सनातन पुस्तकालय Sanatan Cultural Library

The Karva Chauth fast is kept on the Chaturthi of the dark fortnight of the month of Kartik. Married women keep it praying for their husband's long life, good health and unbroken good fortune. In many families, girls who are engaged also keep it with devotion. Before sunrise the woman eats the sargi sent by her mother-in-law — fruit, dry fruit, sweets and the items of a married woman's adornment — and takes the vow of the fast. From then until moonrise she gives up both food and water. Those who cannot go without water for reasons of health should, on the advice of the elders of the house, keep the fast with water or fruit; the life of a vrat is the faith in the heart. Before evening a Karva Chauth picture — Chauth Mata, Shiva and Parvati, Ganesh ji, Kartikeya, the moon and the karva — is drawn or placed on the wall or on paper. On the puja thali are set a clay karva filled with water, roli, unbroken rice, a lamp, incense, sweets, fruit, the items of adornment, a sieve and a lota of water for the arghya. The women dress in their finery and sit together, passing their thalis from hand to hand around the circle, while an elder woman or the pandit ji tells the katha. While listening, each holds a few grains of wheat or rice, which are offered on the karva when the katha ends. After the katha, the baya — a karva, sweets, clothes and a gift of money — is given to the mother-in-law or another elder married woman of the house, and her feet are touched. At night, when the moon rises, a lamp is placed in the sieve; through it the woman looks first at the moon and then at her husband's face, offers arghya to the moon, and breaks her fast with water from her husband's hand.

This is a tale from very long ago. In a certain city lived a wealthy merchant. He had seven sons and only one daughter, named Veeravati. Being the only sister among seven brothers, she was the apple of everyone's eye. When the brothers came home from work they first asked how their sister was, and until she had eaten they would not touch their own plates. In time Veeravati was married to a gentle and worthy young man. (In another telling, some booklets make Veeravati the daughter of Vedsharma, a learned Brahmin of Indraprasthapur, and his wife Leelavati; the heart of the story is the same in both.) When her first Karva Chauth after marriage came, Veeravati was staying at her parents' home. All seven of her sisters-in-law kept this fast too. At dawn they all took their sargi and made the vow in their hearts: "O Chauth Mata, today we will take food and water only after seeing the moon; protect our husbands' lives." This was Veeravati's very first vrat. She was delicate by nature and had never gone a whole day without food and water. In the morning she laughed and chatted with her sisters-in-law, but as the day wore on her lips grew dry with thirst. By late afternoon her face had wilted, darkness swam before her eyes, and she kept having to sit down. Still, she never spoke a word about giving up the fast. In the evening they all worshipped together, heard the katha, and then began to wait for the moon, looking up at the sky.

In the evening the brothers came home and sat down to eat. They called their sister to join them. Their wives told them that Veeravati was keeping the waterless Karva Chauth fast today and would eat nothing until she had offered arghya to the moon. The brothers looked at their sister — she lay limp with exhaustion in a corner. The youngest brother could not bear to see her so. He said to his elder brothers, "It will be a long while yet before the moon rises. What will become of our sister by then? We must find some way." The brothers took counsel together. At last they went to a tall tree outside the town (in different tellings, a peepal or a banyan). One brother climbed the tree, lit a lamp there and held a sieve in front of it. Seen from afar, the light filtering through the mesh of the sieve looked exactly as if the moon had risen in the east. Then another brother came running home and said, "Get up, sister! Look, the moon has risen. Offer your arghya and eat." Veeravati rose joyfully, went to her sisters-in-law and said, "Come, bhabhi, the moon is up — let us offer arghya." The sisters-in-law had understood their husbands' trick. They said, "Sister, this moon has risen for you; our moon has not yet come out. We will offer arghya only to the true moon." But Veeravati, faint with hunger and thirst, could not grasp the meaning of their words; she trusted her brothers' love completely. She went up to the roof, took the glow of that lamp to be the moon, offered it arghya, and sat down to eat.

