पर्व और व्रत

Karaka-caturthī-vrata-kathā (Vāmana Purāṇa tradition; folk kathā of Vīrāvatī)

Vīrāvatī, the only sister of seven brothers, kept her first fast at her parents’ home. By evening she was faint with hunger, and her brothers, unable to bear it, lit a fire behind a sieve on a distant hill and told her the moon had risen. She offered arghya and ate; with the first morsel she sneezed, with the second she found a hair, with the third came news that her husband lay dying. Indrāṇī appeared to the weeping girl, explained that the fast had been broken before the true moonrise, and taught her to keep the fourth of every dark fortnight through the year. She did so with devotion, and her husband was restored to life and health. The vrata-kathā also tells that Draupadī kept this fast, on Kṛṣṇa’s advice, for Arjuna’s safety in the Nīlagiri hills.

Bhāgavata Purāṇa 8.8.31–35; Skanda Purāṇa (Yama-dīpa-dāna)

When the gods and asuras churned the ocean of milk with Mount Mandara for a staff and Vāsuki for a rope, there arose in turn the poison that Śiva drank, the wish-cow, the horse, the elephant, the jewel, the tree of paradise, the apsarases and Lakṣmī. Last of all a wondrous youth stepped from the waves — dark, long-armed, conch-necked, garlanded, clad in yellow, bearing a jar brimming with amṛta. He was Dhanvantari, a portion of Viṣṇu himself, the founder of Āyurveda and receiver of a share in sacrifices. The Skanda Purāṇa adds the teaching of Yama to his messengers: whoever offers a lamp at dusk on this thirteenth shall not meet untimely death.

Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.59

Naraka, son of the Earth, lord of Prāgjyotiṣa, had stolen the umbrella of Varuṇa, the earrings of Aditi, mother of the gods, and the peak of Mount Meru, and held sixteen thousand princesses captive. At Indra’s plea Kṛṣṇa mounted Garuḍa with his queen Satyabhāmā and flew to the fortress-city ringed with mountains, weapons, water, fire and wind. He shattered each defence, slew the five-headed Mura and his seven sons, and at last struck off Naraka’s head with the Sudarśana disc. Mother Earth herself came forward, returned the earrings and umbrella, praised the Lord, and entrusted to him Naraka’s son Bhagadatta. Kṛṣṇa freed the sixteen thousand maidens, who chose him as their lord.

Bhāgavata Purāṇa 8.8; Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Yuddha-kāṇḍa 127–128; Padma Purāṇa and Skanda Purāṇa, Kārttika-māhātmya

As the ocean of milk was churned, Śrī arose seated on a lotus, lighting all the quarters with her beauty. The rivers came in person with water for her bath, the earth brought herbs, the cows the five sacred gifts, spring its flowers, the sages the Vedic rites, and the elephants of the quarters poured water over her from golden jars. Holding a garland of lotuses she looked among gods, sages and asuras, found each great yet wanting, and placed it on the neck of Viṣṇu, in whom alone all virtues rest unshaken. The Rāmāyaṇa tells of Rāma’s return in the Puṣpaka chariot after fourteen years: Bharata had the roads levelled and sprinkled, banners raised, and every house adorned — and the people remember that welcome with rows of lamps. The Kārttika-māhātmya teaches that the gift of a lamp in this month outweighs every other gift.

Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.24–25 and 8.18–23

The cowherds of Vraja were preparing their yearly sacrifice to Indra when the seven-year-old Kṛṣṇa asked his father why: “We are forest people; our cows, the brāhmaṇas and this hill sustain us.” At his word they offered the feast to Govardhana, circled it, and Kṛṣṇa, taking a vast form, declared “I am the hill” and ate the offerings. Indra, stung, sent the clouds of dissolution; rain, hail and wind battered Vraja. Kṛṣṇa lifted Govardhana on the little finger of his left hand as a child holds a mushroom, and for seven days the whole village, with its cattle, sheltered beneath. Indra, humbled, bathed him with the milk of Surabhi and named him Govinda. The eighth canto tells how Viṣṇu, as the dwarf Vāmana, asked King Bali for three steps of land, covered earth and heaven in two, and — when Bali offered his own head for the third — made him lord of Sutala and stood guard at his door.

Skanda Purāṇa and Bhaviṣya Purāṇa — Yama-dvitīyā

Yamunā, the river, daughter of the Sun, longed to see her twin brother Yama, lord of Death, and invited him again and again; bound to his stern duty, he did not come. At last, on the second of bright Kārttika, he arrived unannounced. Overjoyed, she bathed him, marked his brow with a tilaka, garlanded him and served him a meal of many dishes. Yama, moved, offered her a boon. She asked that every brother who visits his sister on this day, receives her tilaka and eats from her hand be free from the fear of Yama, and that those who bathe in her waters today be spared his realm. “So be it,” said Yama.

Ṛgveda 1.50 (Sūrya-sūkta); Mahābhārata, Vana-parva 3; Brahma-vaivarta Purāṇa, Prakṛti-khaṇḍa (Ṣaṣṭhī Devī)

The worship of the visible Sun is as old as the Veda: “Up the rays bear him, the god who knows all beings, Sūrya, that all may see him.” The Mahābhārata tells how the sage Dhaumya taught Yudhiṣṭhira the hundred and eight names of the Sun, by which the Pāṇḍavas were sustained in exile; regional tradition holds that Draupadī kept the sixth-day vow and that Karṇa, son of the Sun and king of Aṅga — today’s Bihar — stood daily in the river offering arghya. The Brahma-vaivarta Purāṇa tells of King Priyavrata, whose stillborn son was restored by Ṣaṣṭhī Devī, the sixth part of Prakṛti, mind-born daughter of Brahmā and guardian of infants — she is the Chaṭhī Maiyā of the songs.

Mahābhārata, Karṇa-parva 24; Śiva Purāṇa, Rudra-saṃhitā, Yuddha-khaṇḍa 1–12; Matsya Purāṇa 129–140

The three sons of Tāraka won from Brahmā three flying cities — of gold in heaven, silver in the air and iron on earth — which could be destroyed only by a single arrow at the instant they came into line, once in a thousand years. Secure in them, the asuras overran the worlds. The gods built Śiva a chariot of the whole cosmos: the earth its body, Sun and Moon its wheels, the four Vedas its horses, Brahmā its charioteer, Mount Meru the bow, Vāsuki the string, and Viṣṇu the arrow with Agni for its tip. When the cities aligned under the star Puṣya, Śiva smiled — and loosed the shaft; the three burned as one. He is Tripurāntaka, and the day his festival.