Dhanteras · Yama deepa

What the day is

• Dhanteras is the Trayodashi, the thirteenth lunar day, of the dark fortnight before Diwali — the first evening of the lamp festival.
• The central rite of the day is a lamp set outside the home for Yama at nightfall, so that no one in the house meets an untimely death.

What to do today

• Clean the house and the doorway, and draw rangoli at the entrance (practice)
• At nightfall, in the window this page shows, place the Yama lamp outside.
• Many homes also worship Dhanvantari, and Lakshmi with Kubera, in the evening, and buy something new of metal (practice)

When

• At the opening of the night (nishamukha), while the Trayodashi lasts — the window this page shows.
• This is the hour at which the lamp for Yama is given.

The lamp

• An oil lamp set outside the house — it is given outside, not indoors.
• Many families make it a four-wick clay lamp and turn it to the south, Yama's direction (practice)

Offering it

• Offer the lamp to Yama with folded hands, praying that the son of the Sun, who holds the noose and the staff, with Death and with Time, be pleased by it.
• The lamp protects the household from untimely death (apamrityu).

After

• Leave the lamp to burn down by itself; do not put it out (practice)

Bringing something new home

• Buy a new metal vessel or utensil, or a little gold or silver; the day is held lucky for bringing wealth into the home (practice)
• Many begin with something small and useful for the kitchen or the puja (practice)

Offerings for the evening

• Flowers, akshat, roli, incense and a ghee lamp, with sweets as naivedya (practice)
• Place the new vessel or coins before Lakshmi during the evening puja (practice)

Note

• Buying metal today is living custom; keep it as your family keeps it.

Nirajana

• From the Dvadashi, for five evenings, lamps are waved (nirajana) before the gods, the cows and horses, the elders and the mothers of the house.
• So after the Yama lamp, wave a lamp before the household shrine and before the elders.

Lamps at the door

• Keep a lamp burning at the threshold through the evening (practice)

The meal

• Eat the evening meal with the family once the lamps are lit (practice)

The name

• The popular name joins dhana, wealth, with teras, the thirteenth day (practice)
• The day is known by its rite: the Trayodashi on which the Yama lamp is given.

A lamp against untimely death

• The Yama-deepa is the oldest layer of the day: a lamp offered to the lord of death, that he take no one before their time.
• It opens five evenings of lamps, the nirajana that runs from the Dvadashi to the bright Pratipada.

Dhanvantari

• Dhanvantari, physician of the gods, rose from the churned ocean holding the pot of amrita; the Bhagavata calls him the seer of Ayurveda.
• Keeping this Trayodashi as his day is custom (practice)

Wealth

• In many homes Lakshmi and Kubera are worshipped this evening as well (practice)
• In Bengal the Kubera puja is kept on the Diwali night, after the Lakshmi puja.

The rule

• The Yama lamp is given at the opening of the night, so the day is the one on which the Trayodashi holds at nightfall.
• There is no separate rule for two-day cases; the window on this page is the early night, kept within the hours of the Trayodashi.

The month name

• North India counts months to the full moon and calls it Kartika Krishna Trayodashi.
• The amanta calendars of the west and south call the same day Ashvina Krishna Trayodashi.

On this page

• The date and the nightfall window are worked out from this rule for your city.

Dhanvantari and the amrita

• When the gods and the asuras churned the ocean of milk, many treasures rose from it; then came Dhanvantari, dark and radiant, in yellow silk, holding a pot full of amrita.
• The asuras snatched the pot, and Vishnu took the form of Mohini to win it back for the gods; the Bhagavata names Dhanvantari a portion of Vishnu and the seer of Ayurveda.

The prince saved by lamps

• Families also tell of King Hima's son, fated to die of a snakebite on the fourth night of his marriage; his bride kept him awake with lamps, stories and songs and heaped her jewels at the door, and Yama, dazzled, turned back at dawn (practice)
• The tale is oral, told to explain the Yama lamp, which is given for the same purpose (practice)