Ritual Guides · Festive Pujans
DHARMA · 4/5Yama Pujan - Deep Daan
Friday, 6 November 2026 · Kartik Krishna Trayodashi · Deep also kept at Holika Dahan
6 November 2026 · Kartik Krishna Trayodashi · Delhi-NCR
Scripturally sourcedRegion awareFear-free
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CORE PRACTICE
The Yama Deepam - a lamp lit at the main door, facing south, as a prayer for the household's longevity.
DHARMA · 4/5Skanda Purana · Yama Deepam narrative
This guide: 1 core practice · 2 scriptural elements · 1 regional custom
Friday 6 November 2026 · Kartik Krishna Trayodashi Delhi-NCR
Dwadashi ends
Fri 6 Nov
10:31 AM
Sunrise
Fri 6 Nov
6:36 AM
Sunset
Fri 6 Nov
5:32 PM
Rahu Kaal
Fri 6 Nov
10:42 AM–12:04 PM
Four minutes, at the door
Dhanteras is a loud day. Dhanvantari worship, the altar, the shopping, the whole of the Diwali week starting to build behind it. Yama Deepam is one lamp, carried to the main door at dusk, set down facing south, and left alone. In most households it takes about four minutes.
Origin
Two narratives circulate behind this lamp, and they are not two versions of one story. They are different stories doing different jobs.
The first belongs to this observance specifically.
Yama’s messengers - the Yamadutas, whose work is to separate the soul from the body came to him troubled. They did their duty without complaint, but they confessed that it weighed on them when the death was untimely: a child, a couple newly married, someone taken in the middle of a life rather than at the end of one. Apamrityu, the tradition calls it. Death out of turn.
Yama, who is the judge as much as he is the ender, answered the complaint by giving a solution. On the evening of Trayodashi in the dark fortnight of Kartik, a lamp placed outside the house and offered to him would be received as an offering, and the household that offered it would be spared what his own messengers found hardest to carry out.
The second narrative is the one most people know.
A young bridegroom was fated to die of snakebite on the fourth night after his marriage. His wife, told of it, did not hide him. She lit lamps at the door and through the room, laid out everything bright the household owned, and kept him awake until dawn with stories and singing. Yama came in the form of a serpent, did not pass the doorway, sat and listened through the night, and left at first light without taking him.
That second story is beautiful and it is probably not the origin of this lamp. It explains lamps in general, and brightness heaped in a doorway, and staying awake, which is why it has attached itself to Dhanteras as a whole rather than to the Yama Deepam in particular. The first story is the one that explains why one lamp, why outside, why south, why this exact tithi, and why the thing being asked for is protection from a death out of turn.
PRATHACONVENTIONAL FOLK TALE DERIVED FROM SKANDA PURANA
Sankalp
A sankalp is a stated intention, not a formula that must be pronounced correctly. It names who is doing it, when, where and for what.
Say this — or your own words
Spoken with water in the right hand, then poured out
ओम विष्णुर्विष्णुर्विष्णुः … मम आत्मनः श्रुतिस्मृतिपुराणोक्तफलप्राप्त्यर्थं मम कुटुम्बस्य आयुरारोग्यार्थं यम दीपदानम् अहं करिष्ये
“I (your name) from (gotra) offer this Yama Deepam on (date) at (place) for (purpose) for the long life and health of my household.”
WHO
Your name, and your gotra if your family uses one. In many households the lamp is placed by whoever is nearest the door when the light goes, and that is a complete performance of it.
WHEN AND WHERE
Kartik Krishna Trayodashi, at the main door of the house. The place is not incidental here - the threshold is the point, and the lamp belongs at the entrance rather than on the altar.
FOR WHAT
The long life and health of the people in the house. Named as a wish, not as a transaction. It is worth being exact about what does not belong here, because this is the observance most easily turned into an insurance policy. A resolve that asks for death to be kept away, or for a particular person to be spared something, has changed what the lamp is. The tradition's own framing is a request for length of life, offered to the one who decides it. No named text prescribes sankalp wording for this observance. The form above is paddhati convention with the deepdaan named. Most households say nothing at all and simply place the lamp, which is complete.
Listen to the sankalp · EN
0:00 / 0:00
Say it in whatever language you think in. The Sanskrit is given because people ask for it.
Samagri
Samagri5 items
- DiyaOne. Cow dung or clay are both traditional; no named text specifies a material. See The Deepavali Diya.
- Mustard OilWidely used for this lamp specifically. Sesame oil and ghee are also kept, and none is prescribed.
- Cotton BattiA single wick. Four-faced lamps are used in some households; that is convention.
- Kumkum & AkshatFor marking the lamp before it is placed, where the household keeps that step.
