Pradosh vrat katha

The orphaned prince and sage Shandilya

After the Skanda Purana, Brahmottara Khanda; Suta tells it to the sages.

Suta said to the sages: a righteous king ruled the land of Vidarbha. Once enemy kings laid siege to his city. The king was killed in battle and his kingdom fell to the enemies. His little son was left an orphan; his mother too did not live.

In those days a poor brahmin woman whose husband had died lived by begging, with her little son. She came upon the orphaned prince. Out of pity she took him home and raised him along with her own son. The two boys grew up together, and the household still lived on alms.

One day the brahmin woman brought the two boys to sage Shandilya. She bowed to him and asked whose son the prince was and how the boys’ poverty could end. The sage told her that this was the son of the king of Vidarbha, whose father had been killed in battle. Of her own son he said that in his past life he had been a fine brahmin but had spent his whole life only accepting gifts, without performing sacrifices or other good rites; that was why poverty had come to him in this life, and the remedy was to take refuge in Lord Shankara.

Sage Shandilya said that those who do not worship Shiva at Pradosh time stay poor, while those who worship Shiva’s feet at Pradosh with a single mind see their wealth, grain, family and good fortune grow in this very world. Then he taught the rite: to fast on the Trayodashi of both fortnights, to bathe before sunset and wear white, and to worship Shiva together with Parvati at Pradosh time.

Shuchivrata finds a pot of treasure

Following the sage’s word, the two boys began to worship Shiva on every Pradosh. (In the katha the brahmin woman’s son is named Shuchivrata and the prince Dharmagupta.) Four months passed this way. One day Shuchivrata went to bathe in the river without the prince and wandered along the bank for a long while. There, in ground cut away by the flowing water, he saw a large buried pot gleaming, full of treasure. He brought it to his mother and said it was Shiva’s grace.

The mother called the prince too and said, "Sons, share this treasure equally." But Dharmagupta refused a share. He said, "This is the fruit of my brother’s merit. Lord Shankara has been gracious to him, and he will be gracious to me too." And he went on with the Shiva puja as before.

The Gandharva maiden Anshumati and Dharmagupta’s kingdom

A year passed in Shiva worship. One day the two brothers went walking in the forest. Some way in, they saw hundreds of Gandharva maidens at play. Shuchivrata said it was not right to go further where women were at play, and turned back and waited at a distance. Dharmagupta went on alone, without fear.

One of the maidens, seeing him come, began to think. She sent her friends to the nearby forest to bring champa and ashoka flowers and stayed behind. She offered Dharmagupta a seat and asked who he was and whose son. Dharmagupta said he was the son of the king of Vidarbha, that his parents were dead and enemies had taken his kingdom. The maiden said she was Anshumati, daughter of a Gandharva king, and took off her pearl necklace and gave it to Dharmagupta.

Dharmagupta said he had no kingdom and no wealth. Anshumati asked him to come to the same place after two days. He went home and told Shuchivrata and his mother everything.

When Dharmagupta reached the place on the appointed day, the Gandharva king was there with his daughter. He said, "I went to Kailasa. There Mahadeva called me and said that on earth there is a prince named Dharmagupta, whose kingdom enemies have seized and who always worships me; by his merit his ancestors have reached my world. Help him." At this command of Shiva the Gandharva king gave Anshumati to Dharmagupta and said he would defeat the enemies and win him back his kingdom.

The wedding took place there in the forest. As dowry the Gandharva king gave great wealth, weapons, chariots, elephants and horses, and an army of Gandharvas. Dharmagupta went to his city with the army, defeated the enemies, won back his kingdom and became king. The brahmin woman who had raised him remained his mother, Shuchivrata his brother, and Anshumati became queen.

Suta said that just as Dharmagupta won his kingdom by worshipping Shiva at Pradosh, so others too gain what they long for by worshipping Shiva on Pradosh. The Purana says that whoever hears or reads this greatness of Pradosh on that day after the Shiva puja is not poor for a hundred births.