King Rathadhwaja broke the family tradition of worshipping goddess Laxmi. Soon, he lost his kingdom. His sons performed a long tapasya and prayed to Laxmi to be born in their family. Soon they won their kingdom back. Laxmi was born as a daughter to one of them. When she was born, she was chanting the vedas (holy verses) and was named Vedavati. When she grew up, she went to a pilgrimage to perform tapasy. She was told that she would marry Vishnu in her next birth and continued her tapasya.

She was interrupted by Ravana himself and insulted Vishnu. Vedavati cursed him that in her next birth she would become the cause of his death and then jumped into the fire.