Panchmeva for puja and prasad

Panchmeva is prasad made of five dry fruits, offered at the puja and then shared out. Most families use makhana, kishmish, kaju and badam, with charoli or chuara as the fifth, though the five change from family to family and region to region.

All of them are on the shelf above. Buy them as they are and mix at home, or message us on WhatsApp and we will make up prasad packs for you.

The five dry fruits in panchmeva

• Makhana (fox nut). Makhana (Fox Nut) is used as it is, or roasted lightly in ghee first. Break the large ones in half so they sit evenly in the mix.
• Kishmish (raisins). Regular Dakh (Kishmis/Resin) is the everyday kishmish most homes use.
• Kaju (cashew). Regular Cashew, whole or split in two to match the size of everything else.
• Badam (almonds). Regular Badam, whole. Some families slice them.
• Charoli or chuara. Charoli (Chironji) is a small, soft seed with a mild, nutty taste, and a little goes a long way. Chuara (dry dates) is the other common fifth. Remove the seed and snip it into small rings, as whole chuara is hard to chew.

Other families use gola (dry coconut), mishri, pista, akhrot or munakka in place of one of these. We do not keep coconut or mishri, so those would come from your grocer. Our list of dry fruit names in English and Hindi helps if your family uses other names.

How much panchmeva for a puja or Satyanarayan katha

The offering on the thali needs only a katori or a small plate. The quantity that matters is the prasad given out afterwards.

• Per person: a heaped spoonful or a small palmful, roughly 15 to 20 g of the mix.
• A family puja of ten or fifteen people: a few hundred grams in all.
• A katha with around fifty people: about a kilo in total. That works out to 250 g each of kaju, badam and kishmish, a 100 g pack of charoli, and makhana measured out by the bowl.

Makhana weighs very little for its size, so mix by the bowl rather than by the scale: roughly equal bowls of makhana, kaju, badam and kishmish, then a spoon or two of charoli. A 250 g pack of makhana will be more than you need, and the rest roasts into an evening snack.

At a Satyanarayan katha the main prasad is usually sheera or panjiri, with panchamrit. Many families stir some of the panchmeva into the sheera and give the rest into each person’s palm.

Janmashtami, Navratri and temple offerings

On Janmashtami, many families offer Laddu Gopal a midnight thali of panchamrit, dhaniya panjiri, makhan mishri and panchmeva. Makhana is especially common in Janmashtami prasad.

During Navratri, dry fruits are widely eaten by those who are fasting, so panchmeva suits a vrat household. Fasting rules differ between families, so follow your own. A small pouch of panchmeva is also an easy thing to give each girl at kanya pujan, alongside the usual prasad.

Dry fruits also suit temple offerings, as they do not spoil in a warm hall. Some temples have their own rules on what devotees may bring, so ask first.

Making prasad packets

1. Mix everything the day before in a large, clean, dry bowl or parat.
2. If you roast the makhana, let it cool completely before mixing. Packed warm, it steams itself soft.
3. Use one spoon as the measure, so every packet is the same.
4. Fill small food-safe pouches or paper cones and fold them shut.
5. Keep the packets somewhere dry and out of the sun until the puja.

Leftover panchmeva keeps for a couple of weeks in an airtight jar. In humid weather, roasted makhana goes soft within days if the lid is left open. For more ways to put dry fruits together, see our page on mixed dry fruits, and everything else is on the dry fruits shelf.

Custom prasad packs on WhatsApp

If you would rather not mix and pack it yourself, message us on WhatsApp. Tell us the occasion, how many people, which five your family uses, and the date and city, and we will make up the packs.

Delivery takes a few days depending on your city, so order about a week before the puja. Orders start at ₹1,500, every order ships free, and payment is online.

Questions people ask