Shri Mahalakshmi Vratam 1973

The traditional katha

This is the katha traditionally told by those who keep this vrata; no Purana source was found for it.

Families who keep the sixteen days of worship of Goddess Mahalakshmi tell this story. It goes back to the days of the Mahabharata, in the city of Hastinapura, where both Queen Gandhari and Kunti lived with their sons.

Queen Gandhari, the mother of the Kauravas, was keeping the Mahalakshmi Vrata. On the day of the great worship she invited all the women of the city to come and join her puja. But she did not invite Kunti, the mother of the Pandavas.

Gandhari's sons brought clay and made a huge elephant from it. They set it up in the middle of the palace, so that their mother could worship Mahalakshmi before it.

As the women of the city dressed and set out for Gandhari's puja, Kunti grew sad, for she had not been invited.

Her sons saw her sorrow and asked her what was wrong, and she told them. Then Arjuna comforted his mother. He told her to make ready for her own puja, for he would bring her an elephant.

Arjuna went up to heaven to Indra, the king of the gods, who was his own father, and brought back Airavata, Indra's own white elephant, so that his mother could worship with it. Kunti performed the full worship of Mahalakshmi with Airavata in her home.

Soon the news spread through the city that Airavata, the elephant of the king of heaven, had come to Kunti's house. The women of Hastinapura came in great numbers, and they joined Kunti and worshipped Mahalakshmi there with full devotion.

The Narada Purana, which describes this sixteen-day worship of Mahalakshmi, says that the one who keeps it enjoys every good thing of this world and afterwards lives long in the world of Lakshmi.