English
Karwa Chauth: The Story of Veeravati
Source: Traditional vrat katha (Karwa Chauth)
Long ago there lived a merchant who had seven sons and one daughter, named Veeravati. The seven brothers adored their sister. If she was troubled even a little, they could find no peace.
Veeravati was married. When her first Karwa Chauth came after the wedding, she was at her parents' home. From dawn she kept the fast without food or even water, with a single wish in her heart: a long life for her husband.
As the day wore on, hunger and thirst began to wilt her. By evening she was so weak that she kept coming out into the courtyard to look at the sky. When would the moon rise?
Her brothers could not bear to see her like this. They put their heads together. One of them climbed a peepal tree far away, lit a lamp behind the leaves and held a sieve in front of it. From a distance the glow looked exactly like the rising moon.
The brothers called out, “Sister, look! The moon is up. Offer arghya and eat.” Their wives warned her that it was not the moon, but innocent Veeravati trusted her brothers.
She offered water to that light and sat down to eat. In the first morsel she found a hair. At the second, she sneezed. And she had just lifted the third when a messenger came running from her husband's house…
“Your husband is no more.”
The ground slipped from under Veeravati's feet. Weeping, she hurried to her husband's home, and when she saw his lifeless body she broke down. She understood that her fast had been left incomplete.
That night Indrani, the queen of the gods, came down to earth. Veeravati fell at her feet and asked, “Mother, what was my mistake?”
Indrani said gently, “Daughter, you broke your fast before you had seen the moon. Your brothers deceived you out of love, and without knowing it you took their trick for the truth.”
Veeravati folded her hands. “Mother, I want to set my mistake right. Show me the way.” Indrani said, “Keep the Chauth fast every month for a whole year with devotion, and keep the next Karwa Chauth fully, breaking it only after offering arghya to the moon.”
Veeravati would not leave her husband's body. Through the whole year she tended it and watched over it, and kept the Chauth fast every month. People said many things, but her patience never wavered.
A year passed and Karwa Chauth came again. This time Veeravati fasted without water from dawn, worshipped the karwa, listened to the katha, and only when the real moon rose that night did she offer it arghya.
Mother Karwa was pleased with her devotion. The moment Veeravati completed her fast, her husband opened his eyes as if waking from a long sleep. Tears ran down Veeravati's face, but this time they were tears of joy.
Since then married women break the Karwa Chauth fast only after seeing the moon, and on this day they tell and hear the story of Veeravati.
What this story teaches
Anyone can make a mistake. Like Veeravati, every mistake can be mended with faith, patience and sincere repentance.
On Karwa Chauth married women fast without water from sunrise, worship Karwa Mata in the evening and hear this katha, and after moonrise they look at the moon and their husband through a sieve, offer arghya and break the fast. The story is told in several forms: in some Indrani shows Veeravati the way, in others Goddess Parvati; in some her husband falls gravely ill, in others he dies.
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