The two week period between Ganapati festival and Navaratri is known as Pitrupaksha, or the fortnight of the ancestors. The last day of this period is called Mahalaya. Listen to the story of Mahalaya in this episode of Baalgatha podcast.
Listen to the story of Mahalaya in English
हिंदी में महालय की कथा सुनें
महालया का क्या महत्व है? कर्ण की जब मृत्यु हुई, तो उनकी आत्मा स्वर्ग चली गई लेकिन उन्हें अपने पूर्वजों को सम्मान देने के लिए पृथ्वी पर लौटना पड़ा।
About Mahalaya
The period of Pitrupaksha is the fortnight between the Ganapati festival and the Navaratri Festival. Mahalaya is the day when the mourning or Shraddha Paksha ends, and the day is also called as Sarvapitri Amavasya. Goddess Durga is said to travel to earth on the day of Mahalaya. But do you know the story behind how the Pitru Paksha or the fortnight of mourning came to be observed?
Listen to the story of Karna and importance of praying to ancestors and feeding others. When he died, his soul went to heaven but he was required to return to earth to offer his respects to his ancestors. Karna was known for his generosity and we will publish shortly a related story on Fairytales of India podcast, titled “How King Karna Was Humbled”. We have also published the Hindi version of this story today. Check it out on Baalgatha Hindi podcast!
This story was narrated by Shweta for Baalgatha Podcast. Music is obtained under Creative Commons license from incomptecech.com. This episode was originally published in 2019 on Baalgatha English and Hindi Podcast.

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This episode was published on 28-Sep-2019