite into one, and the shell gives way like a crumbling facade to the moist, faintly grainy coconut filling underneath. You get a caramel-and-molasses taste from the jaggery, which pairs well with the maida and the fragrance of cardamom.
This sweet is like a churma of sorts, and unlike many of the deep-fried items in this list, it is dry-roasted. Kasaar is made with rice flour that is dry-roasted until fragrant; then jaggery is added, along with ghee and fennel seeds, and the mixture is hand-rolled into small, loosely packed laddoos. These are more like deconstructed laddoos, given how crumbly they are, and tend to dissolve quickly on the tongue. This Hariyali Teej special sweet treat has an earthy flavour, with flavours of roasted rice flour, jaggery, and fennel. Traditionally, kasaar is packed for daughters leaving for their in-laws' home after a wedding.
One of the most Bihari things out there is thekua, which is not just restricted to Hariyali Teej but also to Chhath Puja. A stiff dough of whole wheat flour, ghee, jaggery syrup, grated coconut and fennel is made, then pressed into different patterns using a wooden mould called a sancha. These are deep-fried over medium-low heat, giving the thekuas ample time to cook before the outside can brown. Thekua is dense and dry, more like a biscuit made to stay crunchy for several days. The flavour tends to have tinges of caramel from the jaggery and also toasted coconut, with fennel adding a mild liquorice-like flavour.
Bihar's simpler, humbler cousin of the more famous malpua is pua, and it is a common sight during celebratory occasions. There are differences between the two: malpua typically uses maida, milk and sugar syrup, while Bihar's pua is made from nothing more than wheat flour and jaggery water. The batter is rested until it thickens slightly and then fried straight from the spoon. It's a dish eaten at festivals like Hariyali Teej as well as with everyday tea. Because the batter is dropped freehand into hot oil rather than shaped, each piece fries into an irregular, lacy disc with crisp, frilled edges around a softer, almost bread-like centre.
Similar to gujiya, chandrakala can be round or crescent-shaped, just like the gujiyas. It has a khoya filling much like sweets found across North and South India, and it earns its place on a Bihari Hariyali Teej platter through the finishing touch of pidukiya skips: a dip in sugar syrup after frying. The maida crust is folded over a rich stuffing of khoya, sugar, and chopped nuts, sealed into a half-moon or full-moon shape, and deep-fried until golden, then briefly soaked in syrup. The flavour of this sweet treat is quite rich, milky and dense with a faint cardamom aroma.
After a lineup of sweet dishes, khasta kachori is where the spread turns savoury. A dough is made with the first step being the creation of the moyan, using ghee instead of oil, and then the dough is stuffed with a coarsely ground moong dal filling that is spiced with cumin, coriander seeds, fennel, ginger, and some asafoetida. The khasta kachoris are then fried on low heat for a while to achieve their flaky, ‘khasta’ texture. If done right, the layers separate into a crust that is brittle, not chewy, and brings out the best in the dry filling.
One cannot break the Hariyali Teej vrat with just sweets, so this one dish does all the heavy lifting. Puri bhaji is the dish that typically breaks the nirjala fast in most Bihari homes, before anyone touches the sweets. A simple wheat dough is rolled out and quickly fried into delightfully puffy puris, served alongside a simple potato curry with minimal spices, keeping in mind that the stomach needs something gentle and not heavy when breaking the Hariyali Teej vrat after a day of no water or food entering the body.
Dish |
Cooking Technique |
Texture |
Flavour Profile |
Pidukiya |
Deep-fried, no syrup |
Crisp shell, moist filling |
Coconut, jaggery, light cardamom |
Kasaar |
No-cook, hand-rolled |
Grainy, crumbly |
Earthy jaggery, roasted rice, fennel |
Thekua |
Moulded, slow deep-fried |
Dense, dry, crunchy |
Caramelised jaggery, toasted coconut |
Pua |
Free-form deep-fried fritter |
Lacy, crisp edges, soft centre |
Rustic jaggery sweetness |
Chandrakala |
Fried, then syrup-dipped |
Crisp outside, fudgy inside |
Milky khoya, syrup, cardamom |
Khasta Kachori |
Stuffed, slow deep-fried |
Flaky crust, gritty filling |
Cumin, fennel, ginger, asafoetida |
Puri Bhaji |
Flash-fried + simmered curry |
Puffed, airy puris; soft curry |
Mild cumin and ginger |
Most of these dishes use jaggery rather than refined sugar, and that swap, despite what research says about calories, is intentional; the difference lies in the nutrition. One review shows that jaggery retains minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, and iron, which are stripped out during sugar refining, along with antioxidant phenolic compounds. That said, jaggery is still a concentrated sweetener, so consume sweets in moderation, especially if you are managing blood sugar.
Hariyali Teej 2026 falls on August 15. Married women in Bihar and North India observe a sunrise-to-sunset nirjala vrat, breaking it only after the evening puja is complete.
