Naraka Chaturdashi 2026

Narak Chaturdashi falls on Krishna Paksha Chaturdashi -- Ashwin Krishna Chaturdashi under the amanta month reckoning used across South and West India, Kartika Krishna Chaturdashi under the purnimanta reckoning used across North India: the night before Diwali's new moon. In popular parlance it is called Chhoti Diwali ("little Diwali"), but the name Narak Chaturdashi (or more formally, Naraka Nivarana Chaturdashi) carries the full weight of its mythology. On this day, Lord Krishna (in some accounts alongside his wife Satyabhama and divine eagle Garuda) defeated and killed the demon king Narakasura, who had imprisoned 16,000 women in his palace at Pragjyotishpur (identified with Assam). The slaying of Narakasura was not merely a military victory: it was a cosmic liberation from the darkness of adharma.

The mythology of Narakasura is found in the Bhagavata Purana, Vishnu Purana, and Harivamsa. Narakasura was the son of Bhudevi (Earth Goddess) and Varaha (Vishnu's boar avatar): a being of divine parentage who had accumulated terrible power and used it for tyranny. He had obtained a boon from Brahma that he could only be killed by his own mother, Bhudevi. When Satyabhama (identified as a manifestation of Bhudevi herself) rode to battle beside Krishna and delivered the killing blow with her own arrow, the cosmic justice of the boon was fulfilled. Narakasura, realizing he was dying by his mother's hand, repented and asked that his death day be celebrated as a day of joy, and thus the festival was born. The 16,000 women he had imprisoned were freed and, as tradition records, Krishna married all of them to restore their social honor in the conventions of the time.

The defining ritual of Narak Chaturdashi is the pre-dawn Abhyanga Snan: an oil bath taken before sunrise. Oil (typically sesame oil) is applied to the entire body, followed by a ritual bath with specific herbs, representing the washing away of the sin and pollution that Narakasura's demonic rule had cast over the world. The symbolism is powerful: just as Krishna's victory at dawn ended the darkness of Narakasura's night, the devotee rises before dawn and bathes away darkness from their own body and life. In Gujarat, this same day is called Kali Chaudash and is associated with the worship of Kali and the performance of protective rituals against malevolent forces. The evening before is the night of Yamadeepa: lamps lit at the entrance of homes facing south, to honor and appease Yama, the god of death.