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Mahalaya and the story of Karna महालया का पर्व और कर्ण की कहानी

Significance of Mahalaya and the story of Karna

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? बाल्गाथा पर इस कहानी को सुनें
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

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. New episodes of Baalgatha podcast are available exclusively on Spotify.

This episode was originally published in 2019 on Baalgatha English and Hindi Podcast.