Māndhātā and Padmā Ekādaśī
This is the account of King Māndhātā and Padmā Ekādaśī, from the Uttara Khaṇḍa of the Padma Purāṇa. Padmā Ekādaśī is the eleventh tithi (lunar day) of the bright fortnight of Bhādrapada. A three-year drought fell on Māndhātā’s kingdom. On the advice of the muni Aṅgiras, the king kept this Ekādaśī together with all his people, and the rains returned.
Māndhātā’s kingdom
The rājarshi (royal seer) Māndhātā was born in the solar dynasty of Vivasvat. He was a famous emperor, true to his word and just in all his rule. His kingdom was like the kāmadhenu (the cow that gives every wish). There was no famine, no disease and no distress. The treasury was full of wealth honestly earned. All the varṇas and āśramas kept their duties. The land prospered.
After many good years, clouds failed to give rain for three years in a row. The people, worn down by hunger, could no longer perform their yajñas or study the Vedas. There were no svāhā offerings to the devas, no svadhā offerings to the ancestors, and no vashaṭkāra calls at the rites. The whole sacred order of life was broken.
The people’s request
The people gathered and spoke to the king. They told him that Bhagavān Vishṇu, as Nārāyaṇa, takes the form of rain. From rain comes food, and from food all living beings are born. Without rain they would die. They asked the king to do whatever would set things right.
Māndhātā agreed that their words were true. He went into the deep forest with many attendants, looking for a muni who could find the cause of the drought and give a remedy. He visited the āśramas of ascetics across the forest. At last he found the ṛshi Aṅgiras, a son of Brahmā, who was blazing with the light of his tapas and lit up the directions around him.
Māndhātā got down from his vehicle, joined his palms and bowed at the feet of the ṛshi. Aṅgiras asked after his welfare and why he had come.
Aṅgiras’s reply and the king’s refusal
Aṅgiras listened to the king’s account of the three dry years. He said that this was the Kṛta age, the best of the four ages, when Dharma stands on all four feet. In this age only brāhmaṇas may perform tapas, and no others. In the king’s country a śūdra was performing tapas. This broke the order of dharma for the age, and so the clouds held back their rain.
Aṅgiras told him: “Try to kill this man. Then your pāpa (sin) will end, and so will the drought.”
Māndhātā refused. He said he would not kill an innocent man who was doing tapas. He asked instead for a remedy that would end the trouble and also keep to dharma.
Padmā Ekādaśī
Hearing the king’s refusal, Aṅgiras gave him another way. He told him to keep Padmā Ekādaśī, the Ekādaśī of the bright fortnight of Bhādrapada. This Ekādaśī gives every kind of prosperity and destroys every calamity. The king should keep it together with all his people and the four varṇas.
Māndhātā went back to his city. In the bright fortnight of Bhādrapada he kept Padmā Ekādaśī with all his people, the four varṇas and his attendants. When the vow was kept in this full way, together, clouds gathered and rain fell in plenty. The land was flooded with water and shone with crops. By the power of the great ṛshi and of the Ekādaśī, the people were happy again.
Gifts for the day
On this day a pitcher of water with curd and rice, an umbrella and a pair of sandals are given to a brāhmaṇa. With the gift goes a prayer to Govinda, called Śrāvaṇa, to remove pāpa and to give pleasure and moksha.
Sources
- Padma Mahā Purāṇa, Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 57