Ekabhakta

Ekabhakta · eka-bhakta, “one meal”

Grammar: neuter noun; a compound of eka (one) and bhakta (a meal, food): “one meal”.

Meaning: the vrata of eating only once in the day, kept on the days a vrata names.

In the scriptures: Agnideva gives the ekabhakta among the vratas of tithis, days and months.

• The Daśamī vrata. Agnideva tells the Daśamī vrata, which gives dharma, kāma and the rest: on daśamī one eats only once in the day. At its completion one gives ten milch-cows and ten gold coins as dakshiṇā, and such a person becomes a lord among brāhmaṇas (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 186).
• The day vratas. One who keeps the ekabhakta vrata for three nights in every paksha, and one who keeps the trirātra vrata fasting by day, gains abundant wealth. One who keeps three ekabhakta naktas in every month gains sāyujya, union, with Gaṇapati. In the trirātra vrata for Janārdana, one keeps ekabhakta on ashṭamī, fasts on navamī, daśamī and ekādaśī, and worships Śrī Mahāvishṇu on dvādaśī; one who keeps it reaches Vaikuṇṭha with a hundred generations of his line (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 197).
• The month vratas. One who keeps the ekabhakta vrata should likewise keep the Dvādaśī vrata separately (Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 198).

Related terms: Vrata · Nakta · Upavāsa · Trirātra · Daśamī · Dvādaśī

Sources

• Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 186, 197–198