Shravana Putrada Ekadashi is the Ekadashi of the bright half of Shravana, the month of rain, and its katha is about a good king who had everything except a child. His whole city fasted on this day and gave him the merit of their fast, and in time a son was born in the palace.
The coming Ekadashis, with the Smarta and Vaishnava days and the parana window for your city, are listed on the Ekadashi dates page; open any day there for its parana time. This page tells the story.
The katha
Yudhishthira said, "Krishna, you have told me of Kamika Ekadashi in the dark half of Shravana. Now tell me about the Ekadashi that comes in the bright half. What is its name, and what does it give?"
Krishna replied, "It is called Putrada, the giver of children. Simply hearing its story is said to bring merit. Listen to what happened in the age of Dvapara."
In the city of Mahishmati there ruled a king named Mahijit. He was fair in judgement, gentle in speech and careful with the treasury. His people were content, his borders were quiet, and the priests praised his gifts. Yet the king grew sadder each year, because no child had been born to him.
One day he called his ministers and the elders of the city. "I have never taken anything that was not mine," he said. "I have protected my people as a father protects his children. I have honoured the gods and the brahmins. Why, then, do I have no child? Think about it, and tell me if you can see a reason."
The ministers had no answer. They decided to go into the forest and ask the sages who lived there. They walked from hermitage to hermitage until they came to the sage Lomasha, an ancient seer so long-lived that, the story says, a single hair falls from his body only at the end of a whole age of the world. He sat in deep meditation, and they waited quietly until he opened his eyes.
"Why have you come?" he asked kindly.
They told him about their king, his goodness and his grief. "We have come for his sake," they said. "Please tell us how a child can come to him."
Lomasha closed his eyes again and looked into the king's past. After a while he spoke. "In an earlier birth your king was a merchant, poor and always travelling for trade. One summer day, on the tenth day of the bright half of Jyeshtha, he had walked since morning without food or water. At noon he reached a pond. A cow that had just given birth was drinking there, with her calf close by. The merchant was so thirsty that he drove her away from the water and drank first himself. Because he had fasted that whole day, though only from hardship, he was born a king. Because he turned a thirsty mother away from the water, his house has stayed without a child."
The ministers were silent for a moment. Then they asked, "Is there a way for this to be set right?"
"There is," said Lomasha. "In the bright half of Shravana comes the Putrada Ekadashi. Let all of you, the king's people, keep that fast with care. Stay awake that night singing the names of Vishnu. On Dwadashi morning, offer the merit of your fast to your king. That merit will meet the old fault and dissolve it."
The ministers bowed and returned to Mahishmati with joy. They told the king and the city everything. When the bright half of Shravana came, the people kept the Ekadashi together, the old and the young, the traders and the farmers. They worshipped Vishnu, stayed up through the night, and on Dwadashi they offered their merit to the king with folded hands.
Soon after, the queen conceived. When her time came, she gave birth to a healthy son, and the city celebrated as if each family had been given a child of its own.
Krishna ended, "Whoever keeps this Ekadashi with faith, and whoever hears its story, receives its blessing in this world and peace in the next."
Reading the story calmly
The katha explains the king's grief through a fault in a past life. That is the language of the Puranas, and it is told here as the story, not as a verdict on anyone. Many couples wait long for a child for reasons no one is to blame for, and medicine helps many of them. The part of the story worth holding on to is the other half: a whole city fasting for one man's sorrow.
What the day is kept for
The name says it plainly. Couples hoping for a child keep this fast together, and parents keep it for children who are ill, far away or simply growing up. The text says the fast brings children, good fortune and a place with Vishnu afterwards; families take that as the promise the story makes, and keep the day as a prayer rather than a transaction.
The story also carries a quieter lesson about thirst. The merchant's fault was small and very human, taking water before a tired animal. Many families read it as a reminder that kindness to animals, especially to a mother and her young, is part of dharma.
How it is kept
Many households worship Laddu Gopal, the child Krishna, on this day, bathing him and offering butter and sugar candy. In Pushtimarg temples and some Vaishnava homes the deity is offered a pavitra, a garland of twisted silk or cotton threads, which is why the day is also called Pavitra Ekadashi. Some couples keep the fast together and hear the katha side by side. Anyone pregnant or unwell should eat and drink as their doctor advises; the prayer does not depend on going hungry. The order of the fast is on the Ekadashi puja vidhi page.
Neighbouring Ekadashis
The Ekadashi before this one is Kamika Ekadashi, in the dark half of Shravana, and the one after is Aja Ekadashi, the story of King Harishchandra. A second Putrada Ekadashi comes in Pausha, kept with the same prayer. To see when Ekadashi begins and ends in your city, use the panchang.