Amalaki Ekadashi

Amalaki Ekadashi is linked with devotion to Vishnu and reverence for the amla tree. In the traditional katha, King Chaitraratha and the people of his prosperous kingdom observed the Ekadashi together, worshipping Vishnu and the sacred amla and keeping a night vigil. A hunter, hungry and searching for food, happened to sit nearby and listened to the prayers and katha through the night without eating. Though he had not planned a vrata, the story says the merit of that accidental fast and vigil transformed his future birth. He was later born as King Vasuratha, and when enemies attacked him in a forest, a divine power arising from the merit of the Ekadashi protected him. The story presents sincere remembrance of Vishnu—even when it begins unexpectedly—as capable of changing a person’s direction in life.

The amla tree is worshipped, and Vishnu is held to reside in it on this day. It falls in Phalgun, days before Holi, and in Braj the colour already starts here.

Kept under an amla tree where there is one, with the puja at its root, and the fast broken with amla the next morning. It is one of the few ekadashis with somewhere to go rather than something to avoid.