Dhanteras 2026: Date, Puja Muhurat by City, What to Buy and Yamadeep

Last updated: 21 October 2026 · By Acharya Alok Pandit, Divine Hindu, Jayanagar 3rd Block East, Bengaluru 560011 · ~24 min read

When is Dhanteras 2026? Date, tithi and nakshatra

Dhanteras 2026 falls on Friday, 6 November 2026, the thirteenth tithi of the dark fortnight of Kartik. In the purnimanta calendar used in North India this is Kartik Krishna Trayodashi; in the amanta calendar of Maharashtra, Gujarat and the South it is Ashwin Krishna Trayodashi. The label on the month changes, the day does not.

The nuance people get wrong is the sunrise rule. A tithi is normally assigned to the day on which it is present at sunrise, but pradosh festivals are the exception: Dhanteras, like Diwali itself, is tied to the evening. Drik Panchang and the other major almanacs all place Dhanteras on 6 November for exactly this reason.

Is the date the same abroad? Yes. Trayodashi begins at 05:00 UTC on 6 November and ends at 05:17 UTC on 7 November. Sunset on 6 November falls inside that stretch in every place from New Zealand through India and Europe to Hawaii, so New York, London, Dubai, Singapore and Sydney all keep Dhanteras on Friday 6 November.

The festival travels under several names, and they are all this one day. In Sanskrit and printed panchangs it is Dhantrayodashi; in Maharashtra, Dhanatrayodashi (धनत्रयोदशी); in Hindi, Dhan Teras (धनतेरस); in Gujarat, Dhanteras (ધનતેરસ); in Bengal, Dhanteras (ধনতেরাস); in Kannada and Tamil panchangs, Dhana Trayodashi (ಧನತ್ರಯೋದಶಿ, தனத்ரயோதசி); and in Ayurvedic circles and Dhanvantari temples, Dhanvantari Jayanti. In Gujarat it follows Vagh Baras and in Maharashtra Vasu Baras, the cow-and-calf days on Thursday 5 November, when Dwadashi is current in the evening.

What is the Dhanteras puja muhurat in your city?

The Dhanteras puja muhurat is the part of pradosh in which Vrishabha lagna, a fixed (sthir) ascendant, is rising. In New Delhi on 6 November 2026 it is 6:02 to 7:57 PM, as printed by Drik Panchang and AstroTalk, a window of one hour fifty-six minutes.

In the Drik reckoning, pradosh runs from sunset for one-fifth of the night, about two hours thirty-seven minutes in Delhi. The muhurat is whichever is shorter: the pradosh or the Vrishabha lagna. That is why Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and the Kerala cities below end their muhurat exactly when pradosh ends, while Delhi, Kolkata, Lucknow and Ahmedabad end when Vrishabha ends.

The table gives, for fifteen Indian cities, the sunset, the pradosh as printed by Drik, the Dhanteras puja muhurat as printed by Drik (the column to follow), and our own independent computation of the same window. All times are PM, IST, on Friday 6 November 2026.

Our computation uses the Swiss Ephemeris (Moshier mode) with the Lahiri ayanamsa and cuts off the minute rather than rounding it. The pradosh ends agree with Drik to within a minute in all fifteen cities. The Vrishabha edges sometimes differ by one or two minutes, because the lagna moves about a degree every four minutes and almanacs choose slightly different ayanamsa and refraction conventions. Where the two columns differ, neither is wrong; follow the figure your family priest or local temple prints.

Dhanteras muhurat for Indians abroad. The same method gives the following, again with Drik's printed window and ours. Times are local, on Friday 6 November 2026, with clocks already back in North America and Europe.

In Singapore and Sydney the muhurat is short, one hour forty-seven and one hour twenty minutes, because Vrishabha begins thirty-six to forty-five minutes after sunset and pradosh closes while it is still rising. The window in London is also short, one hour thirty-seven, because Vrishabha ends at 6:20 PM, an hour before pradosh closes. For a city not listed, the Drik Panchang Dhanteras page lets you enter any location.

Where almanacs disagree

Not every site prints the same figures. We found several that do not match Drik, our ephemeris or each other, and we have not used them: one prints a Trayodashi window of 12:21 AM to 10:48 PM on 6 November, which is twelve hours off the astronomy; one gives a Delhi muhurat of 5:49 to 7:15 PM, which is not Vrishabha lagna; one prints no city and a window of 6:37 to 8:37 PM; and one places the Yama Deepam on 7 November although it lists Dhanteras itself on the 6th. The sites that agree with each other, with Drik and with our calculation are Drik Panchang, Prokerala (Ujjain, Trayodashi 10:31 AM on 6 November to 10:48 AM on 7 November), AstroTalk (Delhi) and Haindavam (Ujjain, Vrishabha 6:17 to 8:15 PM).

