Kartika Purnima

The day

• The full moon that closes the month of Kartika — also called Tripuri or Tripurari Purnima, the day Shiva destroyed the three cities of Tripura.
• It closes the month-long Kartika bath and the vows taken for the month.

What to do today

• Bathe before sunrise, at a river if you can, in the dawn window this page shows.
• At dusk, light lamps in a Shiva temple and at home, in the evening window this page shows.

When

• At the evening sandhya of the full moon — the window this page shows.
• The Vrataraja looks for the Purnima that is present at dusk (pradosha) for this festival.

Where

• First in a Shiva temple: the Sanatkumara-samhita, as the Vrataraja carries it, says a lamp must be given there at evening on this day.
• Then at home — the doorway, the tulsi, the courtyard — and at a river or tank if you can reach one.

The lamps

• Light as many lamps as you can with ghee or sesame oil; the Vrataraja praises a lamp of seven hundred and twenty wicks offered on this full moon.
• The verse that goes with the temple lamp, quoted in the Nirnayasindhu, asks that every creature of land and water that sees it — insect, moth or tree — be freed from rebirth.
• The lamp raised on a tall pole through the evenings of Kartika is lit tonight as well (practice)

Close

• Bow to Shiva as Tripurantaka, the destroyer of the three cities, and offer the evening's lamps to him.

The month-long bath

• The Kartika bath is begun on the bright Dashami, Ekadashi or Purnima of Ashvin and kept every day for a month, at a river or tirtha while a little of the night remains; this full moon is its last day.

Before or at sunrise

• The Nirnayasindhu, as the Dharmasindhu reports it, has the dawn sandhya finished before sunrise and the bath taken then.
• The Dharmasindhu itself has the bath follow the morning bath and the dawn sandhya, and notes that other works do not give the Nirnayasindhu's order.
• Note: This page shows the window before sunrise first, and the window just after sunrise as the fallback; both are textual.

The bath

• Remember Vishnu, name the place and the day, offer water to Damodara, and bathe standing in water up to the navel.
• A bath at Pushkara on this full moon is singled out in the texts; the Ganga and other tirthas carry their own merit.

If you cannot reach a river

• Bathe at home with a little Ganga water added to the bath (practice)

Closing the Kartika vow

• Vows kept for Kartika close on the Dvadashi; where that was not possible, on this Purnima.
• The Padma Purana, quoted in the Nirnayasindhu, closes the Kartika vow with a vigil at a small mandapa over the tulsi on the Chaturdashi; on the Purnima Brahmin couples are fed, sesame and kheer are offered in the fire, and a cow is given.
• Whatever was given up for the month is given away at its close — a lamp-vow closes with the gift of a lamp, a vow of silent meals with a bell, and so on.

Bhishma Panchaka ends

• The five-day Bhishma Panchaka begun on the bright Ekadashi closes today.
• The Laghu Narada, in the Nirnayasindhu, has panchagavya taken and a single meal eaten after nightfall (nakta) on this Purnima.

The meal

• The Matsya Purana, in the Nirnayasindhu, pairs the release of a bull (vrishotsarga) on this day with a single meal after dusk.
• Keep the meal simple and without meat (practice)

Tripuri Purnima

• On this full moon Shiva destroyed Tripura with a single arrow, and the gods lit lamps for him in thanks — so the Sanatkumara-samhita tells it, as the Vrataraja carries it.

A full moon of baths and gifts

• The digests count a bath, a gift or japa on Kartika Purnima among the most fruitful of the year.
• When the moon is in Krittika the day is held especially holy, and with Rohini it is called Mahakartiki; the Nirnayasindhu also gives that name when Jupiter and the moon stand together in Krittika.
• When the sun is in Vishakha and the moon in Krittika, the conjunction is called Padmaka, prized above all at Pushkara.

Shiva and Vishnu on one day

• The same day closes Vishnu's month of Kartika and keeps Shiva's festival of lamps; the Padma account places Vishnu's Matsya form on this evening.

The tithi

• Purnima of the bright fortnight of Kartika.

When Purnima spans two days

• For this Purnima the Nirnayasindhu takes the later day.
• For the Tripurotsava lamps the Vrataraja takes the Purnima present at dusk (pradosha).
• The Dharmasindhu closes the Bhishma Panchaka on the Purnima present at sunrise and not touched by Chaturdashi.
• For the manvadi rites of this Purnima the Nirnayasindhu wants the Purnima present in the forenoon.

On this page

• The date and the dawn and dusk windows are worked out from these rules for your city.
• Note: In a year where the rules point to different days, almanacs may print two dates; keep your family's.

In the Vrataraja

• The daitya Tripura did tapas at Prayaga for a hundred thousand years; Brahma granted that no god, man, night-roamer, woman or disease could kill him.
• He drove the gods from their places and had Vishvakarma build three cities that moved where he willed — one below the earth, one in heaven, one on earth.
• The gods went to Brahma, then to Vishnu, then to Shiva. Vishnu made ready the means of war: he became the arrow himself, Agni its head and Vayu its feathers; the earth was the chariot, the Vedas its horses, Brahma the charioteer, the sun the banner and the moon the umbrella.
• Narada stirred Tripura to march on Kailasa; after three days of battle Shiva killed him with one arrow on Kartika Purnima, and the gods offered lamps to Hara.

In the Matsya Purana

• The asura Maya, the great builder, wins Brahma's boon and makes three cities — iron on earth, silver in the sky, gold above — ruled by Tarakaksha, Vidyunmali and Maya himself.
• The cities can fall only to a single arrow, at the moment they come together under the Pushya star; Shiva, on a chariot made of the gods and the worlds, looses that arrow and the cities burn.
• Maya, a devotee of Shiva, is warned by Nandi and spared.

How the tellings meet

• Note: The two tellings differ in who Tripura is and how the cities were made; the Matsya does not name the day, while the Vrataraja's account and the Nirnayasindhu's Tripurotsava verse place the festival on Kartika Purnima.

Matsya avatara

• The Padma Purana's Kartika-mahatmya, quoted in the Nirnayasindhu, says Vishnu took the form of the fish on the evening of this day; a gift, homa or japa then is said never to lose its fruit.
• Note: Other verses the Nirnayasindhu gathers set Matsya Jayanti in Chaitra, and one regional reading in Ashadha; the texts differ.

Tulsi

• Tulsi vivaha may be held on any day from the bright Navami or Ekadashi of Kartika up to this full moon, so today is the last day for it.
• Note: The texts read for this page do not tie the story of Vrinda to this full moon.

Kartikeya

• The Kashi-khanda, quoted in both digests, says one who sees Kartikeya on this full moon with the moon in Krittika is reborn learned and prosperous for seven births.
• In the Tamil lands the Krittika day of this month is kept as Karthigai Deepam — see that page.

Kashi — Dev Deepawali

• The ghats of the Ganga are lined with lamps at dusk, and the day is called the Diwali of the gods (practice)
• Many bathe in the Ganga at dawn and set lamps afloat on the river (practice)

Pushkar

• A great fair gathers at the Pushkar lake for the full-moon bath (practice)

Maharashtra

• As Tripurari Purnima, the lamp towers in temple courtyards are lit at dusk (practice)

Odisha

• Before dawn, families float small boats with lamps on rivers and tanks, remembering the sea voyages of old (practice)

The Sikh Gurpurab

• Sikhs keep the Gurpurab of Guru Nanak on this full moon — see the Guru Nanak Jayanti page.