Naraka Chaturdashi (Choti Diwali) 2026: Date & Abhyang Snan Time

Significance of Naraka Chaturdashi

Naraka Chaturdashi falls on the fourteenth day of the dark fortnight. In most years it is the day before Lakshmi Puja, though in some years the two fall on the same date. Its name joins naraka, the realm of suffering after death, with chaturdashi, the fourteenth. Nearly everything done on this day asks for release from that suffering, for oneself and for one's ancestors.

The morning belongs to the oil bath and the evening to lamps. In between, families make sweets, visit relatives and ready the house for the main night of Diwali. In Karnataka and Goa the morning bath opens the festival.

The day also looks towards the departed and towards Yama. Some families pray for their ancestors and light lamps to show them the way. After the bath many offer water to Yama while reciting his names, and on the evening of Chaturdashi a lamp is set out for him. The prayer echoes the Dhanteras lamp: protection from an untimely death and from the fear of naraka.

The story of Naraka Chaturdashi

Narakasura was an asura king who grew arrogant with power and tormented gods and people alike. Among his crimes, he held sixteen thousand women captive. Krishna went to war against him with Satyabhama at his side, and Narakasura was killed on this chaturdashi.

The captives were set free. Afterwards Krishna visited his sister Subhadra, who welcomed him with sweets, flowers and a tilak, and some trace Bhai Dooj to that visit.

How to do Naraka Chaturdashi puja at home

1. Prepare the night before Set out sesame oil, ubtan (a herbal paste usually made with gram flour), and clean or new clothes. Many Madhwa and other South Indian homes also decorate the vessel of bath water.
2. Wake before sunrise Rise during the muhurat shown above, while it is still dark and the chaturdashi is running. Light a lamp before the family deity.
3. Oil massage Rub warm sesame oil into the scalp and body. In many South Indian homes, oil first offered to the deity is applied to each family member's head, and the eldest bathes first.
4. Ubtan and apamarga Apply the ubtan. Some families pass a sprig of apamarga (prickly chaff flower) around the head while bathing, praying that sins and the fear of naraka be removed.
5. Finish the bath before sunrise Wash with warm water, finish before the sun is up, and change into new or freshly washed clothes.
6. Offer tarpan to Yama Face south and offer water from your palms while reciting Yama's names, such as Yama, Dharmaraja, Mrityu and Chitragupta, each three times. Some also offer water to Bhishma. Families differ on whether to add rice or sesame, so follow your own custom.
7. Morning puja Worship Krishna with flowers, incense and a lamp, and offer sweets. Some families also offer Hanuman a coconut with a prasad of sesame, jaggery and poha, or worship their kula devi (family goddess).
8. Kajal and the day's sweets In some regions kajal is applied to the eyes after the bath, in the belief that it wards off the evil eye. The rest of the day goes into making sweets and visiting relatives before Diwali night.
9. Evening lamp for Yama On the evening of Chaturdashi, as your family's panchang indicates, light a four-wick diya outside the house for Yama. The four wicks are said to stand for dharma, artha, kama and moksha.
10. Light the rest of the home Light diyas in the kitchen, near the water source, in the cowshed if you have one, and in dark corners. Keep every flame away from fabric and out of children's reach.

Naraka Chaturdashi puja samagri

• Sesame oil, warmed
• Ubtan of gram flour and herbs
• A sprig of apamarga
• Warm water and a clean bathing vessel
• New or freshly washed clothes
• A small lamp for the altar
• Copper vessel of water for tarpan
• Sesame seeds or akshat for tarpan, as per family custom
• A four-wick earthen diya for Yama
• Earthen diyas, oil and cotton wicks
• Picture or murti of Krishna
• Flowers, incense sticks and camphor
• Sweets and poha dishes for naivedya
• A coconut for Hanuman, in families that offer it

Regional traditions

Goa

Neighbourhoods build towering Narakasura effigies and burn them before dawn. Back home, families bathe, crush a bitter kareet underfoot for the demon's defeat, and eat poha in several styles.

Tamil Nadu

This morning is Deepavali itself. Oil offered to the deity is applied before a pre-dawn bath often called Ganga snanam. New clothes and crackers follow, and in some homes marundu, a medicinal preparation made on Dhanteras, is eaten before sunrise.

Karnataka and Maharashtra

Deepavali opens with the early oil bath, aarti and crackers, and continues through to Bali Padyami or Padwa.

North India

As Roop Chaudas, women bathe before sunrise with ubtan, for beauty and cleansing.

Gujarat

Hanuman is worshipped for protection from spirits, which are believed to roam on Kali Chaudas night.

Bengal

The day is Bhoot Chaturdashi. Families set fourteen lamps around the home for the family's forefathers, leaving no corner dark.

Regional names

The same tithi carries different names, and sometimes different observances, across India. Kali Chaudas in particular is fixed by midnight rather than sunrise, so it can fall a day before the oil bath.

• Choti Diwali: the small Diwali, usually the eve of the main night, the usual name across North India.
• Roop Chaudas or Roop Chaturdashi: the name for the beauty bath with ubtan in parts of North India.
• Narak Chaudas or Narak Nivaran Chaturdashi: names that stress release from naraka.
• Kali Chaudas: in Gujarat and Rajasthan, the name for the day and its night worship.
• Bhoot Chaturdashi: in Bengal, the night before Kali Puja.
• Deepavali Bhogi: a name used in parts of the South.

Abhyang Snan

Abhyang means anointing with oil, and snan means bath. The rule lies in the timing: the bath is taken while the moon is still in the sky and before sunrise, during the chaturdashi tithi.

Sesame oil is the traditional choice, worked into the scalp and body before the ubtan and a warm wash. The tradition holds that this bath spares a person from naraka. Many families also say the ubtan keeps poverty and misfortune away.

What follows the bath is part of the custom. Family members put on new clothes, and in many southern and Goan homes the women perform aarti for the rest of the family. A temple visit and a large breakfast shared with relatives usually round off the morning.

Many Madhwa families light a lamp before the deity in the early hours and offer an archana with the Keshava names before anyone bathes. In a year of mourning some families skip new clothes and sweets, but still take the oil bath and make the offering to the deity.

An oil bath is recommended on the Amavasya and the Pratipada of Diwali too, but the chaturdashi bath is held to be the most important of the three. Elderly or unwell family members can keep it simple: a little oil on the scalp and a warm wash is enough.

Naraka Chaturdashi dates