When can you buy gold, silver and utensils on Dhanteras 2026?

Gold, silver and vessels can be bought from 10:30 AM on Friday 6 November until 10:47 AM on Saturday 7 November 2026, the full stretch of Trayodashi. Many families prefer the choghadiya windows inside that stretch, and in New Delhi Drik Panchang lists them; we recomputed each one from Delhi's sunrise and sunset and every boundary matches to the minute.

The method is simple. Each daytime choghadiya is one-eighth of the time between sunrise and sunset, and each night one is one-eighth of the time between sunset and the next sunrise. On a Friday the day order is Chal, Labh, Amrit, Kaal, Shubh, Rog, Udveg, Chal; on a Saturday it is Kaal, Shubh, Rog, Udveg, Chal, Labh, Amrit, Kaal. Shubh, Labh, Amrit and Chal are the ones traditionally preferred for purchases. Boundaries shift by a few minutes in other cities, so use your own sunrise.

A note from the almanacs: Drik says gold coins are said to sell more on the Pushya Nakshatra day before Dhanteras than on Dhanteras itself. In 2026 the Moon is in Hasta on Dhanteras, and the Pushya day falls five days earlier, on Sunday 1 November, which Drik Panchang lists as Ravi Pushya. Choghadiya is a refinement, not a requirement; the custom is that something new and lasting enters the house on the day, and for most families that means the afternoon or the evening after the puja.

Why is Dhanteras so late in 2026? The Adhik Maas explanation

Dhanteras is about three weeks later than in most years because 2026 has an Adhik Maas, an extra lunar month, between 17 May and 15 June. The Hindu calendar is luni-solar: twelve lunar months make about 354 days, while the seasons take about 365. To stop festivals drifting through the seasons, an extra month is added roughly every 32 to 33 months, and it is called Adhik Maas, Mal Maas or Purushottam Maas.

Because the extra month came before the festival half of the year, every tithi-based festival from Guru Purnima onward lands later than in 2025, when Dhanteras fell on 18 October. In 2026 that means Ganesh Chaturthi on 14 September, Navratri from 11 October, Dussehra on 20 October, Karwa Chauth on 29 October and Dhanteras on 6 November. The full explanation is in our Adhik Maas 2026 guide, and the season's dates sit in the Hindu Festival Calendar 2026. The earlier festivals are in our Dussehra 2026 and Karwa Chauth 2026 guides.

Who is Dhanvantari, and why does Dhanteras belong to him?

Dhanvantari is the physician of the gods and an avatar of Vishnu, regarded in tradition as the source of Ayurveda, and Dhanteras is traditionally his birthday. The Puranas tell that when the devas and asuras churned the ocean of milk for amrit, a radiant figure rose with the pot of nectar in his hands. The Bhagavata Purana names him in Skandha 8, chapter 8, verse 34, as a portion of Vishnu and a seer of Ayurveda; the churning is described in the same chapter.

Tradition places his appearance on Kartik Krishna Trayodashi, which is why the day is also called Dhanvantari Jayanti and why a new vessel, a kalash, a lota or a bowl, is the most traditional Dhanteras purchase: the family brings home a container as he brought one. Two days later, on Amavasya, Lakshmi is worshipped, so the five days of Diwali begin with the physician and end with the goddess. In Vedic practice he is shown with four arms holding a pot of amrit, a conch, a leech and a wheel or text.

A change worth knowing. Ayurveda Day was first observed on Dhanteras in 2016, and for several years the government marked National Ayurveda Day on Dhanvantari Jayanti, which moved with the festival. In 2025 the Ministry of Ayush fixed 23 September as Ayurveda Day every year, as reported by The Week and summarised on Wikipedia. So on 6 November the occasion is a temple and family observance of Dhanvantari Jayanti, not a government Ayurveda Day. Ayurvedic colleges and Dhanvantari temples still hold a puja that day.

In the household he is invoked before Lakshmi and Kubera with Om Dhanvantaraye Namah, and the prayer made is for the good health of the family through the year. It is a prayer and not a medical prescription; for anything about health, a qualified physician is the right person to ask.

