How the katha is heard
On Karwa Chauth, the katha is the heart of the evening puja. Women sit together around the karwa, often with an elder woman of the family or the neighbourhood telling the story, and listen with a few grains of rice or wheat in their hands. In many homes the listeners answer the teller with a soft "hunkara" (a "hmm" of assent) as the story moves along, an old way of showing that the story is being heard, not just told. The grains are offered later with the arghya to the moon.
The little Karwa Chauth booklets sold in every market usually carry the same set of stories, in the same order. The main one is the story of the moneylender's daughter and her seven brothers. It is followed by the story of Karwa the washerwoman and the story Shri Krishna told Draupadi, and the katha closes, as almost every vrat katha does, with a short story of Ganesh ji. All four are given below. The main story is given in the full form the booklets tell it, especially in Rajasthan and the Hindi-speaking North, and the places where families tell it differently are noted after it.
The first katha: the moneylender's daughter and her seven brothers
Once there was a moneylender (sahukar) who had seven sons and one daughter. The seven brothers loved their only sister so much that they never sat down to eat without her. Whenever they ate, she ate beside them.
The day of Kartik's Chauth came. The moneylender's wife, his seven daughters-in-law and his daughter all kept the Karwa Chauth fast. In the evening, when the brothers sat down to eat, they called out, "Come, sister, eat with us."
"Not today, brothers," she said. "Today is my Karwa Chauth fast. I will eat only after the moon rises and I have offered it arghya."
The brothers could not bear the thought of their sister going hungry until the moon rose. So one brother took a lamp, another took a sieve (chalni), and they went out beyond the sand dune at the edge of the village. There they lit the lamp and covered it with the sieve, so that its glow shone through the mesh like the rising moon. Then they came back and said, "Look, sister, the moon has risen. Go and offer your arghya."
The sister went to her sisters-in-law. "Come, let us offer arghya together," she said. But the sisters-in-law knew what the brothers had done, and they said, "Bai-ji, it is your moon that has risen. Ours will rise later, in the night." The innocent girl did not understand what they meant. She offered arghya to the false moon and sat down to eat with her brothers.
In the very first mouthful there was a hair. Before she could take the second, people arrived from her in-laws' house to fetch her: "Your husband is very ill. Send her at once." From that moment every sign turned bad. When she opened her trunk to take out clothes for the journey, the first garment that came out was white, the colour of a widow. With no time to choose, she was sent to her in-laws' house in white.
As she left, her mother tied a gold coin into the end of her sari and said, "On the way, touch the feet of everyone you meet. Whoever blesses you to stay a suhagan, a married woman whose husband lives, give this gold coin to them." The daughter did as she was told. She touched the feet of everyone she met on the road, but no one gave her that blessing. Instead they said, "She is the one who made the moon rise at the wrong hour, for the sake of her brothers' comfort."
At the door of her in-laws' house stood her youngest sister-in-law (nanad), a little girl. The daughter touched her feet too, and the child said, "May you be cool-hearted and blessed with children, and may you stay a suhagan into old age." Hearing this, the daughter gave her the gold coin and tied a knot in the end of her sari to hold the blessing.
Inside the house, her mother-in-law did not even offer her a seat. "He is lying dead upstairs," she said. "Go and sit with him." The daughter went up and found her husband lying dead. She sat down beside him then and there, and she did not leave. She cared for his body day after day. The family sent up leftover pieces of roti for her, and on those she lived.
Some time later, the Chauth of Margashirsha came. Chauth Mata appeared and called out: "Take the karwa, sister of the brothers, take the karwa! Take the karwa, you who broke the fast, take the karwa!" The daughter caught hold of her feet. "You must give me back my husband," she said. But the Chauth of Margashirsha replied, "The Chauth of Paush will come; she is greater than I. She will give you your husband."
And so it went, month after month. Each Chauth of the year came, called out the same words, and told her the same thing: "A greater Chauth than I is coming. Ask her for your husband." At last the Chauth of Ashwin came, and she told her the truth: "It is the Chauth of Kartik, Karwa Chauth, who is angry with you. When she comes, fall at her feet. She will give you back your husband."
