Naraka Chaturdashi
Also called Choti Diwali
Choti Diwali, and the abhyanga snan before sunrise.
When it falls
Thursday, 28 October 2027
By the sunrise at Har Ki Pauri, Haridwar
- The rule
- Kartika Krishna Chaturdashi, before sunrise
- Which day
- Sunrise (udaya-vyapini)
- The day on which the tithi is running at sunrise at the ghat, with the usual fallback when a tithi touches no sunrise.
- Weight
- A major occasion
- Returns
- Once a year
What it is
Naraka Chaturdashi is the fourteenth of the dark fortnight of Kartika, the tithi before Diwali's new moon. It is the one day of the year on which the bath itself is the rite: the abhyanga snan, oil and then water, before sunrise, while the moon is still up. The tradition holds that bathing at that hour on this day is a bath in the Ganga wherever the water comes from. It is kept on the day the tithi runs at moonrise before dawn, which is usually the morning after the tithi begins.
Where it is kept
Two of the six waters; the rite is kept at home everywhere.
Ganga
Har Ki Pauri, Haridwar
Purnimanta reckoning
The abhyanga snan is a home rite, and Har Ki Pauri fills with people who would rather do it in the river.
Yamuna
Vishram Ghat, Mathura
Purnimanta reckoning
Yama's own day, on Yama's own sister's river.
The windows
Brahma Muhurat
about 48 minutes
From sunrise
- Definition
- Two muhurtas of the night before sunrise, until one muhurta before it. A night muhurta is a fifteenth of the night, about 48 minutes at the equinox and longer in winter.
Brahma Muhurat falls before sunrise, so it belongs to the panchang day that opened at the previous sunrise, and the Gregorian date beside it is the next day. The calendar keeps the two apart.
Every time is given at the ghat first, and in your own zone beside it. How the clock is read
Where the timing comes from
- Source
- Computed here, checked against Drik Panchang
- Ayanamsa
- Lahiri (Chitrapaksha)
- Ghat coordinates
- Har Ki Pauri, Haridwar: 29.9457, 78.1642
Textual basis
The living usage of the ghats named below, and the puranic and dharmashastra literature on the day. A citable edition and passage is still to be added.
Every date here is computed: the tithi at the ghat's sunrise, the month named by the sankranti it holds, and the sun's entry into each sign under the Lahiri ayanamsa. Tithi, nakshatra, sunrise and windows were checked against Drik Panchang for Haridwar on eight days between September 2026 and March 2027, to the minute. The dates roll forward each morning.