Papmochani Ekadashi Vrat Katha · पापमोचनी एकादशी व्रत कथा

King Mandhata once asked the sage Lomash how people could be freed from their sins, and the sage told him this story.

In the Chaitraratha forest, where apsaras and gandharvas came to play, the young sage Medhavi lived in austerity. The apsara Manjughosha set out to charm him. Keeping at a distance from his ashram, she began to play the vina and sing sweetly. Drawn by her song and her beauty, the sage gave up his austerities and stayed with her, losing all sense of time.

Whenever she asked leave to return to heaven, he told her to wait until morning. At last she asked him to consider how long she had really been there, and he realised that fifty-seven years had passed. Furious that his austerities were lost, he cursed her to become a pishachini (a ghostly being).

She pleaded for release, reminding him of their long companionship. Relenting, he told her that by keeping the fast of Papmochani Ekadashi, the Ekadashi that releases from sin, she would be freed.

Medhavi then went to his father, the sage Chyavana, and confessed what he had done. Chyavana told him to keep the same Papmochani Ekadashi fast to wash away his own sin. Both kept the fast: Medhavi's sin was destroyed, and Manjughosha was freed from her ghostly form and returned to heaven in her own beautiful form.

The sage Lomash ended by saying that whoever keeps this fast is freed from all sins.

Papmochani Ekadashi is the Ekadashi of the dark fortnight (Krishna paksha) of Chaitra in the purnimanta calendar (the dark fortnight of Phalguna in the amanta calendar used in western and southern India). 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 Papmochani Ekadashi.

The katha is read or heard on Papmochani Ekadashi as part of the worship of Vishnu. Customs vary by family and region.