Then, with thunder and roaring, Karwa Chauth herself arrived. "Take the karwa, beloved sister of the brothers!" she called. "Take the karwa, you who made the moon rise in the daytime! Take the karwa, you who broke the fast!" The moneylender's daughter caught her feet and wept. "O Chauth Mata, give me back my husband!"
"Why do you hold my feet," said the goddess, "you who made the moon rise at the wrong hour?"
"Forgive my mistake, Chauth Mata," the daughter begged, "and give me back my husband." She would not let go.
At last Chauth Mata was pleased. She took mehndi from her little finger, kajal from her eyes and roli from the tika on her forehead, and sprinkled them over the husband. The moment they touched him, he sat up, alive.
Husband and wife celebrated Chauth Mata with great joy. They made churma, heard the Chauth katha, and offered the karwa. They bowed to Chauth Mata, ate together, and sat down to play chaupar.
Downstairs, the maid set out with the day's pieces of roti. When she reached the top of the stairs and saw the two of them playing chaupar, she ran to tell the mother-in-law. The mother-in-law came up and saw her son alive and well, and she was overjoyed. "How did this happen?" she asked. "Chauth Mata has given me back my suhag," the daughter-in-law said. She touched her mother-in-law's feet, and this time her mother-in-law blessed her again and again to stay a suhagan.
O Chauth Mata, as you gave the moneylender's daughter back her suhag, so give it to everyone. Keep happiness and peace, in their parents' home and their husband's home, for all who tell this story, all who hear it, and all who answer "hunkara" as it is told.
How other families tell it
- The youngest sister-in-law. In many Hindi-speaking homes, the false moon was lit by the youngest brother, and so it is his wife who holds the power to undo the harm. When Karwa Chauth comes round again, the daughter falls at the feet of her youngest sister-in-law and will not let go until she helps. The sister-in-law cuts her little finger and lets a drop of amrit fall into the husband's mouth, and he wakes up saying, "Jai Ganesh, Jai Gauri."
- The hut by the cremation ground. In some versions the daughter will not let her husband be cremated, and the villagers leave her with his body in a hut, where her young nanad brings her food. She keeps every Chauth of the year there, and on Karwa Chauth asks the nanad for the sixteen adornments, does her full shringar, offers them to Chauth Mata, and receives her husband back.
- Indrani and the twelve fasts. In the version Shri Krishna tells Draupadi (the third katha below), the girl is a Brahmin's daughter, and it is Indrani who tells her to keep every Chauth for twelve months.
- Ganesh ji. Some tellings say it was Ganesh ji, the lord of Chaturthi, who was displeased when the fast was broken, and that the husband fell ill and the family's wealth drained away until the daughter begged his forgiveness and kept the fast again.
Some families also call the girl Veeravati, or Karwa. Whatever the details, every version agrees on what matters: the fast was broken by a deception, the wife never gave up, and the vow kept with faith brought her husband back.
The second katha: Karwa the washerwoman
Long ago, a devoted washerwoman named Karwa lived with her husband in a village on the bank of the Tungabhadra river. Her husband was old and weak. One day, while he was washing clothes at the river's edge, a crocodile suddenly came up, seized his foot in its jaws, and began dragging him away towards Yamaloka, the realm of death.
The frightened old man could not even cry out properly. All he could manage was to call his wife's name: "Karwa! Karwa!"
Karwa came running. The crocodile was about to carry her husband into the realm of Yama. Without a moment's thought, she bound the crocodile with a raw cotton thread, and the strength of her devotion held it fast. Then, dragging the crocodile with her, she went straight to the gates of Yamaraj.
"O Lord," she said, "this crocodile has seized my husband's foot. As punishment for this crime, send the crocodile to hell."
"The crocodile's life is not yet over," Yamaraj replied. "I cannot take it before its time."
"Then if you will not help me save my husband," said Karwa, "I will curse you and destroy you."
Seeing her courage, even Yamaraj was afraid. He sent the crocodile to Yamapuri and blessed Karwa's husband with a long life. From that day, it is said, the fast of Kartik Krishna Chaturthi came to be kept in Karwa's name, as Karwa Chauth.
