Kamada Ekadashi Vrat Katha · कामदा एकादशी व्रत कथा

The story of the gandharva Lalit, cursed to become a demon, and his wife Lalita, who freed him with the merit of the Kamada Ekadashi fast, retold from the published versions.

The story, retold

Krishna told this story as the sage Vasishtha had once told it to King Dilip, who asked which Ekadashi falls in the bright fortnight of Chaitra.

In the city of King Pundarika lived gandharvas, kinnaras and apsaras. Among them were the gandharva Lalit and his wife Lalita, who loved each other so deeply that they could not bear to be apart.

One day Lalit was singing in Pundarika's court without Lalita. As he sang he began to think of her, and his singing faltered. The naga Karkotaka saw what was in his mind and told the king. Angry that Lalit was thinking of his wife while singing before him, Pundarika cursed him to become a man-eating demon (rakshasa), and Lalit at once took a huge and terrible form.

Grieving, Lalita followed her husband as he wandered through the forests. At last she came to the ashram of a sage and asked him how her husband could be freed. The sage told her that the Kamada Ekadashi of the bright fortnight of Chaitra was near, and that if she kept its fast and gave its merit to her husband, he would be freed from the curse.

Lalita kept the fast, and on the next day (Dvadashi), before brahmins, she gave its merit to her husband. At once Lalit was freed from the demon's form and became a gandharva again, and the two went to heaven in a celestial chariot.

The katha ends by saying that this fast destroys sins and even frees one from a demon's birth, and that reading or hearing it brings the merit of the Vajapeya sacrifice.

This katha is given as a retelling only: published versions tell it in different words and with different details, and we have not compared an original text for it. Every point in it appears in at least two of the published versions linked below.

About this text

Kamada Ekadashi is the Ekadashi of the bright fortnight (Shukla paksha) of Chaitra. Its story belongs to the series in which each Ekadashi's glory is told, often as Krishna's answer to the Pandavas.

The published versions are in Hindi prose and differ in wording and in some names and details. The retelling above keeps only what at least two of the versions linked below agree on. For this year's date, see Kamada Ekadashi.