How to Light Agarbatti in Puja: How Many Sticks, Direction, Timing and Customs

Last updated: 4 November 2026 · By Acharya Alok Pandit, Divine Hindu, Jayanagar 3rd Block East, Bengaluru 560011 · ~18 min read

Where does agarbatti come in the puja sequence?

Agarbatti is offered as dhupa (धूप), the incense step, which comes after flowers and before the lamp in almost every list of puja offerings. The Sanskrit word means both incense and the act of offering it.

In the five-step panchopachara puja the order is gandha (fragrant paste), pushpa (flowers), dhupa (incense), dipa (lamp) and naivedya (food). Wikipedia's article on Hindu puja gives this order. The same five offerings are shared by Hindu, Jain and Buddhist worship in India.

The element column is a widely taught explanation of panchopachara, given for example by the Vedic teachers at Vedadhara. It is a reading of the five offerings, not a rule printed in the puja lists.

Where dhupa sits in the sixteen-step puja

In the longer shodashopachara puja, dhupa always comes right after flowers and before the lamp, but its step number changes from list to list. Molesworth's Marathi dictionary puts it eleventh, Apte's Sanskrit dictionary thirteenth, and a Ganapatya list tenth. What never changes is the run gandha, pushpa, dhupa, dipa, naivedya. So "dhupa is step 11" is not a rule. "Dhupa after flowers, before the lamp" is.

The Shiva Purana (1.11) counts incense among the sixteen services offered to the linga. In its section on worshipping an earthen linga (1.20), J.L. Shastri's translation has the incense offered with the mantra beginning "Namah Kapardine ca" and the lamp with "Namah Ashave". Neither passage mentions sticks, numbers or direction.

Camphor is a separate offering. It is lit for aarti after dhupa and is not incense at all. Our guide on how to do aarti covers that step, and our comparison of sambrani, dhoop, loban, camphor and agarbatti explains how each one burns.

How to light agarbatti, step by step

Here is how to light agarbatti in puja without soot, flare-ups or stray ash. The steps combine common family practice with fire-service advice, and the whole thing takes under a minute.

1. Set the holder first. Put a heat-resistant holder on a stable, non-flammable surface in front of or beside the deity, clear of cloth, flowers and paper. Our guide to agarbatti ash and choosing a holder compares the types.
2. Keep loose things back. Sleeves, a dupatta or pallu, and long hair come closest to the flame when you lean towards the mandir.
3. Hold the bare end. Grip the uncoated bamboo handle, tip pointing slightly down, so that the flame climbs onto the coating.
4. Light only the tip. Touch the coated tip to the flame of a match or the side of the diya's flame. Hold it there until the tip burns on its own.
5. Put the flame out. Wave the stick gently or fan it with your hand until the flame dies and the tip glows red. Many families avoid blowing on it; see below.
6. Check that it smoulders. A glowing ring and a thin line of smoke mean it is working. A flame means it is not. The London Fire Brigade advises making sure a stick is smouldering rather than flaming, after a fire in which a burning piece fell from a flaming stick.
7. Offer it. Hold the stick in your right hand and show the smoke to the deity in a few slow clockwise circles. If you use a bell, ring it with your left hand. Recite the dhupa verse below, a mantra of your deity, or simply the deity's name.
8. Stand it in the holder. Then move on to the lamp, the next offering, and the rest of your daily puja at home.

Keep the matchbox on the puja thali, not on the altar cloth, and drop spent matches into a small metal bowl rather than onto the floor.

The dhupa verse many families recite

A verse widely recited at the dhupa step appears in Vaishnava worship manuals such as the Arcana-dipika, and in many household puja books. Wording varies slightly from book to book.

वनस्पतिरसोद्भूतो गन्धाढ्यो गन्ध उत्तमः ।
आघ्रेयः सर्वदेवानां धूपोऽयं प्रतिगृह्यताम् ॥
vanaspati-rasodbhūto gandhāḍhyo gandha uttamaḥ / āghreyaḥ sarva-devānāṃ dhūpo 'yaṃ pratigṛhyatām

Our translation: "Born of the sap of trees, rich in scent, the finest of fragrances, fit to be smelled by all the gods: may this incense be accepted."

