In the Som Pradosh katha as tradition tells it, a widowed brahmin woman raises her son on alms. She comes upon a prince of Vidarbha whose kingdom an enemy has seized, and raises him too. The prince marries the Gandharva maiden Anshumati, and by the power of the woman’s Pradosh vrat and with the Gandharva king’s army he wins back his kingdom.
Hindi in Roman letters: a reading aid, made by a program. The Devanagari text is the original.
The other language could not be loaded. Keep reading here, or try again.
Each morning the tithi, Rahu Kaal and coming festivals, in one short WhatsApp message.Follow the channel
The next Som Pradosh dates
- Monday, 21 December 2026Som Pradosh · Margashirsha Shukla TrayodashiPuja time 5:37–8:13 PM (New Delhi) · your city’s time
- Monday, 3 May 2027Som Pradosh · Vaishakha Krishna TrayodashiPuja time 8:05–9:06 PM (New Delhi) · your city’s time
- Monday, 17 May 2027Som Pradosh · Vaishakha Shukla TrayodashiPuja time 7:06–9:10 PM (New Delhi) · your city’s time
- Monday, 13 September 2027Som Pradosh · Bhadrapada Shukla TrayodashiPuja time 6:29–8:48 PM (New Delhi) · your city’s time
The next Pradosh, on another weekday: Friday, 6 November 2026, Shukra Pradosh vrat katha
Pradosh Vrat 2026-27: full listA Pradosh vrat whose Trayodashi falls on a Monday is called Som Pradosh (Drik Panchang). This katha is a short form of the Pradosh story of the Skanda Purana (sage Shandilya, Shuchivrata and Dharmagupta); in the booklets this form is read as the Som Pradosh katha. The full story is on the Pradosh vrat katha page.
This katha is told by tradition; we found no Purana chapter for it. In the printed Pradosh booklets, Suta tells the kathas of all seven weekdays to Shaunaka and the other sages. We checked this one event by event against Drik Panchang and two printed booklets and told it in our own words; any differences are given below.
How the vrat and katha are kept
- By Drik Panchang and the booklets: bathe in the morning, meditate on Shiva and Parvati, worship them and offer arghya.
- Chant "Om Namah Shivaya" 108 times, then pray to Shiva for protection from sorrow and the burden of debt.
- The main time of the Shiva puja is Pradosh kaal after sunset, while the Trayodashi tithi also runs (Drik Panchang); the puja time of the next dates is above. The full rite is on the Pradosh vrat katha page.
Hindi in Roman letters: a reading aid, made by a program. The Devanagari text is the original.
The other language could not be loaded. Keep reading here, or try again.
The Som Pradosh katha: the brahmin widow and the prince of Vidarbha
In a town lived a brahmin woman. Her husband had died and she had no one to support her. Every morning she went out begging with her son, and fed the two of them on what she was given.
One day, coming back from begging, she found a boy on the road in a very bad way. She felt pity for him and brought him home. The boy was a prince of Vidarbha. A neighbouring king had attacked his father’s kingdom and taken it, and so he was wandering helpless. He grew up in the brahmin woman’s house along with her son.
One day, as the two boys were playing, some Gandharva maidens saw them and were charmed by the prince. The brahmin boy came home, but the prince stayed on talking with a Gandharva maiden named Anshumati. The next day Anshumati brought her parents to meet the prince, and they liked him too. Some days later Shiva told Anshumati’s parents in a dream to marry their daughter to the prince, and they did so.
The sages had told the brahmin woman to keep the Pradosh vrat always. By the power of her vrat and with the help of the Gandharva king’s army, the prince drove the enemies out of Vidarbha, won back his father’s kingdom and ruled happily. He made the brahmin woman’s son his chief minister. The katha says that just as the woman’s Pradosh vrat turned these two boys’ fortunes, so Shiva turns the fortunes of his other devotees too.
Other tellings
- In the Manav Vikas Foundation booklet the prince is found wounded and enemies had taken his father captive; in Drik Panchang and the Randhir Prakashan booklet a neighbouring king had seized the kingdom.
- In the fuller story of the Skanda Purana the prince’s father had been killed in battle, sage Shandilya teaches the rite, Shiva gives the Gandharva king the command for the marriage on Kailasa (not in a dream), and the brahmin boy Shuchivrata is called the king’s brother, not his minister.
After the katha
After the katha the Shiva aarti is done; the Pradosh booklets give "Jai Shiv Omkara" for it. The full rite of the Pradosh vrat and the original katha of the Skanda Purana are on the Pradosh vrat katha page.
Pradosh Vrat 2026-27: full list Pradosh vrat kathaFrequently asked questions
What is Som Pradosh?
A Pradosh vrat whose Trayodashi falls on a Monday is called Som Pradosh (Drik Panchang). The vrat is kept on the day whose Pradosh kaal after sunset has the Trayodashi, so it sometimes falls on the Dwadashi day. The next dates and the puja time are at the top of this page; by the Pradosh booklets, this is the katha read and heard that day.
Sources
- Drik Panchang, Soma Pradosha Vrat Katha (drikpanchang.com/vrat-katha/pradosha/soma-pradosha/soma-pradosha-vrat-katha.html), read 10 October 2026
- "Pradosh (Trayodashi) Vrat Katha, with the separate kathas of all seven days", told by Pt. Jwala Prasad Chaturvedi, Randhir Prakashan, Haridwar (archive.org/details/PradoshVratKathaRandhirPrakashan)
- "Pradosh (Trayodashi) Vrat Katha, Puja Vidhi, Udyapan Vidhi", Manav Vikas Foundation, Mumbai (Acharya Akhilesh Dwivedi), 2021 (archive.org/details/mvf_20240803_20240803_1531)
- Skanda Purana, Brahma Khanda, Brahmottara Khanda, chapter 6 "The Importance of Pradosha" and 7 "The Procedure of Shiva’s Worship", English translation by G. V. Tagare (Motilal Banarsidass), on wisdomlib.org (read 10 October 2026)
- Drik Panchang, Pradosh list, puja times and the names by weekday (drikpanchang.com/vrats/pradoshdates.html)
Something wrong? Report a mistake
