Papmochani Ekadashi is the Ekadashi of the dark half of Chaitra (Phalguna in the amanta calendar), falling between Holi and Chaitra Navratri, the last Ekadashi of the lunar year. Its katha tells of the young sage Medhavi and the apsara Manjughosha, of a long forgetting, an angry curse, and a fast that released both of them.
To find the day it next falls on, and the hours after which the fast may be broken next morning, open the Ekadashi vrat dates list; each Ekadashi's page there gives the parana for your city. Below, the katha in our own words.
The katha
Yudhishthira said, "Krishna, you have told me of Amalaki Ekadashi. Now tell me of the Ekadashi in the dark half of Chaitra. What is it called, and what does it do?"
Krishna said, "It is called Papmochani, the one that releases from wrongdoing. Once King Mandhata asked the sage Lomasha how a person might be freed from wrongs done without knowing, and Lomasha told him this story. Listen."
The forest of Chaitraratha
There is a garden of the gods called Chaitraratha, belonging to Kubera, where it is always spring. The trees are always in flower, the birds always sing, and apsaras and gandharvas wander there with Indra and the other gods. In that forest, beside a quiet hermitage, the young sage Medhavi, son of the great sage Chyavana, was absorbed in penance. He was devoted to Shiva, steady in his vows, and so still in meditation that the forest itself seemed to go quiet around him.
Kamadeva, the god of desire, had a grudge against those who followed Shiva, and he saw a chance. Among the apsaras was one named Manjughosha, whose voice was as sweet as her name. She had noticed Medhavi and was drawn to him. Kamadeva encouraged her and lent her his power.
Manjughosha sat not far from the hermitage and began to sing to the veena, softly at first, then more beautifully than she had ever sung. The music drifted to the place where Medhavi sat. He opened his eyes, and he saw her, and that was the end of his penance.
The long forgetting
Medhavi left his seat of meditation and went to her. He forgot his vows, forgot his worship, forgot even the passing of day and night. The two lived together in the forest, and the seasons turned, and turned again, and the sage did not count them. In the vrat books the years are many, more than fifty.
At last Manjughosha said that she must go back to the heavens. Medhavi asked her to stay a little longer, at least until evening. She stayed. Some time later she asked again, and again he said, stay until evening. It happened once more. Then, one day, as he rose to perform the evening rites, she said gently, "Sage, how many evenings do you think have passed since I first came?"
He stopped, counted, and was horrified. All those years were gone. His penance was undone, his merit scattered. His shock turned at once into anger, and the anger turned on her. "You have destroyed everything I built," he said. "Become a pishachini, a wandering spirit, since you have made my life one."
Release for both
Manjughosha fell at his feet. "I was wrong to come," she said, "but I did not force you to stay, and the years were yours as well as mine. The wise say that even seven steps walked together make a friendship. Show me some mercy. Tell me how this curse can end."
Medhavi's anger cooled. "In the dark half of Chaitra," he said, "comes an Ekadashi called Papmochani. Keep it, and the curse will leave you."
Then he went home to his father's hermitage. Chyavana looked at his son and saw at once what had happened. "You too have lost much," he said. "You gave up your penance for pleasure, and then you cursed another in anger. Keep the same fast. It frees from wrongs of every kind."
Both kept Papmochani Ekadashi. Manjughosha was released from her curse and returned to the heavens in her own bright form. Medhavi, free of his faults and his anger, returned to his penance and to his father's side.
Lomasha ended by telling Mandhata that whoever keeps this Ekadashi, or hears or reads its story, is freed from wrongs done knowingly or unknowingly.
Reading the story calmly
The story has a curse spoken in anger and a woman turned into a wandering spirit, and it can be read harshly against the apsara. The mahatmya does not read it that way. It holds both people to account, the one who distracted and the one who forgot, and gives both the same way back. Many families hear it as a story about anger: the sage loses more by his curse than by all his lost years, and his father's first concern is to bring him back to himself.
What the day is kept for
Papmochani means "the releaser from wrongdoing". The mahatmya says that this fast frees from faults of every kind, even grave ones, and that hearing the story is itself a blessing. These are the text's own words in praise of the day.
Because it is the last Ekadashi of the lunar year, many people keep it as a kind of closing of accounts: thinking back over the year, apologising where they should, and letting go of grudges before Chaitra Navratri and the new year begin. In that sense it pairs naturally with Kamada Ekadashi, which opens the year two weeks later.
How it is kept
Papmochani is kept with the usual Ekadashi worship of Vishnu, tulsi, a fruit fast and parana on Dwadashi. Since Holi has just passed, many keep the day plain and quiet, and some use the day to make peace with someone they have quarrelled with, in the spirit of the sage and the apsara. The full order of the day is on the Ekadashi puja vidhi page; older people, pregnant women and anyone on medication can keep it with water and fruit, and their doctor's word comes first.
The Ekadashis around it
Before it, in the bright half of Phalguna, is Amalaki Ekadashi, the day of the amla tree. Two more Ekadashis appear only in a year that has an extra lunar month; the first of them is Padmini Ekadashi, of the bright half of that month. For tithi timings in your city, open the panchang.