Dhanteras puja vidhi 2026: step by step

The household puja takes twenty to thirty minutes, needs no priest, and is done at pradosh on the evening of Friday 6 November, ideally inside the muhurat for your city above. Follow your own family's order where it differs.

1. Prepare the house in the day. Dhanteras is when the Diwali cleaning is finished. The house is swept, the mandir washed, old and broken things set aside, and the entrance decorated with rangoli and a toran of mango leaves and marigold. Bathe and wear clean, preferably new, clothes before the puja.
2. Set the chowki. Spread a red or yellow cloth on a low wooden chowki facing east or north. Place Ganesha on the left and Lakshmi to his right, with an image of Dhanvantari and a Kubera image or yantra beside them. Set a kalash of water with mango leaves and a coconut in front, and put the new purchase of the day on the chowki on a little akshat.
3. Sankalp. Take water in the right palm and state your name, gotra, place and the date, Kartik Krishna Trayodashi, 6 November 2026. The intent, by tradition, is the well-being of the household. Release the water.
4. Ganesha first. Offer roli, akshat, a flower and a sweet with Om Gan Ganapataye Namah. No puja in the tradition begins without him.
5. Invoke Dhanvantari. Offer a flower and a lamp to his image or to the new vessel with Om Dhanvantaraye Namah, and pray in your own words for the family's health.
6. Lakshmi puja. Bathe a metal image with a little panchamrit and water, or sprinkle water on a clay or paper one. Apply haldi and kumkum, offer akshat, a lotus or marigold, a sweet and a few coins, and chant Om Shreem Mahalakshmyai Namah eleven or twenty-one times, or a full mala of 108. The method is in our Lakshmi mantra guide.
7. Kubera puja. Turn to the Kubera image, the yantra or, as most households do, the locker or cash box. Mark it with a swastika in kumkum, offer a flower and akshat, and keep the new coin inside. More on this in the Kubera section below.
8. Aarti. Light camphor on the pooja thali and sing the Lakshmi aarti with the family, ring the bell and share the sweet as prasad. Our aarti guide has the steps.
9. The thirteen lamps. After the aarti, light thirteen diyas, one for each of the thirteen of Trayodashi, at the entrance, the windows, the tulsi, the kitchen and the mandir. Mustard oil is customary; see our note on ghee and oil diyas.
10. Yamadeep. Last, set the lamp for Yama outside the door facing south, as described below. It is left to burn through the night.

What goes on the Dhanteras puja thali? Samagri

What to buy on Dhanteras: the traditional list and the reasoning

The traditional Dhanteras purchase is anything new and lasting, above all metal: gold, silver, or a brass, copper or steel vessel. Each custom has its own reasoning, and knowing it makes the choice easier.

On a small budget. The size of the purchase has never been the point. In the traditional telling, a family that brings home one steel spoon keeps Dhanteras as fully as one that brings a gold chain. Customary small purchases include the lightest silver coin that jewellers stock for the day, a brass or copper lota, a packet of whole coriander, a new broom, a set of clay diyas, a clay Lakshmi-Ganesh from the roadside stall, or a packet of salt or rice, which many Maharashtrian and Gujarati families bring home as the day's dhan. None of these is a lesser Dhanteras, and no purchase should be made on borrowed money to satisfy a custom whose meaning is contentment.

What should not be bought on Dhanteras? Customs of avoidance

The usual customs of avoidance are iron, glass, black items, sharp objects and an empty vessel. None is a prohibition with a stated consequence; they are the day's etiquette, and every region keeps a few.

Most of this varies by household. A family that has always bought a steel bucket on Dhanteras should go on buying its steel bucket; where tradition and practicality conflict, the tradition is that Dhanteras is a day for welcoming, not for worry.

What is Yamadeep daan, and when and how is the lamp lit?

Yamadeep daan is a single lamp offered to Yama, the lord of death, on Dhanteras evening; unlike every other lamp of Diwali week it faces away from the house. In 2026 it is lit at dusk on Friday 6 November, while Trayodashi is current. Drik Panchang and Haindavam both keep it on the evening of Dhanteras, within pradosh.

The story told on the night. A king named Hima had a son whose horoscope foretold that he would die of a snakebite on the fourth night after his marriage. When the fourth night came, his young wife would not let him sleep. She heaped the gold and silver of the house at the door of their chamber, lit lamps everywhere, and sat through the night with stories and songs. When Yama came as a serpent, the glare dazzled him; he sat on the heap of ornaments and listened until dawn, then left. Tradition holds that Yama declared that whoever lit a lamp for him on this Trayodashi would be spared untimely death in the household. It is a traditional account and not history, but it is the reason the lamp is lit and the whole night is kept bright.