The third katha: the story Shri Krishna told Draupadi
Once, while the Pandavas were in the forest, Arjuna went to the Nilgiri mountain to perform tapas. Draupadi was troubled. Obstacles and hardships kept coming to them, and Arjuna, who would have dealt with them, was away. So she meditated on Shri Krishna, and he came to her.
Draupadi asked him for some remedy for their troubles. Shri Krishna said, "Once Parvati asked Shiva this same question. He told her that the Karwa Chauth fast removes the small and large obstacles that come into a household's life." Then he told Draupadi this story.
In ancient times, a pious Brahmin had seven sons and one daughter. When the daughter grew up she was married, and on Kartik's Chauth she kept the Karwa Chauth fast. Long before moonrise, hunger overcame the beloved sister of seven brothers, and her face, fresh as a flower, began to wilt. The brothers could not bear to see her suffer. They begged her to eat before moonrise, but she would not. So, out of love, they made a light behind a peepal tree and told her, "Look, the moon has risen. Get up, offer arghya and eat." She rose, offered arghya to the moon, and ate.
The moment she ate, her husband died. She began to weep and cry out. As fate would have it, Indrani, the queen of the gods, was passing by with her attendants. Hearing the weeping, they came and asked her what had happened, and the Brahmin's daughter told them everything.
Then Indrani said, "You took food and water during the Karwa Chauth fast before the moon rose, and that is why your husband has died. Now, if you serve your dead husband and keep the fast properly on every Chauth for twelve months, and then on Karwa Chauth worship Gauri, Shiva, Ganesh and Kartikeya along with the moon, and take food and water only after offering arghya to the risen moon, your husband will surely live again."
The Brahmin's daughter did exactly that. The next year, after keeping all twelve months' Chauth fasts, she kept Karwa Chauth with full ritual, and by the power of the fast her husband came back to life.
Having told this story, Shri Krishna said to Draupadi, "If you too keep this fast with faith and according to its rites, all your sorrows will end, and your good fortune and prosperity will grow." Draupadi kept the Karwa Chauth fast as Shri Krishna had told her, and it is said that by its power the Kauravas were defeated and the Pandavas won the war of the Mahabharata.
Ganesh ji ki kahani
Almost every vrat katha in North India ends with a short story of Ganesh ji, because no puja is complete without him. The one usually told on Karwa Chauth is this.
There was once an old woman, a budhiya mai, who worshipped Ganesh ji in the form of a clay image. Every day she made a new one, and every day it crumbled away when she bathed it. Near her house, a rich merchant's house was being built. She went to the masons and said, "Carve me a Ganesh ji out of stone."
"In the time it would take us to carve your stone Ganesh," the masons said, "we could build a whole wall." And they sent her away.
"Then may Ram make your wall crooked," said the old woman.
From that moment, the wall would not stand straight. The masons built it and pulled it down, built it again and pulled it down again, and by evening nothing had been done. When the merchant came and found no progress, he asked why. "An old woman came and asked us to carve her a stone Ganesh," they said. "We refused, and she said our wall would go crooked. Since then it won't stand straight. We build it and pull it down."
The merchant sent for the old woman. "We will make you a Ganesh of gold," he told her, "only make our wall straight." He had a golden Ganesh made for her, and the merchant's wall stood straight.
O Ganesh ji, as you made the merchant's wall straight, so make everyone's straight.
What the stories mean
The four stories show the fast from different sides. The first is a story about the fast itself: that it is kept until the real moon rises, and that the love that tries to spare someone a hardship is not always a kindness. It is also a story of a wife who would not give up, month after month, until the goddess relented. Karwa the washerwoman shows the same devotion as courage, strong enough to bind a crocodile with a cotton thread and face Yama himself. The story told to Draupadi links the fast to Shiva and Parvati, whose marriage it honours, and to the protection of the whole household, not only the husband. And Ganesh ji's story, as always, asks that whatever is crooked in our lives be set straight.
For this year's date, puja muhurat and moonrise time in your city, see our Karwa Chauth 2026 guide. During the puja, many women also read the Parvati Chalisa or sing Jai Parvati Mata, and close with the Ganesh Aarti.