Varuthini Ekadashi is the Ekadashi of the dark half of Vaishakha, which calendars that end the month at the new moon place in Chaitra. Its katha tells how King Mandhata, attacked by a bear while he sat in meditation, called on Vishnu instead of fighting, and was made whole again by keeping this fast at Mathura.
To see when Varuthini Ekadashi falls next, and the parana window for breaking the fast in your city, open the list of Ekadashi dates, where each day has its own page. Here we tell the katha in our own words.
The katha of Varuthini Ekadashi
Yudhishthira asked Krishna about the Ekadashi of the dark fortnight of Vaishakha. Krishna told him its name was Varuthini, "the one that guards like armour", and that it brings good fortune in this world and the next. Then he told him about a king who learned this for himself.
The king on the river bank
Long ago, on the banks of the Narmada, there ruled a king named Mandhata. He was generous and just, and his people loved him. In time he grew tired of the business of ruling and went into the forest by the river to do tapas. He sat still, his breath slow, his mind fixed on Vishnu, and the days passed without his noticing.
One day a wild bear came out of the trees. It saw the motionless man and took him for something it could eat. It seized the king's foot in its jaws and began to chew, and then to drag him away into the thick forest.
Mandhata felt the pain, but he did not break his vow. An ascetic, he reminded himself, does not answer harm with anger, and does not strike at a creature even when it hurts him. He did not reach for a weapon. He did not curse the bear. He called with all his heart on the one he had been meditating on: "Hari, protect me."
Vishnu heard. He appeared in the forest with his discus, the Sudarshana chakra, and with a single throw he cut the bear down and freed the king.
The fast at Mathura
But the bear had done its harm. Mandhata's leg was gone, and he lay on the ground in pain and grief, wondering how he would live and what his tapas had been for.
Vishnu spoke to him gently. "Do not grieve," he said. "This injury came from deeds of a past life; it is not a sign that I have left you. Go to Mathura. There, on the dark Ekadashi of Vaishakha, which is called Varuthini, keep the fast and worship my form as Varaha, the boar who lifted the earth from the waters. By that fast your body will be made whole."
Mandhata went to Mathura as he was told. He kept Varuthini Ekadashi with full devotion, worshipped Vishnu as Varaha, and stayed awake through the night. When the fast was complete, his body was restored, strong and sound as before. He returned to rule in peace and, at the end of his life, reached Vishnu's abode.
Krishna added that many kings had found blessing through this Ekadashi, Dhundhumara among them, freed from a curse laid on him by Shiva, and that its merit is said to match long tapas and great gifts.
Reading the story calmly
The story has an attack, an injury and a line about past-life deeds, and it is easy to hear that line as blame. The tradition does not ask anyone to read their own illness or injury as a punishment. What the katha puts at its centre is Mandhata's restraint: in pain, he does not lash out, and he trusts. The healing at Mathura is told as grace, and nobody living with an injury is less loved for it.
What the day is kept for
Varuthini means protected, as if by armour, and the mahatmya speaks of the fast as a shield against misfortune and a source of good luck. It compares its merit to that of many years of tapas and to great gifts, and among gifts it praises most the gift of food and, above even that, the gift of learning. These are the text's words; families hear them as a reason for the day's charity, not as a promise.
The day also carries Vishnu's Varaha form, the boar who raised the sunken earth on his tusks. For followers of the Pushti Marg, it is Vallabhacharya Jayanti, the birth of the teacher who founded their path, and Shrinathji's havelis celebrate it with special darshan and offerings.
How it is kept
Varuthini has a few customs of its own, given in the old vrat books for both Dashami and Ekadashi: many families avoid eating from bell-metal plates, avoid masoor dal, honey and meals in someone else's house, and eat only once on Dashami. Many keep the day quietly, speaking little, without anger or gossip, as Mandhata kept his calm. The Varaha form is remembered in the puja, and gifts of food, sesame or books are common. Beyond these, the fast follows the shared Ekadashi puja vidhi, with water and fruit for anyone who needs them.
Around Varuthini
The Ekadashi before this one is Kamada Ekadashi, the story of the gandharva Lalit and his faithful wife. The one after it, in the bright half of Vaishakha, is Mohini Ekadashi, whose story turns a wasted life around. For good hours on the day itself, see the choghadiya for your city.