Devshayani Ekadashi, on the Shukla Ekadashi of Ashadha, is the day Vishnu lies down to sleep — the beginning of Chaturmas, the four sacred months of the monsoon. From this day until Devutthana Ekadashi in Kartika, when he wakes, auspicious works are paused: no weddings, no housewarmings, no new ventures, for the time is given over to inwardness and vows.

It is also called Hari Shayani or Padma Ekadashi, and in Maharashtra it is Ashadhi Ekadashi — the day the great Wari pilgrimage reaches Pandharpur and the god Vitthal. Where the rest of the tradition sees Vishnu withdraw, the Warkaris see him waiting at the temple door for the walking pilgrims who have come to him for centuries.

So the day turns a hinge: the god sleeps, the world grows quiet, and the devout take up a Chaturmas discipline — a fast, a silence, a study — to keep through the rains until he wakes.

In the Vamana story, Vishnu as the dwarf took three strides to reclaim the worlds from the generous demon-king Bali, then granted Bali the netherworld and promised to abide with him. It is told that through Chaturmas Vishnu keeps that promise, resting in Bali's realm — and so sleeps to the world above. In the Padma Ekadashi katha it is on this Ashadha Ekadashi that his yoga-nidra begins.

The Chaturmas of monsoon retreat is very old — it was, for wandering ascetics and the Buddhist and Jain orders alike, the season to stay in one place while the rains made the roads impassable and the earth teemed with life not to be trodden. Around that practical retreat grew the vows of Chaturmas and the marking of its start and end by the two Ekadashis. In Maharashtra the day gathered a further history: the Warkari sampradaya's Wari, the centuries-old foot-pilgrimage carrying the palkhis of Dnyaneshwar and Tukaram to Pandharpur, culminates here.

The Padma Ekadashi mahatmya is told in the Bhavishyottara Purana, in a dialogue where Krishna recounts to Yudhishthira the vow's origin and merit; the Brahma Vaivarta and other Puranas describe Vishnu's Chaturmas sleep. The rules of the Chaturmas vows — what to give up in each month — are set out in the dharma-nibandhas.

The four months from Devshayani to Devutthana are the monsoon and its aftermath, when travel was hard, the digestive fire weak and infection easy. Pausing weddings and journeys, keeping lighter food and a settled routine, and turning to study and vows made sound sense in that season — the 'sleep' of the world matching the body's own quieter months. The Chaturmas food restrictions, month by month, track exactly the produce best avoided as the rains progress.

In the Padma Purana's telling, King Mandhata ruled justly, yet his kingdom fell under a drought that lasted three years, and his people starved. Finding no fault in his own rule, the king sought out the sage Angira, who told him the cause lay in a subtle imbalance of the age and gave him a remedy: let the king and his people keep the Padma (Devshayani) Ekadashi of Ashadha with full faith.

The king returned and kept the vow with all his subjects. The rains came, the land revived, and the people were fed. So the Ekadashi that opens Vishnu's Chaturmas sleep is kept for the grace it carries — and, in the Deccan, it is the day the Warkaris, singing the abhangas of Dnyaneshwar and Tukaram, walk the last miles to Pandharpur to stand before Vitthal, who waits with hands on his hips at the temple door.