Chapter CXXV - The Ekadasi Vratam

Said the Divine Grand Father:—The king Mandhata managed to be the undisputed lord of the three worlds by by practising the Ekadashi Vrata of yore. Hence one shall fast both on the eleventh days of the light and dark fortnights. The queen Gandhari fasted on the day of the tenth phase of the moon, and lost her hundred sons in consequence. Hence one shall not fast on the eleventh day of the fortnight. Even in spite of the dictum that the god Hari presides over the day when the moon is both in her tenth, and eleventh, phases, one should fast on the day of the twelfth phase of the moon, and break it on the day following. One shall fast on the day marked even by a Kala of Ekdaashi (Ekadashi?), or on the day when the moon is successively in her eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth, phases. The king Rukmangada used to keep vigils on the nights of the two Ekadashis and hear the Puranas recited to him by the holy sages, in Consequence whereof he was liberated from the trammels of life and ascended to heaven after death.