Naraka Chaturdashi (Choti Diwali)

About Naraka Chaturdashi (Choti Diwali)

Significance

Naraka Chaturdashi recalls the slaying of Narakasura, the son of the Earth goddess Bhumi, who ruled from Pragjyotisha and had seized the earrings of Aditi and imprisoned thousands of princesses. The Bhagavata Purana (10.59) tells how Krishna, riding Garuda with Satyabhama, overcame his fortress and killed him, after which Bhumi herself returned the earrings and the captives were freed. Popular tradition adds that Naraka, at his death, asked that the day be remembered with lights.

The day is also associated with Yama, the lord of death. The Dharmashastra digests describe a bath before dawn on this Chaturdashi, offerings of water to Yama (Yama-tarpana) and lamps in the evening, practices traditionally believed to ward off untimely death and the fear of naraka, the realm of suffering. Coming the day before Lakshmi Puja, it is called Choti Diwali in North India.

How and where it is observed

In Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana the main Deepavali celebration falls on this morning, beginning with the pre-dawn oil bath. In Goa huge effigies of Narakasura are made by neighbourhoods and burnt before dawn. Gujarat keeps the day as Kali Chaudas, with worship of Kali and Hanuman; in Rajasthan and parts of North India it is Roop Chaudas, a day of bathing with ubtan; and in Bengal it is Bhoot Chaturdashi, when fourteen lamps are lit and fourteen leafy greens eaten to keep away restless spirits.

Rituals

Before sunrise, family members are anointed with oil and bathe with ubtan or herbal paste; the Nirnaya Sindhu mentions turning a sprig of apamarga (prickly chaff flower) around the head during the bath. In many Maharashtrian homes a small bitter fruit (karit) is crushed underfoot as a symbol of Naraka’s defeat. After the bath come new clothes, sweets, firecrackers in some regions and, in the evening, rows of lamps, including a lamp for Yama.

How the date is fixed

Naraka Chaturdashi is the fourteenth day of the dark fortnight that ends at the Diwali Amavasya: Ashvina Krishna Chaturdashi in the Amanta calendar, Kartika Krishna Chaturdashi in the Purnimanta. Since its rite is the bath before sunrise, the deciding time is Arunodaya, the last part of the night before sunrise (four ghatis, about 96 minutes, or a proportion of the night, by your calculation profile). The day is the one on which Chaturdashi is present during Arunodaya; if it is present at Arunodaya on two days the first is taken, and if on neither, the day on which it prevails longest. When Amavasya begins later the same day, Naraka Chaturdashi and Lakshmi Puja can fall on one date.

Sources

• Bhagavata Purana 10.59 (the killing of Naraka)
• Nirnaya Sindhu, Pariccheda 2, Kartika (Narakachaturdashi: abhyanga snana at Arunodaya, apamarga, Yama-tarpana)
• Dharma Sindhu, Pariccheda 2, Kartika (Narakachaturdashi)

Customs differ between regions, communities and families; this description is background, not a prescription. The date above is calculated by the rule shown on this page.