Varuthini Ekadashi Vrat Katha · वरूथिनी एकादशी व्रत कथा

Long ago King Mandhata ruled on the banks of the river Narmada. He was generous and devoted to dharma and to austerity.

One day, while he was absorbed in austerities in the forest, a wild bear came and began to chew his foot. The king stayed in his meditation. The bear then dragged him away into the forest. Though frightened, the king, true to the discipline of an ascetic, did not turn to anger or violence, but prayed to Vishnu. Hearing his prayer, Vishnu appeared and killed the bear with his discus.

By then the bear had eaten the king's leg, and Mandhata was stricken with grief. Vishnu comforted him: the bear's attack, he said, was the fruit of a wrong done in a past life. He told the king to go to Mathura, keep the fast of Varuthini Ekadashi and worship his image as Varaha (the boar incarnation), and by its power his body would be made whole again.

Mandhata went to Mathura and kept the fast with devotion, and by its power his body was restored, whole and beautiful.

The katha teaches that this fast destroys sins and leads to liberation (moksha).

Varuthini Ekadashi is the Ekadashi of the dark fortnight (Krishna paksha) of Vaishakha in the purnimanta calendar (the dark fortnight of Chaitra 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 Ekadashi.

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