Pradosh Vrat Katha · प्रदोष व्रत कथा

A brahmin woman had lost her husband and had no one to support her, so every day she went out with her son to beg, and lived on what they were given.

One day, on her way home, she came upon a boy alone and in distress, took pity on him and brought him home, and raised him alongside her own son. He was a prince of Vidarbha: enemies had attacked his father's kingdom and taken it, and he had been left with nothing.

In most tellings the sage Shandilya tells the woman who the boy is and teaches her the Pradosh vrat, the fast and worship of Shiva at dusk, and she and the boys keep it with devotion.

Later the prince met Anshumati, a Gandharva maiden, and the two wished to marry. Her parents met the prince, and by Shiva's command the marriage took place. With the help of the Gandharva king's forces, the prince drove the enemies out of Vidarbha and won back his father's kingdom. He honoured the brahmin woman's family who had sheltered him.

The katha ends by saying that all this came about through the power of the Pradosh vrat, and that Shiva turns the fortunes of every devotee who keeps it, as he did for the prince and the brahmin's son.

The Pradosh vrat is kept for Shiva on the thirteenth lunar day (trayodashi) of each fortnight, with worship at dusk (pradosh kaal). Different stories are told for the Pradosh that falls on each weekday; the story retold here, of the widowed brahmin woman and the prince of Vidarbha, is the one most widely published, and appears under several weekday names.

It is a folk katha as it is told today: the published versions differ in details such as whether the woman finds one boy or two, and how the kingdom was lost. The retelling above keeps only what at least two of the versions linked below agree on.

The katha is read or heard as part of the Pradosh puja of Shiva at dusk. Customs vary by family and region.