Karva Chauth katha

Veeravati

The opening with Draupadi is in the Sanskrit Vrataraja, Bharatkosh and Webdunia; the Veeravati story follows Drik Panchang’s telling, which is how it is heard in most homes.

The katha begins like this. Arjuna had gone to the mountains to do tapas, and in his absence trouble after trouble fell on the Pandavas. Worried, Draupadi asked Krishna which vrat would remove every obstacle. Krishna said, “Parvati once asked Lord Shiva this same question, and Shiva told her of the Karaka Chaturthi vrat, which removes all obstacles.” Then Krishna told its story.

In Indraprasthapura lived a learned brahmin named Vedasharma with his wife Leelavati. They had seven sons and one daughter, Veeravati. The only sister of seven brothers, she was everyone’s darling. In time she was married to a worthy young brahmin learned in the Vedas.

Her first Karva Chauth after the wedding came while she was at her parents’ home. She kept the fast from sunrise together with her brothers’ wives. By evening hunger and thirst had worn her out, and before the moon rose she fainted and fell. The family wept, and brought her round with sprinkled water and fanning.

The brothers could not bear to see their dear sister like this. They knew she would take no food or water without offering water to the moon. So one brother climbed a big banyan tree far off and lit a lamp behind a sieve, so that its glow looked like the rising moon. The others brought Veeravati up to the roof and said, “Look, the moon has risen.”

Taking the glow for the moon, Veeravati offered water to it and sat down to eat. In the first mouthful she found a hair. At the second she sneezed. She had just raised the third when a summons came from her in-laws’ house.

Alarmed, she hurried to her in-laws’ home and found her husband dead. She wept bitterly, wondering what wrong she had done.

Hearing her grief, Indrani, the wife of Indra, came to her. She said, “You broke your fast by offering water before the moon had risen; that is why this trouble came. Now keep the fast of every month’s Chauth for a year, faithfully, and keep the next Karva Chauth with the full rite.”

With full devotion Veeravati kept the Chauth fasts of twelve months and then kept Karva Chauth with every rite. By the merit of these fasts her husband came back to life. They lived happily, and their home had plenty and children.

Krishna told Draupadi to keep this same vrat. As the katha says, Draupadi kept the Karva Chauth fast, and by its power the Pandavas’ troubles came to an end.

Karva and the crocodile

A folk tale, given by Webdunia, Bharatkosh and English Wikipedia; no text is named for it.

In a village by a river lived a devoted wife named Karva with her old, frail husband. One day, as he bathed in the river, a crocodile seized his leg and began to drag him into the water. He cried out, “Karva! Karva!”

Karva came running and bound the crocodile with a thread of raw cotton. Then she went to Yama. One telling says Yama was going through Chitragupta’s ledgers just then; Karva swept with seven grass stalks and the ledgers flew up into the sky, and Yama asked her what she wanted.

Karva said, “This crocodile has seized my husband’s leg. Send it to hell and give my husband a long life.” Yama said, “The crocodile’s life is not yet over; I cannot take it before its time.” Karva said, “Then I will curse you.”

Yama feared the curse of a devoted wife. He sent the crocodile to his realm and granted Karva’s husband a long life. In one telling Yama promises to protect the married life of every woman who fasts on that day. The day was Kartik Krishna Chaturthi, and from then on the fast bore Karva’s name: Karva Chauth.

The katha ends with a prayer: O Karva Mata, as you protected your husband’s life, protect the married life of all.