The card

Satyanarayan Pooja Invitation

A Satyanarayan Puja is almost always held at home. It may be on a full-moon day, after moving into a new house, on a birthday or an anniversary, or simply to give thanks when a wish has come true. Relatives plan their evening around three times, so put all three on the card. When the puja begins, when the katha is read, and when prasad or dinner is served.

Nothing on the designs has to be drawn or arranged. Replace the sample family name, times and address with your own, and the Vishnu or Ganesh artwork, the borders and the colours stay as they were designed.

What to write on the card

• Shree Ganeshaya Namah or a short shloka at the top, if your family starts every card that way
• Why the puja is being held: a new home, a birthday, an anniversary or the full moon
• The date, and the tithi beside it for elders who follow the panchang
• Puja, katha and prasad or dinner times, each on its own line
• The address with a nearby temple, school or shop as a marker
• The hosts' names at the end, the way your family usually signs

What is on the designs

Lord Satyanarayan with devotees at the katha, Lord Vishnu on a lotus, Ganesh, a small home mandir, kalash and prasad thali, marigold torans, banana leaves and diyas. Use the filter above the designs to see one kind at a time. A card starts in the language its artwork was made for, and the editor's language menu has the other versions ready.

Sharing

Nimantran Patrika for WhatsApp

Most families now send the nimantran patrika on WhatsApp and print a handful for the elders who like to keep one near the mandir. On a phone the date line is what gets read first, so the details sit in the middle of these designs and the decoration stays at the edges. Paste one of the messages below under the card before you send it.

Also called

Vratham Invitation

The same puja goes by different names. In the north it is Satyanarayan Katha or Mahapuja. In Telugu and Kannada homes it is Satyanarayana Swamy Vratam, or Vratham. The English designs here work as a vratham invitation as they are. Change the heading to the wording your family uses and keep the rest.

The ready-made text is in English and Hindi, but you can type in any script. Write the family name or the venue in Kannada, Telugu or Gujarati letters in any field and the editor loads the right font for that line, in the preview and in the download.

Not every puja fits these cards

A Snatra Puja is a Jain ceremony and Swaminarayan events follow their own tradition. The imagery on this site is Satyanarayan and Vishnu, so for those occasions pick one of the plain designs without a deity, change the heading, and keep in mind that a card made for that tradition will suit it better.

Print or screen

Pooja Banner or Invitation Card in English

Families sometimes ask for a pooja banner in English when what they want is the invitation card itself. The two do different jobs. A banner is a large landscape print for the door or the pandal. The designs on this site are portrait invitation cards, made to be read on a phone and to print at 5 by 7 inches or A5. The file is large enough to print sharp up to A4. There are 46 designs that open in English, each with the host, date, time and address lines already laid out.

• Card: portrait, all the details, sent on WhatsApp or printed for guests
• Banner: landscape, a welcome line and the family name, printed large for the venue
• If you need both, use the card's colours and deity as the reference when you get the banner printed

Templates

Puja Invitation Card Templates

Every design on this site is a finished template, not a blank background. The kalash, diyas, lotus and marigold motifs are part of the artwork, so there is no clipart to find or PNG to paste in. The text lines are the only thing you change.

Pick by what is on the card

• Vishnu and Devi: Lord Satyanarayan or Lakshmi Narayan as the main figure
• Ganesh: a Ganesh at the top, for families who begin every invitation with him
• Mandir and Arch: a home shrine or a carved arch framing the text
• Kalash and Puja: the kalash, the thali and the havan
• Floral and Toran: marigold strands, banana leaves and lotus borders
• Simple: a clean panel with a small motif, when the text should lead

How it works

Editable, Free and Online

Open a design, type your details in the boxes and download the card as PDF, PNG or JPG. There is no account to create and no watermark on the download. The preview on the card page is watermarked. The file you download is clean. A short form before the download asks for your name, phone and city, and that is all.

1. 1Choose a design and press Edit this card
2. 2Type the family name, date, times and address, and switch the language if you need to
3. 3Change a colour or text size from the Style option under any line, if you like
4. 4Download and share, or save a draft and finish later

If you would rather have it made for you, send the details on WhatsApp and we will set the card up and send it back ready to share.