Pausha Putrada Ekadashi is the Ekadashi of the bright half of Pausha, in the coldest weeks of the northern winter. The word putrada means the giver of a son, and the vrat is kept above all by couples who long for a child, and by parents who pray for their children’s well-being.
Pausha Putrada Ekadashi falls in the Shukla paksha, the waxing fortnight, of Pausha. Both the amanta and the purnimanta reckoning give the bright half the same month name, so Pausha Putrada Ekadashi has one label wherever you live.
The katha
Stories of the kind told for Pausha Putrada Ekadashi are attributed by the tradition to the Padma Purana and the Bhavishyottara Purana, usually as a talk between Krishna and Yudhishthira, though the speakers vary by telling. The story told for this Ekadashi is about a king without an heir.
King Suketuman ruled the city of Bhadravati with his queen, Shaibya. They were generous, and the kingdom was at peace, but they had no child, and the king grew troubled by the thought of who would offer the family’s rites after him. He left the palace one day, riding into the forest with no purpose except to be alone with his worry.
By a lake deep in the woods he found a group of sages in prayer. When he asked who they were, they told him they were the Vishvedevas, who had come to bathe on this particular day, which was the Ekadashi of the bright half of Pausha. The king asked how a man without a child could find peace, and they said that a person who keeps this Ekadashi with faith may be blessed with a son.
Suketuman returned, told Shaibya, and the two kept the fast together with prayer to Vishnu. The tradition says that a son was born to them in time, and that he grew to be a good ruler. The story is the reason the day is called Putrada, and the reason parents often keep it for the well-being of children already born.
How the fast is kept
The fast is kept like other Ekadashis, with worship of Vishnu or Krishna, and many families make a special offering of fruit and a sweet made with milk. Couples who observe it for a child often sit together for the worship and read or listen to the katha as a pair.
Because the day falls in the cold season, warm milk, dry fruit, sweet potato and sabudana are common foods. In some homes a lamp is kept burning near the image of Vishnu from evening to the next morning.
For Pausha Putrada Ekadashi the dates here follow the Smarta reckoning, which takes the day on which the eleventh tithi is present at local sunrise. A Vaishnava family may observe Pausha Putrada Ekadashi on the following day when Dashami touches the dawn of the first one, so ask your family or temple which calendar they trust. Break the fast on the following morning inside the Timing window, after sunrise and while Dwadashi lasts, avoiding the first quarter of Dwadashi. A fast for Pausha Putrada Ekadashi should never leave you unwell. People with long-term conditions, expectant and nursing mothers and older family members can keep a lighter version, and should take their doctor’s advice first.
Where it sits in the year
In the round of the year, Saphala Ekadashi comes before Pausha Putrada Ekadashi and Shattila Ekadashi after it. To see the whole round, open the Ekadashi page. The Ekadashi vrat vidhi gives the order of worship for Pausha Putrada Ekadashi, and the Ekadashi tithi page explains the tithi.