The moment Veeravati broke off the first morsel, a hair appeared in it. When she lifted the second, she sneezed violently. The third had barely reached her mouth when a man came panting from her husband's home and said, "Come at once — your husband has taken a grave turn for the worse." Veeravati's heart shook. Her plate of food was left where it lay, and that very moment she set out for her husband's house. When she reached her husband's home she saw him lying lifeless (in some tellings, in a deep swoon, as one dead). The house was filled with weeping and lament. Veeravati clung to her husband's body and wept bitterly: "O Chauth Mata! What wrong have I done? I kept your fast the whole day long. For what sin has my husband been punished?" Then she remembered her sisters-in-law's words — "This moon has risen for you, not for us." She understood that she had offered arghya not to the true moon but to a deception. She felt no anger towards her loving brothers; she counted the mistake as her own. But she also made a resolve: "The vrat whose breaking brought this calamity — by completing that same vrat I will win my husband back. Until he opens his eyes again, I will not let him be parted from me." She did not allow his cremation, and sat down beside his body.

Day and night Veeravati sat beside her husband, keeping Chauth Mata and Gauri and Ganesh in her mind. The echo of her penance and her lament reached the world of the gods. On that very Karva Chauth night, Indrani (Shachi), wife of Indra, king of the gods, had come down to earth with the celestial women to worship in this vrat. Hearing Veeravati's piteous cry, she came to her. Veeravati fell at her feet and said, "Mother, I am an unfortunate woman. Tell me, how will my husband come back to me?" Indrani tenderly laid her hand on her head and said, "Daughter, on Karva Chauth, before the moon had risen, you took a deception for the moon, offered it arghya and broke your fast. The vrat was left incomplete, and that is why this trouble came. But do not despair. Your faith is true and your heart is pure." "Now, for a whole year, keep the fast of the Chaturthi of the dark fortnight in every month, without fail. On every Chauth, offer arghya and take water only after seeing the moon. And when Karva Chauth comes round next year, keep it without water and complete it with the full rite — the karva, the lamp, the sieve and the arghya. By the merit of this unbroken vrat your husband will receive life again." Saying this, Indrani vanished.

Veeravati accepted Indrani's command with bowed head. She stayed beside her husband's body and tended it. By the grace of Chauth Mata the body did not decay; it was as if he lay in deep sleep. Time passed, and sharp, needle-like grass sprang up over the body; every day Veeravati patiently picked it out and set it aside. Whenever the Chauth of a month came, she fasted without water, heard the katha, and offered arghya only after seeing the moon. In this way she kept all twelve Chauths of the twelve months with complete devotion. Then the Karva Chauth of Kartik arrived. Her sisters-in-law, having kept the fast too, came to see her. Veeravati clasped the feet of each sister-in-law in turn and pleaded, "Bhabhi, bless me to be a married woman like you; give me back my husband." Each one lifted her up lovingly, but said only this: "Sister, the one whose husband's trick brought this calamity — her blessing holds the power to undo it. Ask the youngest sister-in-law." (In the story it was the youngest brother who had devised the false moon.) At last the youngest sister-in-law came. Veeravati seized her feet and would not let go. At first the sister-in-law tried to put her off, but Veeravati kept weeping and begging: "Until you bless my husband with life, I will not let you go." Seeing her true longing and her year of penance, the sister-in-law's heart melted. She cut her little finger, let a single nectar-like drop fall from it into the mouth of Veeravati's husband, and by the merit of Karva Chauth gave the blessing that restored her married life. That very instant Veeravati's husband sat up, saying "Shri Ganesh, Shri Ganesh," as though waking from a long sleep. Joy filled the house. That night Veeravati looked at the true moon through the sieve, offered arghya with due rite, and completed her vrat with water from her husband's hand. (In another telling, some booklets omit the sister-in-law; there, as soon as the year of fasts is complete, the husband rises by the grace of Chauth Mata or Gauri.)

