Shukravar Santoshi Mata Vrat Katha

Traditionally the Santoshi Mata vrat is kept on sixteen Fridays in a row. The Mother is offered jaggery and roasted gram, the katha is heard, and on this day the one fasting and their family avoid anything sour. When the fasts are complete, eight boys are fed at the udyapan, and they too are given nothing sour.

An old woman had seven sons. Six earned a living; the youngest did nothing. The mother fed the elder sons good food and gave the youngest the leftovers from their plates. The youngest son's wife showed him this. Hurt, he left for a distant land. There he worked hard for a merchant and became rich, but he forgot his home and his wife.

Back at the in-laws' home, the young wife was overworked. She had to bring firewood from the forest and was given rotis made of husk and water in a coconut shell. One day, returning from the forest, she saw some women keeping the Santoshi Mata vrat. They told her how. She sold firewood, bought jaggery and gram, and began to keep the Friday fast with devotion.

In time, letters and money began to arrive from her husband. She told the Mother, 'I don't want money, I want my husband.' As the katha says, the Mother reminded the husband of home in a dream. He settled his accounts and came back with great wealth. The couple began living happily in their own home. Then she held the udyapan, but her sister-in-law taught her own sons to ask for something sour. The boys took money and bought tamarind. The rule was broken, and trouble fell on the husband: the king's soldiers took him away.

The young wife asked the Mother's forgiveness for the mistake and held the udyapan again, fully by the rules, making sure no one got anything sour. Her husband was freed and came home. Later a son was born to them. The family too recognised her patience and the Mother's grace, and everyone lived together in love.