How it is done. In many families the diya is made of kneaded wheat flour, with a cotton wick (four in some traditions, one in most) and mustard or sesame oil. The women of the house light it, and it is placed outside the main door facing south, the direction of Yama, on a small heap of grain or rice, sometimes with a few coins and a flower. It burns through the night and is not brought back inside. The verse commonly recited asks Yama, the son of Surya, to be pleased by the lamp given on Trayodashi, so that death with its noose and staff stays far from the house:

Mrityuna pasha-dandabhyam kalena shyamaya saha, Trayodashyam deepa-danat Suryajah priyatam mama.

We have not traced this verse to a numbered chapter in a printed Purana, so we give it as the commonly recited form and not as a scriptural citation. Some households light a Yama lamp on Naraka Chaturdashi as well. Drik's Narak Chaturdashi vidhi describes a four-wick lamp for Yama on that evening, Saturday 7 November in 2026; our Narak Chaturdashi 2026 guide has the timings. Both are within the tradition. Keep the lamp clear of anything that can catch fire, and in a shared building use a sheltered south-facing corner.

Kubera puja on Dhanteras: how the wealth deity is worshipped

Kubera, also Kuber or Vaishravana, is the king of the Yakshas, the guardian of the northern direction and the treasurer of the gods. In the Puranas he is a devotee and friend of Shiva who was given the keeping of the wealth of the three worlds. He is worshipped with Lakshmi and not instead of her, and the traditional reason is that Lakshmi is wealth arriving and Kubera is wealth kept.

In the home, the puja is usually done at the locker, cash box or the drawer where money is kept, since that is his seat. The box is cleaned, a swastika is drawn on it in kumkum, and a flower, akshat and a lamp are offered, with the new coin of the day placed inside. Families that keep a Kubera image or yantra place it to the north of Lakshmi or on the north wall, Kubera's own direction; our guides on the Kuber sthan and on Shree Yantra placement cover where each is traditionally kept. Shopkeepers do the same at the cash counter on Dhanteras evening. The mantra of the tradition is:

Om Yakshaya Kuberaya Vaishravanaya Dhana-dhanyadhipataye, Dhana-dhanya-samriddhim me dehi dapaya svaha.

Chanted eleven, twenty-one or 108 times, it is a prayer for sufficiency in grain and wealth; the full text and method are in our Kubera mantra guide. Like every prayer on this page, it is an expression of intent and gratitude in the Vedic manner, not a means of producing any particular result, and no yantra, stone or idol should be bought in the belief that it is one. Nothing here is financial advice.

How is Dhanteras kept across India and abroad?

The day has one shape and many accents, and it is kept most strongly in the North and West. The regional pattern is as follows.

What are the five days of Diwali 2026, and where does Dhanteras fall?

Dhanteras is the first of five days; seen together, the 2026 week runs as follows. Each date is a tithi mapped onto a calendar day and can move by one with your city's sunrise, so confirm against a current panchang.

How we checked these dates and times

Every date and clock time on this page was computed independently and then matched against at least one almanac. We calculated tithi boundaries, sunset, pradosh, Vrishabha lagna and choghadiya with the Swiss Ephemeris (Moshier mode), the Lahiri ayanamsa and the Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and other city coordinates, and compared the results with Drik Panchang's Dhanteras pages for 22 cities and with AstroTalk, Prokerala and Haindavam. Where our figure and the almanac's differ by a minute or two, we print both.

Sources we used:

• Drik Panchang: Dhanteras puja timings (city by city)
• Drik Panchang: gold, silver and vessel purchase timings
• Prokerala: Dhanteras 2026
• AstroTalk: Dhanteras 2026 (New Delhi)
• Haindavam: Dhanteras and Yama Deepam, 6 November 2026
• Bhagavata Purana 8.8.34: the appearance of Dhanvantari (Vedabase)
• The Week (PTI): 23 September declared Ayurveda Day
• Wikipedia: Dhanteras

What comes next after Dhanteras 2026?

After Dhanteras, the season runs in this order: Kali Chaudas on the night of Saturday 7 November and the abhyanga snan of Narak Chaturdashi on the morning of Sunday 8 November; Diwali and Lakshmi Puja that evening, covered in our Diwali 2026 Lakshmi Puja guide; Govardhan Puja on Tuesday 10 November and Bhai Dooj on Wednesday 11 November; and Chhath Puja from 13 to 16 November. Later come Dev Uthani Ekadashi, Tulsi Vivah and Dev Diwali on Kartik Purnima. The month's observances are gathered in our Kartik month guide, and the dates of the fasts are in the Ekadashi 2026 list and the Purnima and Amavasya 2026 list.

