Main Ritual : Floating Brightly Lit Earthern Lamps
Famous As : Dev Deepawali
Time for the Festivity:
The whole month of 'Kartika' is considered to be the most sacred among all the twelve months of the year. During this month all the pious Hindus refrain from eating fish, meat or egg. All of them take pre-dawn bath and visit temples as a matter of routine. The last five days are considered more sacred, in which there is wide participation. Taken together the days are called 'Panchaka', the last day being the "Kartika Purnima". Every day they take food only once in the afternoon which is known as 'Habisha'.
A Five Day Celebration:
For all the five days the women after purificatory bath in the early morning draw beautiful flower designs around the 'chaura' (a small temple like construction with a 'Tulsi' plant overhead) with color powders produced indigenously. Fasting for the day is commonly observed. Most of the Shiva temples get crowded with devotees offering prayers to Lord Shiva who is said to have killed the demon 'Tripurasura' on this day. Group singing of 'kirtans' and loud thrashing of 'Mrudanga' and cymbals continue for the whole day.
The Full Moon Day or 15th Purnima day of the Shukla paksha of the Kartika month is considered very favorable. The full Moon is generally in Taurus and therefore exalted. At times this celebration can take place with the full Moon in Aries but it represents a strong and auspicious Moon. Generally this is the full Moon in the month of November. It has many names including the Diwali (Deepavali) of the Gods and Tripuri Purnima. This day symbols the victory of Lord Shiva over the demons Tripuri. Kartik Purnima festival also coincides with the Jain light festival and Guru Nanak's Birthday. Tripuri Purnima is one of the most favorable days for worshipping of Shiva, next only to the Maha Shivaratri. According to Mahabharata there were three sons born to the demon Taraka. Taraka was killed by Kartikeya (Mars). Taraka's sons were called Taraksha, Kamalaksha and Vidyunmali. These demon sons of Taraka had performed severe sacrament towards Brahma and won the gift of vast power. Brahma is the creator, the advantage that they established, granted them that they would live for a thousand years in three invincible, moving cities known as Tripuri and that they could only be damaged by one arrow that would merge the three cities into one, and set them to fire. Tri means three and Puri means cities. Tripuri were splendid, made up of gold, silver and iron respectively. They were built to rival Indra's grand city.
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