Two words carry the meaning. Vanaspati-rasa, the sap of trees, recalls that classical dhupa was largely resin. Aghreya, "to be smelled", tells you how the offering is received: as fragrance, not as smoke for its own sake.

How many agarbatti sticks should you light in puja?

No text we found fixes the number of agarbatti sticks for puja. The passages that describe dhupa, from the Mahabharata to the Shiva Purana and the Pancharatra manuals, speak of offering incense, never of counting sticks.

The internet has filled the gap with numbers, and the numbers contradict each other:

When two confident sources give opposite rules and neither quotes a verse, the honest answer is that the number of sticks is a family custom.

What we suggest

• Keep your family's number if it has one. A household custom is a good reason on its own.
• If you have no custom, one stick is enough for a daily home puja. Nothing in the texts we read makes a single stick incomplete.
• Light more for the room, not for merit. A larger hall, a festival or a gathering may want more fragrance. The Mahabharata's test for incense is whether its scent is agreeable, not how much is burned.
• Odd or even? You will hear that odd numbers are auspicious, or the reverse. We found no source for either rule as it applies to incense.
• Mind the smoke. In a small, closed room, every extra stick adds smoke. Ventilation matters more than the count; our guide Is agarbatti smoke harmful? sets out what studies have measured.

Which direction should agarbatti face in the puja room?

No text we found gives a direction for the agarbatti stick itself. The direction rules of home worship apply to the worshipper and the shrine: you sit facing east or north, and the mandir goes in the north-east where possible, as our guides to daily puja and pooja room Vastu explain.

One supplier's guide simply says incense may stand in the right or left corner beside the deity's image. For the stick, practical placement matters more than a compass point:

• Stand the holder in front of the deity or to one side, so the smoke rises before the image without ash falling onto it or onto the flowers.
• Keep it out of the path of a ceiling fan, an air-conditioner or a window draught, which scatters ash. Open the window, but keep the stick out of the direct draught.
• Never place it under a shelf, a hanging garland, a toran or a cloth canopy. Fire services advise against hanging anything above burning incense.
• Let the stick lean at the angle its holder sets. A stick that leans past the end of the tray drops ash beyond it.

In a small flat, where the mandir is a shelf or a wall unit, our note on a home mandir in an apartment shows how to keep a lamp and incense clear of wood and cupboards.

Which hand should you use to offer agarbatti?

Custom, and the worship manuals that mention it, point to the right hand for the incense and the left hand for the bell. We found no verse that forbids the left hand.

• Text says: the Vaishnava Arcana-dipika tells the worshipper to purify the right hand with a drop of water before each article is offered, dhupa included.
• Text says: chapter 34 of the Pauskara Samhita, a Pancharatra text, says the bell should be sounded while the incense is burned and waved.
• Custom: a description of Smarta puja published by the Australian Council of Hindu Clergy has the worshipper waving incense sticks before the image while ringing a bell held in the left hand.

So the right-hand habit has textual company, but no text we found states it as a prohibition. If you are left-handed or your right hand is injured, offer with the hand that is steady. A steady hand matters more than which hand when a stick is glowing near cloth.

How do you wave agarbatti before the deity?

The common practice is a few slow clockwise circles before the deity, after which the stick goes into its holder. We found no fixed number of circles for dhupa.

For aarti, many families follow a set pattern, which our aarti guide describes as seven circles in all over the feet, the navel and the whole form. Some households borrow that pattern for incense; others circle three times, or for the length of a short verse. All of these are customs.

• Keep the stick at chest height and a hand's width away from the image, so ash does not drop onto flowers or cloth.
• Move slowly. Fast circles shake loose glowing flakes.
• If several family members wish to offer, one person can wave while the others fold their hands. There is no need for each person to light a stick.

Can you light agarbatti from the diya?

Yes. Many families light the stick from the lamp that is already burning, and nothing we found forbids it for incense. The rule people half-remember is about lamps.

A Madhva question-and-answer site advises against lighting one lamp from another; that concerns lamps, not incense. The Mahabharata, in the same chapter that ranks kinds of incense, says lights "should not be stolen, nor extinguished when given by others". Its concern is the lamp itself, so do not let the stick put out the wick.

• Bring the tip to the side of the flame, not down onto the wick, which can drown it in ghee or oil. Our guide to ghee and oil diyas explains how each wick behaves.
• If the wick goes out, relight the lamp before you continue.
• Do not light agarbatti from a camphor flame. Camphor burns fast and hot and can flare.