- FlowersOptional
VidhiShowHide
1
Take the sankalp. State your intention, if you keep one.
2
At dusk, fill the diya with mustard oil and set a single cotton wick in it.
3
Mark it with kumkum and akshat, where your household keeps that step.
4
Light it and carry it to the main door. Place it outside the threshold, facing south.
5
Say the mantra, or a few words of your own asking for the long life of the people in the house.
6
Leave it. It is not brought back in, and it is not put out, it burns down where it stands.
Mantra
The mantra
मृत्युना पाशदण्डाभ्यां कालेन श्यामया सह । त्रयोदश्यां दीपदानात् सूर्यजः प्रीयतामिति ॥
Mrityuna pasha-dandabhyam kalena shyamaya saha, trayodashyam deepadanat suryajah priyatam iti
"By this offering of light on Trayodashi, may the son of Surya be pleased - he who comes with the noose and the rod, with Kala and with Shyama."
Japa count: 1 · also kept at 11, 21, 51, 108
Japa count - none. Said once, as the lamp is set down. A few words in your own language are sufficient and always have been.
DHARMA · 4/5Skanda Purana
Fasting
No mandatory fast
This observance is celebratory. Nothing in the tradition asks you to go without food for it.
Fear-free note. There is none. The Yama Deepam carries no fast. Pradosh Vrat falls on the same tithi in some years and households that keep it are keeping a separate observance, not this one.
Katha
The narrative is told rather than formally recited, and in most households it is told to whoever asks why the lamp is outside.
Vrat Katha — the sacred story
A young bridegroom was fated to die of snakebite on the fourth night after his marriage. His wife, told of it, did not hide him. She lit lamps at the door and through the room, laid out everything bright the household owned, and kept him awake until dawn with stories and singing. Yama came in the form of a serpent, did not pass the doorway, sat and listened through the night, and left at first light without taking him. That second story is beautiful and it is probably not the origin of this lamp. It explains lamps in general, and brightness heaped in a doorway, and staying awake, which is why it has attached itself to Dhanteras as a whole rather than to the Yama Deepam in particular. The first story is the one that explains why one lamp, why outside, why south, why this exact tithi, and why the thing being asked for is protection from a death out of turn.
Recite the katha during the puja. Read it aloud or have it read while you listen.
PRATHARITUAL LORES
Dharma vs Pratha
Named in text
- The Yama Deepam itself - a lamp lit at the main door, facing south, as a prayer for the household's longevity. And deepa as an offering in its own right, one of the sixteen upacharas, with deepdaan singled out in the Kartik Mahatmya.
DHARMA · 4/5 · PURANIC
Skanda Purana
Scored out of five on how directly the text states it
Cultural, not text
- Cow dung as the material - no text specifies one. Mustard oil rather than ghee. Leaving the lamp to burn out rather than extinguishing or retrieving it.
PRATHA · 2/5
Scored out of five on how widely it is attested — real and valid, and not scripture
Myths & Facts
BHRANTI
Myth: “The Yama Deepam protects the household from untimely death.”
Fact: It is a lamp lit as a prayer for longevity, offered toward Yama rather than against him. Presenting it as a protective device turns an act of respect into an insurance policy, and the tradition does not frame it that way.
BHRANTI
Myth: “The ornaments in the story mean you have to buy metal.”
Fact: The brightness in the narrative is lamps, and the night is passed with stories and singing. Nothing is purchased in it. The heap of gold and silver is a later embellishment, and it is the single most commercially exploited sentence in the festival calendar. The observance is a lamp at a door.
BHRANTI
Myth: “If it goes out early, or does not burn all night, it has failed.”
Fact: No text attaches a duration to it, and none attaches a failure. The lamp is lit and placed; what it does after that is between the oil and the wind.
TAPA INTELLIGENCE LAYEREvery claim on this page, classified and scoredExpand the full Dharma / Pratha / Bhranti table ›
| ELEMENT | TAG | SOURCE | SCORE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core practice (this guide) | DHARMA · 4/5 | Skanda Purana · Yama Deepam narrative | 4/5 |
| Origin | PRATHA · 2/5 | Conventional folk tale derived from Skanda Purana | 2/5 |
| Mantra | DHARMA · 4/5 | Skanda Purana | 4/5 |
| Section 10 | PRATHA · 2/5 | Ritual Lores | 2/5 |
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Related
RELATED DATES
Dhanteras6 November 2026 · Kartik Krishna TrayodashiPujan Samagri
Everything on the samagri list, in one box.
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Purohit
Opens soon. This vrat needs no purohit to be valid.
Tapa Circle
Opens soon. Reminders on WhatsApp, the evening before.
You do not need any of these. The guide is complete on its own.