The Sankashti Chaturthi vrat katha is a story of Ganesh, most often the one in which he won the right to be worshipped before every other god by walking around his parents instead of the world. Many households follow it with a short folk tale, and the one we tell here is of a poor old woman who asked Ganesh for everything she needed in a single, very clever wish.
Sankashti comes every month, on the Chaturthi of the waning moon, and the dates, the month's form of Ganesh and the moonrise for breaking the fast are on the Sankashti Chaturthi dates page. For the moon's exact rising in your city, see the moonrise times.
How Ganesh came to be worshipped first
One day the gods gathered on Kailash with a question that had been troubling them: when worship begins, whose name should be taken first? Many claimed the honour, and Shiva settled it with a contest. Whoever went round the whole world and came back first, he said, would be worshipped before all others.
Kartikeya, Shiva's elder son, was on his peacock almost before his father had finished. The peacock is swift, and he flew over oceans and mountains and kingdoms, sure he would win. The other gods set off too, each on his own mount.
Ganesh looked at his own mount, a small mouse, and at his own round body, and sat down to think. Then he stood up, bowed to Shiva and Parvati, and asked them to sit side by side. He walked slowly round them, once, twice, seven times in some tellings, and bowed again.
When Kartikeya came back, tired and pleased, he found his brother already sitting at his parents' feet. Shiva asked Ganesh why he had not gone. Ganesh answered that the scriptures say a child who goes round his father and mother with devotion has gone round the whole world, for they are the world to him. Shiva and Parvati were delighted. Ganesh was declared the first to be worshipped, the lord of the ganas, and from that day every puja in the Hindu home begins with him.
In some tellings Kartikeya was hurt by the outcome and went south to live alone, which is why he is so loved in the Tamil country. The story is not about a clever trick so much as about seeing what is near at hand.
The moon who laughed
The moon has a special place in Sankashti, and there is a story behind it. On one of his birthdays Ganesh had eaten a great many modaks offered by his devotees. Riding home on his mouse in the dark, he was thrown when the mouse shied at a snake, and the modaks spilled from his round belly as he fell. The moon, looking down, burst out laughing.
Ganesh, sore and embarrassed, spoke a curse: no one should look at the moon on this day, and whoever did would find himself falsely accused. The moon, who prided himself on his beauty, was suddenly shunned. He came to Ganesh full of regret and asked forgiveness. Ganesh softened it: the curse would hold only on the Shukla Chaturthi of Bhadrapada, his own festival, and on the other Chaturthis people would look for the moon gladly and offer it water. In one form he even wears a crescent moon on his forehead and is called Bhalachandra.
That is why the moon is avoided on Ganesh Chaturthi and yet eagerly awaited on Sankashti, when the fast ends only once it has risen.
The old woman's one wish
A folk tale, told in many homes on Sankashti: a poor, blind old woman lived with her son and his wife. Every month she kept the Chaturthi fast, and every month she offered Ganesh a few grains of what little there was.
Ganesh was pleased with her and appeared to her one day. He said she could ask for one thing. She was confused, for there were so many things she needed, and asked him to let her talk to her family first. Her son said she should ask for wealth. Her daughter-in-law said she should ask for a grandson. The old woman's own heart wanted her eyesight back.
She returned to Ganesh and said, very carefully, "Let me see my grandson eating from a golden bowl." Ganesh laughed, for in one sentence she had asked for her sight, for a grandchild and for prosperity, and he granted all three. The tellers usually add, with a smile, that he was not cheated: he was pleased by a devotee who had thought of everyone at once.
Other tellings
- The thirteen forms. Each month's Sankashti honours Ganesh in a particular form, from Bhalachandra to Dwijapriya, with Vibhuvana Palaka in an adhik month, and vrat books give a separate short story for each. The full list of forms is on the Sankashti page.
- Angaraki. When the Chaturthi falls on a Tuesday it is Angaraki Sankashti. In a story told in Maharashtra, Angaraka, the planet Mangal and a son of the Earth, prayed to Ganesh for a long time, and Ganesh granted that a Chaturthi on his day would bear his name.
- Sakat Chauth. In Magha, North Indian mothers keep the day as Sakat Chauth and often tell a different folk tale: a potter's kiln that would not fire, and an old woman's only son placed in it, who was found playing safe among the pots the next morning because she had kept the fast.
Reading the story calmly
The Sakat tale, like many village stories, puts a child in danger so that rescue can be shown. It is a story of faith and of a mother's steadiness, not a picture of anything that happened, and the child comes out unharmed. The moon's curse is also told lightly in most homes, and the false accusation is the subject of a separate Krishna story rather than a warning to anyone who glimpses the sky by chance.
How the katha is heard
Sankashti is usually a family occasion rather than a gathering. In the evening, after the Ganesh puja with durva and modak, someone in the family reads or tells the katha while the others sit with folded hands. Then everyone waits for the moon. The order of the puja is on the Sankashti Chaturthi puja vidhi page.
What the story carries today
Ganesh stories are among the first a child in an Indian home hears, and Sankashti keeps them in circulation every month. They are funny, warm and slightly mischievous, and their lesson is gentle: look at what is close, think before you wish, and forgive. The Kartika Sankashti falls on the same day as Karwa Chauth, and in many northern homes both kathas are told that evening. For the puja itself, some families like to check the choghadiya as well.