When Arjuna had gone to the mountain Indrakila to do tapas, Draupadi's heart grew heavy. He had taken on a very hard task, she thought, and on the road there were many who would try to stop him. She wanted no obstacle to fall across her husband's work, so she went to Shri Krishna and asked him: "Tell me a vrat that is rarely told, O Krishna, one that clears away every obstacle on every side."
Shri Krishna said: "Fortunate one, Parvati once asked Shiv ji the very thing you ask me. And Shiv ji told her: 'Listen, Maheshwari. The vrat that takes away every obstacle is Karak Chaturthi, the Chaturthi of the karwa.' Parvati asked him what the vrat was, how it was kept, and who had kept it first. And Shiv ji told her this story."
In the lovely city of Indraprastha, where learned people lived, whose walls shone with gold, silver and jewels, and where the sound of the Vedas never stopped, there lived a learned brahmin named Vedsharma. His wife was Leelavati. They had seven sons, bright as fire, and one daughter, Veeravati, who carried every good mark: eyes like the blue lotus, and a face like the full moon. She was the only sister of seven brothers, and her brothers loved her as dearly as her parents did.
When the time came, Vedsharma gave her in marriage, by the rite, to a brahmin who knew the Vedas and all their limbs. When the Chaturthi of the dark half of Kartik came, Veeravati was at her father's house with her brothers' wives. At evening they all bathed, and with great love they drew a vat tree, and at its root Gauri Maa, with Shiv ji, Ganesh ji and Kartikeya ji beside her. They gave Gauri Maa her puja with chandan, flowers and akshat and her own verse, and then the three beside her, each in turn. They set out ten karwas filled with pakwan, offered cakes of flour and every kind of food, and sat down to wait for the moon, to give it arghya.
Veeravati was young, and hunger and thirst had worn her down. She fainted and fell to the ground, and her family began to weep. Some fanned her; some sprinkled water on her face. Her brothers knew she would not eat until she had seen the moon, even if it cost her her life. One brother, pained by his love for his sister, thought of a way. He climbed a great vat tree with a burning torch in his hand, and showed its light to his sister as the moon.
Veeravati took it for the moon. She put her distress aside, gave the arghya by the rite, and sat down to eat. In the first mouthful she found a hair; at the second she sneezed; at the third, word came from her husband's house, calling her there. She went, and found her husband dead.
The vrat had been ended before the moon rose, and by that fault her husband had died. Seeing him so, Veeravati wept, and blamed herself for some fault in her vrat. She gave Shiv ji his puja, and from that day she kept a vrat without food until a whole year had gone by.
When the year came round, her brothers' wives kept the Karak Chaturthi vrat again, and Veeravati kept it with them, by the rite she knew. That night Shachi Devi — Indrani, the queen of Indra — came down from heaven with her maidens to keep the same vrat, and by Veeravati's good fortune she came of her own accord to where Veeravati was.
Indrani saw the mortal woman and asked her everything, and Veeravati told her all of it with folded hands: "When I came to my husband's house, my husband died. I do not know what deed of mine has borne this fruit. But some good deed of mine must have come to fruit today, that you have come here. Mother, have mercy on me, and give my husband back his life."
Indrani said: "Veeravati, at your father's house you kept the Karak Chaturthi vrat, but you gave the arghya before the true moon had risen, and ate. By that fault your husband has gone. Keep this same vrat now, with care and by the rite, and by its power I will bring your husband back to life."
Shri Krishna said to Draupadi: "Hearing Indrani's words, Veeravati kept the Karak Chaturthi vrat by the rite. When it was complete, Indrani was pleased, and as she had promised, she took water in her cupped hands and sprinkled it over Veeravati's husband. He rose up alive, shining like one of the gods. Veeravati went home with him and lived happily, and he was given wealth and grain, fine sons and a long life. So you too, keep this vrat with care."
Draupadi heard Shri Krishna's words and kept the Karak Chaturthi vrat, and by its power the Pandavas overcame the Kauravas in battle and won their kingdom. The women who keep this vrat at nightfall are given children, wealth and grain, good fortune and a good name.
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