Brihaspativar Vrat Katha · बृहस्पतिवार व्रत कथा

There was once a mighty and generous king who helped the poor and brahmins and gave freely in charity. His queen did not like it: she gave nothing herself, kept no fast, and tried to stop the king from giving.

One day, while the king was away hunting, Brihaspati Dev came to the palace disguised as a holy man and asked for alms. The queen refused and told him she was tired of all this charity; she wished their wealth would be destroyed. The sage was astonished: everyone wants wealth and children, he said, and if she had more than enough she should spend it on good works, such as feeding the hungry and arranging the marriages of poor girls. But the queen would not listen. So the sage told her that if that was her wish, she should do on Thursdays the things that drive wealth away, such as plastering the house and washing her hair with yellow clay. Then he vanished.

The queen did as he said, and after only three Thursdays all their wealth was gone and the household had nothing to eat. The king, unable to do humble work where everyone knew him, went to a distant land, where he lived by cutting and selling wood. The queen and her maid were left in misery.

Once, after seven days without food, the queen sent her maid to her rich sister in a nearby town. It was Thursday, and the sister was listening to the Brihaspativar katha, so she did not answer, and the maid returned hurt and angry. After the katha the sister came herself and explained that one neither rises nor speaks while the katha is being told. Hearing of their hunger, she told the queen that Brihaspati Dev fulfils every wish, and asked her to look in the house; the maid went in and found a pot full of grain.

The queen then asked her sister how to keep the vrat. She told her: worship Vishnu at the root of a banana tree with chana dal and raisins, light a lamp, hear the katha, and eat only yellow food. On the next Thursday the queen and her maid kept the vrat. Pleased, Brihaspati Dev came in the form of an ordinary man and gave them plates of yellow food. From then on they kept the vrat every Thursday, and by Brihaspati's grace their wealth returned.

When the queen grew careless again, the maid reminded her how their wealth had been lost, and urged her to give in charity and spend it on good works. The queen did so, and her good name spread through the city.

This is the katha read during the Thursday (Brihaspativar or Guruvar) vrat, kept for Brihaspati Dev and Vishnu. The published versions all follow one widely printed text with small differences; some continue with a second part about the king's own trials as a woodcutter. The retelling above keeps the part that the versions linked below share.

The katha is read or heard on Thursdays as part of the Thursday vrat, followed by the aarti and the prasad. Customs vary by family and region.