The princess of Muchukunda's line
King Muchukunda of the Ikshvaku line — the same king to whom Krishna would in a later age grant the boon of destroying Kalayavana — was a fierce enforcer of Ekadashi in his kingdom. On every Ekadashi not a soul, not even the palace elephants, was permitted to eat. His daughter Chandrabhaga had grown up in this strictness and was as devoted to the vrat as her father. She was married with great celebration to Prince Shobhana, son of neighbouring King Chandrasena — a gentle, dharma-loving young man whose only weakness was a slender body that had never learned to bear hunger.
The husband's dilemma
Some months after the wedding, Shobhana came with Chandrabhaga to spend the Kartika festival at his father-in-law's palace. On the eve of Rama Ekadashi he asked his young wife what could be arranged for his food the next day, for he had never once kept a full Ekadashi fast. Chandrabhaga's face fell. She said gently, 'My love, in my father's kingdom you cannot break Ekadashi — not by a grain, not by a sip. Not even the horses in the royal stables will eat tomorrow. Whatever you can bear, please bear; and remember that Bhagwan Vishnu himself will hold you.'
The husband's vrat
Shobhana, unwilling to bring shame upon his young wife, took the sankalpa the next morning and kept the vrat with full nishtha. He drank nothing all day; he sat with Chandrabhaga through the whole night of jagran chanting Vishnu naam in a low voice. But at Dwadashi brahma-muhurat, just as the parana was being prepared, his body — never strong — gave out at last. He died with Rama-naam upon his lips and his wife's hand upon his brow.
The mountain kingdom and reunion
The merit of that single Rama Ekadashi, kept though it cost him his life, carried Shobhana to a beautiful mountain kingdom upon a slope of Mandaracala, given to him by Ma Lakshmi herself, where he ruled as a divine king with his own retinue. Years later a wandering rishi described the shining city to Chandrabhaga; she left her father's palace, kept the same Rama Ekadashi again to strengthen her own passage, and travelled through the mountains until she reached its gate. Shobhana, warned in dream, was waiting. Reunited, husband and wife dwell there still — in the loka Ma Lakshmi grants to those who keep her Ekadashi.
"Grants wealth, marital harmony, a beautiful loka after death, and finally moksha to Vaikuntha. Falling in the fortnight just before Deepavali, it is especially auspicious for the beginning of the Lakshmi-year."