A Kubera image for the Dhanteras chowki

A brass image of Kubera is traditionally kept on the north side of the Lakshmi chowki, or on the north wall of the puja room, and worshipped with Lakshmi on Dhanteras evening. For a mandir that does not have one, the Kuber Maharaj brass idol is the kind of image households traditionally use for this puja. We are at Jayanagar 3rd Block East, Bengaluru 560011, if you would like to see an image in person before the day.

Frequently Asked Questions about Dhanteras 2026

When is Dhanteras in 2026?

Dhanteras in 2026 is on Friday, 6 November, on Kartik Krishna Trayodashi. The tithi runs from 10:30 AM on 6 November to 10:47 AM on 7 November IST, so it covers sunset on Friday only. Diwali follows on Sunday, 8 November, and the date is the same abroad.

What is the Dhanteras puja muhurat in 2026?

In New Delhi the Dhanteras puja muhurat on 6 November 2026 is 6:02 to 7:57 PM, according to Drik Panchang and AstroTalk. Mumbai is 6:35 to 8:35 PM, Kolkata 5:28 to 7:26 PM and Bengaluru 6:25 to 8:20 PM. It shifts with local sunset.

Is Dhanteras on 6 or 7 November 2026?

Dhanteras is on Friday, 6 November 2026. The puja is tied to pradosh, the twilight after sunset, and Trayodashi is current at sunset only on Friday. It ends at 10:47 AM on Saturday 7 November, so by Saturday evening the tithi is Chaturdashi.

When should you buy gold on Dhanteras 2026?

Gold can be bought from 10:30 AM on 6 November to 10:47 AM on 7 November 2026, while Trayodashi lasts. In New Delhi the choghadiya windows listed by Drik include 12:05 to 1:27 PM, 4:11 to 5:33 PM and 8:49 to 10:27 PM on Friday, and 7:59 to 9:21 AM on Saturday.

Why is Dhanteras so late in 2026?

Dhanteras falls on 6 November because the Hindu luni-solar calendar added an extra month, Adhik Maas, between 17 May and 15 June 2026. Every tithi-based festival from Guru Purnima onward therefore lands about nineteen to twenty days later than in 2025.

What should you buy on Dhanteras?

The traditional Dhanteras purchases are gold and silver, especially Lakshmi-Ganesh coins, brass, copper or steel vessels, a new broom, whole coriander, clay diyas and Lakshmi-Ganesh images. The custom is that something new and lasting enters the house on the day. Nothing bought is a promise of prosperity.

What should not be bought on Dhanteras?

Tradition sets aside iron, glass and crockery, black objects and clothes, and sharp objects such as knives and scissors. A new vessel is not brought home empty, and the purchase is paid for in full. These are customs, and family practice varies.

What is Yamadeep daan and how is it done?

Yamadeep daan is a lamp offered to Yama, lord of death, on Dhanteras evening. A diya, often of kneaded wheat flour, is filled with mustard or sesame oil, lit at pradosh by the women of the house and placed outside the main door facing south, where it burns through the night. It is believed to keep untimely death from the household.

Who is Dhanvantari and why is he worshipped on Dhanteras?

Dhanvantari is the physician of the gods and an avatar of Vishnu, who in the Puranas rose from the churning of the ocean of milk holding the pot of amrit. He is regarded as the founder of Ayurveda, and tradition holds that he appeared on Kartik Krishna Trayodashi.

Is it necessary to buy gold on Dhanteras?

No. Gold is the best-known Dhanteras purchase, but the tradition asks only that something new and lasting enter the house on the day. A small silver coin, a brass or steel vessel, a packet of whole coriander, a new broom or clay diyas all count. None should be made on borrowed money.

Can the Dhanteras purchase be made online or on another day?

Yes. Most families buy in person on the day or order in advance so that the item arrives on 6 November and is placed before the deities at the evening puja. If it arrives later, many keep it aside and place it in the mandir at the Lakshmi Puja.

This guide is for educational and devotional purposes and reflects traditional practice, which varies by region, community and family. Confirm timings with your family purohit or a current local panchang. Nothing here is financial or medical advice; purchases are a matter of personal faith and should be judged on their own merits.