Amalaki Ekadashi is the Ekadashi of the bright half of Phalguna, a few days before Holi, and it belongs to the amla tree, the Indian gooseberry. Its katha tells of a city where everyone kept this day beneath an amla tree, and of a hungry hunter who wandered into their night of prayer and, without meaning to, kept it with them.
The day it next falls on is in the Ekadashi vrat dates list; that page gives, for each Ekadashi, the parana window in your city, so you can see when to break the fast on Dwadashi. Here is the story, retold in our words.
The katha
Yudhishthira said, "Krishna, tell me of the Ekadashi in the bright half of Phalguna. What is it called, and what is its story?"
Krishna said, "It is called Amalaki, after the amla tree. King Mandhata once asked the sage Vasishtha about a fast that would do the greatest good, and Vasishtha told him of this one. Listen to what he said."
The tree at the beginning
Vasishtha began with the tree itself. When the worlds were first made, he said, and everything was still water, the amla appeared among the first living things, and the gods who saw it were filled with wonder. A voice told them that this tree was dear to Vishnu, that he dwells in it, and that whoever honours it honours him. From that time the amla has been called the first among trees, and the Ekadashi of bright Phalguna has been given to it.
A city that kept the day
Then the sage told a story. In the city of Vaidisha there ruled a king named Chaitraratha, of the line of the moon. In his kingdom no one was poor and no one went without, and every person, of every station, kept Ekadashi. When Amalaki Ekadashi came, the king and all his people went to the temple, where a great amla tree stood. They set up a kalash at its foot with water, a canopy, garlands and lamps, and worshipped Vishnu there in the form of Parashurama, with incense, flowers, songs and the reading of sacred stories. When night fell no one went home. The whole city stayed awake around the tree.
That night a hunter came by. He was a hard man who lived by killing animals and birds, and he had a family to feed. That day he had caught nothing, and he was faint with hunger. He saw the lights, heard the singing, and thought there might be food at the end of it. So he sat down at the edge of the crowd and waited.
He waited all night. While he waited he watched the lamps, heard the names of Vishnu sung and the story of the day read aloud, and looked at the great tree with its garlands. He did not eat, because there was nothing to eat, and he did not sleep, because he was waiting. At dawn the people finished their worship and went home, and the hunter went home too and ate what he could find.
The hunter's next life
In time the hunter died. Because of that single night beside the amla, Vasishtha said, he was born again as a prince, Vasuratha, son of King Viduratha of the city of Jayanti. He grew into a strong and generous king, brave in battle, devoted to Vishnu, and kind to his people.
One day Vasuratha went hunting, lost his way in a forest, and lay down under a tree to sleep. A band of fierce men from the hills found him there. They had a quarrel with him, and they came at him with spears and swords. But their weapons did not touch him. They fell away from his body as if from stone. Then, from the sleeping king, there came a radiant woman, fragrant and shining, terrible in her anger, and she drove the attackers off until not one was left standing.
When Vasuratha woke and saw what had happened he was bewildered. A voice from the sky told him: "Keshava protects you. This is the fruit of the vigil you once kept." He bowed in the direction of the voice and went home, and ruled well for the rest of his life.
Vasishtha ended by telling Mandhata that if a single night spent near the amla, kept without knowing, could do so much, a fast kept with intent was greater still.
Reading the story calmly
The katha passes through a death, a rebirth and a violent attack, and it is told in the old language of merit carried from one life to the next. Families do not take it as a story about enemies or punishment. What they hear is a gentler thing: a hungry man who sat at the edge of other people's prayer, half by accident, and was still counted in. The tradition reads it as a story of how widely the grace of the day reaches.
What the day is kept for
The mahatmya praises the amla as the tree in which Vishnu lives, and says that worship at its foot on this day brings a merit equal to great gifts and pilgrimages. These are the text's words of praise, and families take them as such.
Many also simply love the tree. Amla is one of the most valued fruits of the Indian household, sour and cooling, and it fruits in the cold season just ending. On this Ekadashi the tree gets its due: water at its roots, a thread around its trunk, a lamp in the evening, and a meal taken in its shade after the parana. In Kashi the same day is Rangbhari Ekadashi, and the first colour of Holi is played at the Vishwanath temple.
How it is kept
On Amalaki Ekadashi people who have an amla tree nearby water its roots, tie a raw cotton thread around the trunk while circling it, offer flowers and akshat and light a lamp at its foot. Where there is no tree, a branch or a few amla fruits are placed beside the picture of Vishnu and worshipped. Amla is often eaten as part of the fast food or given away, and some families keep the night awake as Chaitraratha's city did. The full order of the day is on the Ekadashi puja vidhi page; anyone older, pregnant or unwell can keep a fruit fast and still do the tree worship.
The Ekadashis around it
Before it, in the dark half of Phalguna, is Vijaya Ekadashi, the story of Rama on the ocean shore. After it, between Holi and Chaitra Navratri, comes Papmochani Ekadashi, the last of the lunar year. The tithi for your city is in the daily panchang.