The vrata has been named after Savitri. Savitri was the beautiful daughter of king Aswapati of Madra Desa. She selected Satyavan as her life's partner, a prince in exile who was living in the forest with his blind father Dyumatsen. She left the palace and lived with her husband and the in-laws in the forest. As a devoted wife and daughter in-law she took all pain to take care of them. One day while cutting wood in the jungle Satyavan head reeled and he fell down from the tree and then breathed his last on the lap of his beloved wife, Savitri. Then appeared Yamraj, the death God to take away the soul of Satyavan from his body. Deeply hurt Savitri, pleaded to Yamraj not to be separated from her husband. If at all he would take away the soul of her husband she would also follow. Yamraj, moved by the devotion of Savitri returned the life of her husband. Satyavan got back his life again and both of them lived happily thereafter.