Can you blow out an agarbatti?

You can, and many guides simply say to blow it out. A widely followed custom, though, is to wave or fan the flame out instead, because the flame is treated as Agni. We found no verse that states this for incense.

Our guide to daily puja gives the same advice for the diya: fan it gently rather than blowing it out with the mouth. Either way, the aim is a glowing, smouldering tip rather than a flame.

To put an agarbatti out before it has burned down, press the glowing tip into a bowl of sand or the ash bed of your holder until it stops smoking, then leave it to go cold. Do not drop a glowing stick into a bin.

When should you light agarbatti: morning, evening or night?

Light agarbatti whenever you do puja. The texts tie dhupa to the puja, not to a clock time, and most households offer it at the morning puja and again at dusk with the evening lamp.

Our daily puja guide recommends the early morning for the main puja, and sandhya, when the evening lamp is lit at dusk, is the other common time; our guide to the diya and its significance covers that lamp. No text we found forbids lighting agarbatti at night. The limit is practical: fire services advise putting incense out before you leave the room or go to sleep.

How long should agarbatti burn?

There is no rule. Sticks burn for very different lengths: a standard stick usually burns for roughly 20 to 45 minutes, and longer, thicker sticks can run about an hour, so check the pack. You need not sit through the whole burn as part of the ritual, but someone awake should be at home until it is out.

Is it wrong to burn bamboo agarbatti in puja?

Some popular sites say that burning bamboo, and so bamboo-core agarbatti, is inauspicious. None that we found quotes a verse, and other writers argue that no scripture forbids it. Treat it as a belief.

If your family avoids bamboo, coreless dhoop sticks and cones serve the same dhupa step. Our guide to types of agarbatti explains masala, charcoal, dhoop, bambooless sticks and cones, and our note on charcoal-free agarbatti explains what that label does and does not mean.

Common mistakes when lighting agarbatti

• Leaving the stick flaming. A flame drops burning pieces; wait for a glow.
• Standing the holder straight on the altar cloth or a wooden shelf, with nothing heat-resistant underneath.
• Lighting several sticks in a small, closed room.
• Leaning in with a loose dupatta, sleeve or long hair.
• Placing the stick under a shelf, a garland or a toran.
• Lighting from camphor, or holding camphor and agarbatti in the same hand.
• Leaving it burning in an empty house or overnight.
• Tipping warm ash or stubs into the bin.
• Letting young children light or carry incense. Fire services advise keeping it out of reach of children and pets.
• Treating the number of sticks as the measure of devotion.

Fire safety and ventilation while burning agarbatti

Incense sticks are a known cause of house fires. The London Fire Brigade counts candles, incense sticks and oil burners among the most common causes of fire in homes, and it has traced specific fires to incense.

Fire services in London, Greater Manchester and Victoria, Australia, give the same core advice:

• Use a heat-resistant holder that catches falling embers and ash, on a stable, non-flammable surface.
• Keep incense away from curtains, furniture, clothes and hair, and hang nothing above it.
• Never leave it burning unattended, and never burn it where people are sleeping or inside a cupboard.
• Put it out before you leave the room or go to bed.
• Keep it out of reach of children and pets.

On smoke, the American Lung Association and Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service both advise burning incense near an open window or door. NHS guidance for parents lists incense sticks among things at home that can trigger a child's asthma, and suggests opening a window if you burn them. The American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology suggests shorter burns and better ventilation for people with asthma. If someone at home has asthma, light one stick, keep it brief, or offer dhupa when they are in another room. For what studies have measured in incense smoke, read our guide Is agarbatti smoke harmful?

How we checked these facts

We read the passages on dhupa in the texts and manuals below, and kept a line between what they say and what households do. Where a claim appears only on shop or devotional sites without a verse, we call it custom or say that no rule was found. Fire and smoke advice comes only from fire services and medical bodies.

