Padmini (Kamala) Ekadashi Vrat Katha (Adhik Maas Shukla)

In the Padma Purana and the Bhavishyottara Purana, King Yudhishthira once asked Krishna to name the Ekadashi that falls in the bright fortnight of Adhik Maas, the rare intercalary month also called Purushottama Maas. He asked Krishna to describe its merit and history. Krishna answered that Sage Pulastya had once told this very history to Devarshi Narada, naming the day Padmini Ekadashi, also called Kamala Ekadashi. The Padma Purana's Uttara Khanda preserves this story among twenty-four (24) separate Ekadashi chapters it devotes to the full yearly cycle of these fasts. Krishna told Yudhishthira that this fast, since it falls only once every thirty-two months and avoids grain during its observance, carries the combined merit of every other Ekadashi together with every sacred pilgrimage, and bestows an illustrious, unconquerable child on those who keep it with sincere devotion.

In the Treta Yuga, within the Haihaya dynasty, there ruled a noble king named Kritavirya. He had a thousand queens, yet none had given him a child, and the absence of an heir weighed on him more heavily with each passing year.

Wanting a worthy heir above all else, Kritavirya handed his kingdom to his ministers and withdrew into the dense forests of Mount Gandhamadana to undertake severe tapasya, ascetic penance. His devoted chief queen, Padmini, daughter of King Harishchandra, chose to accompany him into that solitude rather than remain behind in comfort.

For ten thousand years Kritavirya practiced the harshest austerities he could sustain, and still Vishnu did not appear before him. The king grew emaciated and physically frail, his body wasting under a discipline that had yet to bear any visible fruit.

Watching her husband's exhaustion deepen with no sign of answered prayer, Queen Padmini walked to the nearby hermitage of Mata Anusuya, the chaste and famously wise wife of Sage Atri. She prostrated before the sage's wife in tears and explained that her husband's ten thousand years of austerity had still brought them no son, and asked to be taught some further practice that might finally fulfill their longing.

Mata Anusuya answered with a mother's gentleness, telling Padmini that Adhik Maas, the intercalary leap month also called Purushottama Maas, is the most sacred of all months, arriving only once every thirty-two months. In its bright fortnight falls Padmini Ekadashi. Anusuya instructed the queen to observe this fast with full faith and devotion toward Hari, promising that Janardana would be swiftly pleased and would grant a son invincible to every power in the three worlds except his own.

Padmini kept the Padmini Ekadashi fast in absolute purity, worshipping Keshava throughout and holding an unbroken vigil through the night, her devotion as steady as her husband's long penance had been. On the morning of Dvadashi, moved beyond measure by her faithfulness, Vishnu himself appeared before the royal couple mounted upon Garuda.

Vishnu told Padmini that her observance of this fast, kept in his own favorite month of Purushottama, had pleased him deeply, and he invited her and Kritavirya to ask for whatever boon they desired. The king and queen, weeping, asked only for a righteous son whom no power could overcome. Vishnu answered that they would have a son of boundless strength, bearing a thousand arms, renowned across the three worlds and unvanquished by any deva, demon, or mortal.

In time, Padmini gave birth to Kartavirya Arjuna, also called Sahasrabahu Arjuna for his thousand arms, who grew to become the glorious emperor of Mahishmati. The Vayu Purana records that this same Kartavirya later invaded Lanka and held Ravana himself captive in battle. Later tradition remembers this feat as proof of the strength Vishnu had promised Padmini on the morning her long vigil ended.

As with every Ekadashi observance, Padmini Ekadashi begins the evening before with Sankalpa, a declared intention spoken before the household shrine naming the fast and the devotee's resolve to complete it fully. Because Adhik Maas is dedicated entirely to Krishna, worship through the fast centers on Radha-Krishna or Lakshmi-Narayana together, honored with Panchamrit, fragrant flowers, and Tulsi leaves offered morning and evening.

Devotees mark the day by donating earthen pitchers filled with sweet water, along with fruits and brass utensils, to Brahmins, a gift meant to echo in miniature the abundance Padmini herself received after her long, patient vigil. The fast closes the next morning on Dvadashi with Parana, taken only after cows and Brahmins have both been fed, closing the vow with the same careful attention that opened it the evening before.

Kritavirya's ten thousand years of austerity were not wasted, but the katha is careful to show that they alone could not bring the couple what they sought. It was Padmini's willingness to seek out Anusuya's guidance, and her own steady fast rather than any further suffering on her husband's part, that finally moved Vishnu to appear. The story places the turning point not in the scale of penance already endured but in the couple's readiness to try a different, more precisely devotional path once the first had run its long course without answer. Many households keeping this rare fast still take this as its deepest lesson.