Santoshi Mata Vrat Katha · संतोषी माता व्रत कथा

The seventh son

An old woman had seven sons. Six earned a living; the seventh did not, and she fed him on what the other six left on their plates. His wife told him so, but he would not believe it until, at a festival, he lay in the kitchen pretending to have a headache and saw his mother gather the leftover crumbs of laddu from his brothers' plates to make his. Hurt, he left home that day for a distant land, giving his wife his ring as a keepsake.

In the distant land he took work with a merchant, did it so well that he was made a partner, and in a few years became a wealthy merchant himself. But he forgot his wife.

The vrat

At home his wife was badly treated. Her in-laws made her do all the housework and fetch wood from the forest, and gave her bread made of husks and water in a broken coconut shell. One day, on her way to the forest, she saw women keeping the vrat of Santoshi Mata and asked them about it. They told her: buy jaggery and chickpeas, as much as one can afford; every Friday keep the fast and hear the katha, without a break; when the wish is fulfilled, perform the udyapan (closing rite) and feed boys; and on that day let no one in the house eat anything sour.

She sold her bundle of wood, bought jaggery and chickpeas, and went to the temple of Santoshi Mata, where she fell at the goddess's feet and prayed. Soon a letter came from her husband, and then money. Her husband's brothers' sons began to taunt her. Weeping, she told the goddess she had never asked for money; she only wanted to see her husband. Pleased, the goddess told her that her husband would come.

The husband returns

Santoshi Mata appeared to the husband in a dream and told him his wife was suffering. He said he could not leave, with his accounts unsettled. She told him to bathe in the morning, take her name, light a ghee lamp, bow to her and sit in his shop. That day every debt was paid and all his goods were sold, and by evening he had a great heap of money. He bought clothes and jewellery and set out for home.

The goddess told the wife that her husband was on his way, and had her make three bundles of wood: one on the riverbank, one at the temple, and one on her head. Seeing the dry wood, the husband stopped to rest and eat before going home. When the wife came home with her bundle, she called out: "Mother-in-law, take the wood and give me my husk bread and water in the coconut shell; what guest has come today?" Her husband came out, saw his ring on her hand and asked who she was. His mother spoke ill of her, but he had seen enough; he took another house and lived there with his wife in comfort.

The broken udyapan

On a Friday the wife held the udyapan and invited her husband's brothers' sons. Their mother taught them to ask for something sour. After eating they demanded sour food and then money, and the innocent wife gave them money, with which they bought tamarind. The goddess was angered: the king's men came and took the husband away, and the in-laws said he must have stolen his wealth. The wife went weeping to the temple and asked forgiveness for her mistake, promising to hold the udyapan again. The goddess told her she would meet her husband on the road, and so she did: he had been summoned to pay tax on the wealth he had earned.

At the next udyapan the boys again asked for something sour. This time she refused them and kept the rules, and the goddess was pleased. In the ninth month she bore a son as beautiful as the moon.

The goddess at the door

The wife went to the temple every day with her son. One day the goddess decided to visit her instead, and came in a frightening form, her face smeared with jaggery and chickpeas and flies buzzing about it. The mother-in-law cried out that a witch had come and told the boys to drive her away. But the wife, seeing her, cried with joy that her Mother had come to her house. Then the family understood that this was Santoshi Mata, fell at her feet and asked forgiveness for having broken her vrat. The goddess forgave them.

The katha ends by praying that, as the goddess rewarded the daughter-in-law, she may reward all who read or hear it.

This is the katha of the Friday vrat of Santoshi Mata, kept traditionally for sixteen Fridays and closed with an udyapan. It teaches the vrat's rules: an offering of jaggery and chickpeas, an unbroken series of Fridays, and no sour food on the day of the vrat. It is a folk katha that circulates in vrat booklets; the published versions tell the same story with small differences. The retelling above keeps only what at least two of the versions linked below agree on.

The katha is read or heard on Fridays during the Santoshi Mata vrat, followed by the Santoshi Mata aarti and a prasad of jaggery and chickpeas. Customs vary by family and region.