Along with Karva Chauth another story is also told, and the vrat's very name is linked to it. In ancient times a devoted wife named Karva lived with her husband in a village on the bank of a river. Her husband was old, and Karva served him with body and soul. Her devotion to him was so strong that the power of tapas had entered her words. One day her husband went to bathe in the river. As soon as he stepped into the water, a crocodile seized his foot and began dragging him towards the deep. In terror he cried out, "Karva! Karva!" Karva came running. She did not lose a moment — drawing a raw cotton thread from her sari, by the strength of her faithfulness she bound the crocodile so fast that it could not move at all. Then Karva went straight to Yamaraj. At that moment Yamaraj was with Chitragupta, reviewing the account of living beings' deeds. Karva joined her palms but spoke without fear: "O Dharmaraj! This crocodile has seized my husband's foot. Take it to your realm, and grant my husband a long life." Yamaraj replied, "Lady, this crocodile's span of life is not yet over. One whose life still remains, I cannot take before the time." Karva's face blazed with radiance. She said, "Dharmaraj, if you will not protect my husband, then by the power of my faithfulness I will curse you." Yamaraj knew the radiance of her devotion. He glanced at Chitragupta and then said to Karva, "Lady, before your virtue I bow my head. This crocodile shall go to Yamalok now, and your husband shall live long." That very moment the crocodile's life left it, and Karva's husband came home safe and sound. Since then married women remember Karva Mata and pray: "O Karva Mata, as you protected your husband's life, so protect our husbands too."

In the tradition of the Mahabharata age too, the glory of this vrat is sung. When the Pandavas were passing through their days of exile and hardship, Arjuna went away to the Nilgiri mountain to perform austerities. Many days passed with no news of him. Meanwhile one misfortune after another fell upon the other Pandavas. Draupadi's mind was filled with anxiety. She meditated upon her friend and protector, Lord Shri Krishna. Shri Krishna appeared. Draupadi said, "O Keshava, my husbands are in danger and Arjuna is far away. Tell me some means by which they may be protected and this calamity averted." Shri Krishna smiled and said, "Friend, Mother Parvati once asked this very question of Lord Shankar. Then Mahadev told her of the Karva Chauth vrat — to stay without water all day on Kartik Krishna Chaturthi, to worship Ganesh, Gauri and Shiva in the evening, to hear the katha, and to complete the fast by offering arghya to the moon." Then Shri Krishna told Draupadi the same story of Veeravati that has been told above, and said, "The woman who keeps this vrat with faith and discipline — the danger that threatens her husband passes away." Draupadi kept the Karva Chauth vrat with every rite, just as Shri Krishna had described. By the merit of her vrat Arjuna returned safely, the Pandavas' troubles gradually lifted, and in time dharma was victorious.

At the close of the Karva Chauth katha, many households also remember Savitri, for among the women who stood unshaken before Yamaraj to protect their husbands, hers is the brightest name. Savitri, princess of the land of Madra, chose as her husband Satyavan, son of the blind King Dyumatsena who lived in the forest — even though she knew that, by Narada ji's word, only one year of life remained to Satyavan. Before the appointed day Savitri kept a strict three-day fast. On that day she went into the forest with Satyavan. While cutting wood, Satyavan felt a pain in his head and lay down with his head in Savitri's lap. Then Yamaraj came, took Satyavan's life and set off towards the south. Savitri followed close behind him. Yamaraj told her to turn back, but Savitri went on speaking such sweet and wise words of dharma that Yamaraj, pleased, kept granting her boons — in the first, sight and his lost kingdom for her father-in-law; in the second, a hundred sons for her own father; and in the third, that she herself would be the mother of a hundred sons by Satyavan. The moment he gave the third boon, Yamaraj understood that it could not be fulfilled without Satyavan. Well pleased, he gave Satyavan's life back. (Savitri's full story is told in the Vat Savitri vrat of the month of Jyeshtha.) The essence of all these stories is one: before a woman who keeps her vrat with true faith, patience and resolve, even death bows its head.

The married woman who keeps the Karva Chauth vrat with faith on Kartik Krishna Chaturthi, hears the katha, and offers arghya only after seeing the true moon — her husband's life is lengthened, peace and happiness dwell in her home, and her good fortune remains unbroken. As Chauth Mata restored Veeravati's husband, as Karva Mata protected her own, and as Draupadi's troubles were removed, so may they protect every woman's married life. When the katha is complete, offer the grains in your hand on the karva, bow to Ganesh ji and Gauri Mata, and touch your mother-in-law's feet as you give her the baya. Say: Victory to Chauth Mata! Victory to Karva Mata! Victory to Gauri and Ganesh!