The Chhath Puja katha is not one story but several, all centred on Surya and Chhathi Maiya: King Priyavrat whose child was restored by the goddess Shashthi, Draupadi who kept the vrat when the Pandavas had lost everything, Karna who stood in the river each day to offer water to his father the Sun, and Sita, who in some tellings kept the fast at Munger on the Ganga. They are told at home and sung on the ghats rather than read from a book.
The days of Chhath, from nahay-khay to the dawn arghya, are on the Chhath Puja date page, and the spring observance is on the Chaiti Chhath page. This page is only the stories, told in our own words.
King Priyavrat and Shashthi Devi
Long ago there was a king named Priyavrat, a son of Svayambhuva Manu, and his queen Malini. They were good rulers, but they had no child, and the longing filled their palace. The sage Kashyapa performed a sacrifice for them and gave the queen an offering of kheer to eat.
In time the queen gave birth to a son. But the child was born still, without breath. The whole kingdom grieved, and the king, beside himself, carried his son to the cremation ground, and in his despair resolved that he would not go on living without the boy.
At that moment a radiant goddess appeared in the sky, seated in a shining chariot. She told the king that she was Devasena, a portion of the great Mother, born of the sixth part of nature, and so called Shashthi. She watches over children, she said, and gives them to those who long for them. She lifted the child from the king's arms, and as she touched him he began to breathe and cry. She gave him back to his father and asked only that her worship be spread so that every parent might remember her.
Priyavrat returned to his city with his living son and ordered that the goddess be worshipped on the sixth day of the bright fortnight. In Bihar and the eastern lands this goddess of the sixth day is remembered as Chhathi Maiya, and that is why the main day of Chhath is a Shashthi and why so many vratis keep the fast for the wellbeing of children.
Reading the story calmly
The katha begins with a child born without breath and a father's grief, as many old stories of the mother goddess do. It is told to show the goddess's tenderness, not to suggest that a family's children depend on a fast. Couples who have faced loss or long waits for a child often find comfort in the story; they are not told that anything was their fault. Women who are pregnant, unwell or older keep a lighter form of the vrat, and a doctor's advice comes first.
Draupadi and the Pandavas
When the Pandavas lost their kingdom in the game of dice and went into the forest, Draupadi carried the household through hunger and humiliation. In the tellings of Bihar, a sage, Dhaumya in some versions and Krishna himself in others, advised her to keep the vrat of the Sun on the sixth day of Kartika. Draupadi bathed, kept the fast without water, and stood in the water at dusk and at dawn to offer arghya. The Sun was pleased, and in time the Pandavas recovered their strength and their kingdom. Some also say that the inexhaustible vessel Surya gave Yudhishthira in the forest, which fed every guest, was part of the same grace.
Karna's arghya
Karna, the son of Kunti and the Sun, was the most devoted of Surya's worshippers. Every morning he would wade into the river until the water reached his waist and stand facing the rising sun for hours, offering water and praying, and whatever anyone asked him for after that prayer he gave. Many in Bihar and Bengal hold that Chhath began with Karna, whose kingdom of Anga lay around Bhagalpur and Munger, and that the vrati standing waist-deep in water is following his example.
Sita at Munger
In some tellings, after the return from Lanka, Rama and Sita kept the fast of the Sun on the Shashthi of Kartika, and when Rama was crowned, they worshipped the Sun together. In the tellings of Munger, Sita kept the Chhath vrat on the bank of the Ganga there, at the ashram of the sage Mudgala, and a rock in the river is shown as the place where she stood and where her footprints remain. Families of Munger hold this story close, and it is one reason the town's ghats draw so many vratis.
How the stories are heard
Chhath has no katha session with a priest. The stories are carried in the songs: on the evenings before the arghya, the women of the house sit together and sing of Chhathi Maiya, of the Sun, of the parrot that pecks at the bananas meant for the offering, of the bamboo pole that bends under the weight of the daura. Well-known songs such as "Kanch hi baans ke bahangiya" and "Ugi he Suruj Dev" are sung by almost every family. Grandmothers tell the stories of Draupadi and Karna to children while the thekua dough is being shaped.
The four days, the samagri and the arghya are on the Chhath Puja vidhi page.
What the stories carry today
Each story turns on a hard time: a child who did not breathe, a kingdom lost, an exile. Each ends with steadiness and the visible, daily Sun. Chhath honours the setting Sun first, which many read as a quiet teaching that the end of the day, and the hard part of life, deserve thanks as much as the dawn. The whole community shares the work, and those who cannot fast help those who do.
The other vrat Bihar keeps for children is Jitiya, and a few days after Chhath comes Dev Uthani Ekadashi. For sunrise and sunset in your city, see the panchang.