Vamana Purana — Akhanda Ekadashi Vrata, Shloka 49
Akhaṇḍa-Ekādaśī Vrata and the Vaiṣṇava Protective Hymn; Prelude to the Kātyāyanī–Mahiṣāsura Narrative
यच्च प्रार्थयसे वीर तद्ददामि यथेप्सितम् मा म्रियस्व मृतस्येह नष्टा भवति वै कथा
yacca prārthayase vīra taddadāmi yathepsitam mā mriyasva mṛtasyeha naṣṭā bhavati vai kathā
“Whatever you request, O hero, that I shall grant as you desire. Do not die; for if one dies here, the matter (the account/pledge) is indeed lost.”
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FAQs
The verse frames boons and promises within immediacy and accountability: life is the condition for fulfilling or even preserving a pledge/transaction. It underscores the dhārmic weight of a spoken commitment—if the agent dies, the ‘kathā’ (undertaking/account) collapses.
Vamśānucarita / Carita-material: it functions as narrative propulsion toward the birth of an extraordinary figure (a boon-born son), which typically feeds into dynastic and conflict episodes.
“Kathā” can signify more than a story: it is the continuity of intention and moral causality. The admonition not to die preserves the chain of karma and vow—preparing the ground for the boon’s consequences in the cosmic order.