Kartik Purnima (Dev Deepawali)

Overview

Kartik Purnima is the full moon of Kartika, fifteen days after Diwali and the end of the month’s observances: the last day of the Kartik bath, of Tulsi Vivah, and of Chaturmas’s tail. It is Tripurari Purnima for Shiva’s burning of the three cities, Dev Deepawali at Varanasi when every ghat is lit, the day of the Pushkar fair in Rajasthan, and — in a different tradition sharing the date — Guru Nanak Jayanti. Vaishnavas hold it to be the day of the Matsya avatar. It gathers more observances than any full moon of the year.

Story and scripture

Tripura. The Shiva Purana’s Yuddha Khanda tells of the three cities built for the asura sons of Taraka — of gold, silver and iron, in the sky — which could be destroyed only by a single arrow when they came into line once in a thousand years. Shiva, with the earth as chariot, Brahma as charioteer and Vishnu as the arrow, burnt them on Kartika Purnima; the lamps of Dev Deepawali are lit for that, and the day is Tripurari Purnima.

The Kartik bath. The Skanda Purana’s Kartika Mahatmya and the Padma Purana’s Uttara Khanda make the whole month a month of bathing before dawn, lamp offerings and tulsi worship, with the Purnima as its close; the lamp floated on the river on this night (deep daan) is prescribed there.

Matsya. The Matsya Purana places Vishnu’s first avatar, the fish that saved Manu from the flood, on this day.

Guru Nanak. Sikh tradition keeps Guru Nanak’s birth on Kartik Purnima (the Nanakshahi calendar keeps the traditional lunar date for this Gurpurab), with the akhand path, the prabhat pheri processions and the nagar kirtan. See the Waheguru, Ek Onkar & Guru Nanak page.

How the day is kept

The bath before sunrise, in the Ganga where possible; the year’s Kartik snan ends with it.

Lamps: 365 lamps, one for each day of the year, offered in some households; deep daan — a lamp floated on the river at dusk. At Varanasi the ghats are lit from Dashashwamedh to Assi and the Ganga aarti is the year’s largest.

Tulsi Vivah concludes for households that keep it through the fortnight from Dev Uthani Ekadashi.

Jaap. Shiva’s name for Tripurari; Vishnu’s for Matsya and for Kartika; the Shiva and Vishnu pages link the texts.

Regional forms

• Varanasi: Dev Deepawali; the ghats, the aarti, and the Ganga Mahotsav of the days before.
• Pushkar (Rajasthan): the camel fair ends on the Purnima with the bath in Pushkar lake, at the one Brahma temple of note; see the Brahma page.
• Odisha: Boita Bandana — miniature boats floated at dawn in memory of the Kalinga seafarers, and the start of the Bali Jatra fair at Cuttack.
• Punjab and the Sikh world: Guru Nanak Jayanti.
• Bengal: Rash Purnima, the Raas Lila of Krishna kept on this full moon in the Gaudiya tradition, with the Rash Mela of Nabadwip and Cooch Behar.
• Tamil Nadu: the nearest observance is Karthigai Deepam, on the Krittika nakshatra day of the solar month of Karthigai a little later, with Tiruvannamalai’s hilltop flame.

The date

Purnima at sunrise in one’s own city; the table gives New Delhi. A Purnima that begins after sunrise on one day and is current the next morning is kept on the second day by most calendars.