The Month of Kartik: Early Baths, Lamps and Tulsi

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Namaste, and welcome back. In the first episode we spoke of Kartik Purnima and the lamps of Dev Deepawali in Kashi. The full moon is the end of something, though. It closes a whole month, the month of Kartik, which many households keep with care from beginning to end. In this episode we want to spend some time inside that month, the way ordinary homes keep it, with early baths, lamps and the Tulsi plant.

First, a small word about the calendar, because it can be confusing. In much of north India, a month is counted from one full moon to the next, and so Kartik ends on Kartik Purnima. In many other regions, a month is counted from one new moon to the next, and there Kartik Purnima falls in the middle of the month. The full moon itself is the same night in both. And many families keep the special practices of Kartik for a month of baths that runs from the bright full moon of Ashvin, which is Sharad Purnima, up to Kartik Purnima. Your family's custom and your local panchang will tell you how it is counted where you live.

The season also helps to explain the mood of the month. The rains are over. The rivers are still full but are growing clear. The mornings in the north are turning cool, and the evenings come earlier. The harvest is being brought in. It is a time of steady light after the heavy months of the monsoon, and the practices of Kartik seem to fit that feeling.

Let us begin with the morning. The Kartika Mahatmya, which is a text praising the month and is found in the Padma Purana and also in the Skanda Purana, speaks again and again of the Kartik bath, Kartik snana. It praises bathing before sunrise, in a river if possible, and especially in the Ganga, through the whole of the month.

In Kashi, this means that in Kartik the ghats are busy before dawn. In the dark and the mist, people come down the steps with a small brass pot, a towel and a few flowers. Many are older women who have kept the Kartik bath for years, some in small groups who come together every morning. They step into the river, dip, offer water to the rising sun, and sometimes sing songs of the season as they come up the steps again. Some then visit a temple before going home to begin the day.

Outside Kashi, most people who keep the Kartik bath do so at home, or at a nearby river, tank or pond. What matters to them is the hour, before sunrise, and the steadiness of doing it each day of the month.

A gentle word of care here. River water in the early morning in this season can be cold, and river currents can be stronger than they look. If you are elderly, pregnant, unwell or on medication, please follow your doctor's advice, and a bath at home is entirely in keeping with the spirit of the practice. Never go into a river alone or in the dark in an unfamiliar place, and stop if you feel uncomfortable. The tradition asks for devotion, and it does not ask anyone to put their health at risk.

Now to the evening, and the lamps. The Kartika Mahatmya praises deepadana, the offering of lamps, as one of the most loved acts of the month. In simple terms, it means lighting a lamp as an offering, with some thought of the divine, of one's family, or of those who have gone before.

In homes, this takes many forms. A small clay lamp is lit at dusk near the Tulsi plant. Another at the household shrine. Another at the doorway or on the outer wall. In some temples, lamps are lit in long rows, or on a tall lamp tower, through the month. By the river, some people float a lamp on a leaf cup with a few flowers, and watch it drift for a while.

In Kashi, as we heard in the first episode, the month has its own special lamp, the akash deep, the sky lamp. A lantern in a small basket is raised high on a bamboo pole, and lit each evening through Kartik, for the ancestors. People in Kashi say that the light helps those who came before us to find their way. You will see these poles especially around Panchganga Ghat, standing above the steps against the evening sky.

The word deepadana can also be heard as the gift of a lamp. In some families, during Kartik, lamps, or oil and ghee for lamps, are given to a local temple so that its lamps can keep burning through the month. Others light a lamp under a peepal tree, at a riverbank, or at a small wayside shrine near their home. These are family and local customs, and they vary a great deal. The text praises the act of offering light, and families have found many ways of doing it.

In the Gaudiya Vaishnava tradition, which is devoted to Krishna, this month is also called Damodara, a name of Krishna as a child. In many of their homes and temples, a small lamp is offered to the child Krishna each evening through the month, while devotional songs are sung. It is one more example of how the same month is kept with lamps in different communities, each in its own way.

Now let us come to Tulsi, the holy basil plant. In many Hindu homes, Tulsi grows in a pot or a small raised stand in the courtyard, on the balcony or by the door. She is loved as a plant dear to Vishnu, and families care for her all year. In Kartik, that care becomes more careful. The plant is watered each morning, often after the bath. A lamp is lit beside her each evening. Women in the family may walk around the plant, and some sing songs of Tulsi as they do.

Many traditions hold that Vishnu rests through the four months of the rainy season, and wakes in the bright half of Kartik, on the eleventh day of the waxing moon. That day is often called Prabodhini Ekadashi, or Dev Uthani Ekadashi, the Ekadashi of the waking of the gods. After it, in many families, weddings and other auspicious work can begin again.

Around that time, many households celebrate Tulsi Vivah, the marriage of Tulsi. The Tulsi plant is dressed like a bride, often with a small red cloth and bangles, and a Shaligram stone or an image of Krishna stands for the groom. A small ceremony is held, sometimes by the whole neighbourhood together. In some families it is held on the Ekadashi itself, in others on any day between the Ekadashi and Kartik Purnima. Customs differ, and each family keeps its own.

There are other practices too. Some families keep a simpler diet through Kartik, and some elders take one meal a day. Some keep the last five days up to the full moon with special care, and call them Bhishma Panchaka. Some read the Kartika Mahatmya aloud in the evening, a chapter at a time. These are family customs, and no one keeps them all. If you are thinking of fasting, please remember that anyone who is pregnant, unwell, on medication or elderly should follow their doctor's advice first, and eating simply is a perfectly good way to honour the month.

Many of us today live in flats in large cities, far from any river, and with no courtyard for a Tulsi plant. The practices of Kartik adapt easily to that. A bath at home before sunrise is still a Kartik bath for many families. A Tulsi plant can grow in a pot on a windowsill or a balcony. A single lamp on a shelf by the window is still a lamp offered at dusk. Grandparents who kept Kartik in villages and small towns often say that the intention and the regularity matter most, and the setting can change.

When we listen to people describe how they keep Kartik, what stands out is how quiet it all is. The month is made of small acts, done again and again, for about thirty days. And then, at the full moon, the whole city of Kashi lights its ghats, as though all those small lamps of the month have come together in one evening.

One thing to take with you. If you would like to keep something of Kartik this year, choose one small act and do it every day of the month: an early bath, a lamp at dusk, or a little water for a plant. Keep it simple, and keep it steady.

In the next episode, we will go to the story behind the full moon itself, Tripuri Purnima, and hear how the Shiva Purana tells of Shiva and the three cities.

Keep going

• Listen: The Month of Kartik: Early Baths, Lamps and Tulsi
• Previous: Kartik Purnima and Dev Deepawali in Kashi
• Next: Tripuri Purnima: Shiva and the Three Cities
• All episodes of Kartik Purnima and Dev Deepawali in Kashi