• Sequence of offerings: Wikipedia on Puja (Hinduism) for the panchopachara order and Jan Gonda's sixteen-step list; Wisdom Library on shodashopachara for the Molesworth, Apte and Ganapatya lists; Wikipedia on incense in India for the bamboo stick's history; Vedadhara for the five-element reading.
• Texts and manuals: Wisdom Library on dhupa, which collects the Shiva Purana (1.11 and 1.20), the Pauskara Samhita (chapter 34), the Arcana-dipika and the Australian Council of Hindu Clergy's Smarta puja; Wisdom Library on the dhupa mantra and Green Message for the verse; K.M. Ganguli's translation of the Mahabharata, Anushasana Parva, section 98.
• Fire safety: the London Fire Brigade on a flaming incense stick and on an incense fire in Coulsdon; Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service; the Country Fire Authority, Victoria.
• Smoke and ventilation: the American Lung Association; the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology; NHS West Yorkshire guidance for parents.

We found no text that fixes the number of sticks, the direction of the stick, the hand, the number of circles, a rule against lighting from the diya, or a rule against blowing on incense. Each is marked as custom where it appears.

Related reading

Once the stick is lit, the next questions are usually about scent and safety. Our guide to which agarbatti fragrance suits which deity and day separates what the texts say from family custom, and Is agarbatti smoke harmful? covers the smoke studies. For what to do afterwards, see agarbatti ash, disposal and holders and our guide to retiring used puja items. To set up the rest of the altar, read our daily pooja essentials guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you light agarbatti in puja?

Light the coated tip from a match or the side of the diya's flame, let it catch, then wave or fan the flame out so the tip glows. Show the smoke to the deity in a few slow clockwise circles, ring the bell if you use one, and stand the stick in a heat-resistant holder.

How many agarbatti should be lit in puja?

No scripture we found fixes a number. Online sources contradict each other, recommending one, two, or one to three sticks, and none cites a verse. Follow your family's custom if it has one. Otherwise one stick is enough for daily puja, and more sticks mean more smoke in a small room.

Is it inauspicious to light only one agarbatti?

We found no text that says so. One commercial site calls a single stick inauspicious, while a long-running devotional blog calls one stick the safe default. Neither cites a scripture. A single stick completes the dhupa offering as well as several, so follow your family's custom.

Can we blow out an agarbatti?

You can, and many guides say so. A widely followed custom is to wave or fan the flame out instead, because the flame is treated as Agni. No verse we found states this for incense. Either way, wait until the tip glows rather than flames.

Can we light agarbatti from the diya?

Yes, many families do, and we found no text forbidding it. The advice against lighting one lamp from another concerns lamps, not incense. Touch the stick to the side of the flame rather than the wick, relight the lamp if it goes out, and never light agarbatti from camphor.

Which direction should agarbatti face in the pooja room?

No text we found sets a direction for the stick. Direction rules apply to you and the shrine: face east or north, with the mandir in the north-east where possible. Place the holder in front of or beside the deity, away from cloth, shelves, fans and draughts.

Which hand should be used to offer agarbatti?

Custom favours the right hand for incense and the left for the bell. The Arcana-dipika has the right hand purified before each offering, and a Pancharatra text has the bell sounded while incense is waved. No text we found forbids the left hand, so use whichever hand is steady.

How many times should agarbatti be rotated before God?

There is no fixed number for incense in the texts we checked. Most families make a few slow clockwise circles. Some borrow the aarti pattern of seven circles over feet, navel and the whole form; others circle three times or for the length of a verse. All are customs.

Can we light agarbatti at night?

Yes. No text we found forbids it, and many households offer incense with the evening lamp at dusk. The practical limit is safety: put the stick out before you leave the room or go to sleep, and never leave it burning in an empty house.

Should agarbatti be lit before or after the diya?

In the standard puja sequence, dhupa comes before dipa: incense first, then the lamp. In practice many families light the diya at the start so they can light the agarbatti from it, then offer the incense and then wave the lamp. Both follow the order of offering.

What should I do if my agarbatti keeps going out?

Relight it, holding the tip in the flame a little longer before waving the flame out. Sticks that have absorbed moisture often go out, so keep packs closed and dry. Check that the holder is not tilting the stick too steeply or standing in a strong draught.

Can I leave agarbatti burning when I go out?

No. Fire services advise never leaving incense burning unattended and putting it out before you leave the room. Press the glowing tip into sand or the holder's ash until it stops smoking, and leave it to go cold before you throw anything away.

Agarbatti for your daily puja

Divine Hindu Agarbatti is made in India and is charcoal-free, and it burns with less smoke than charcoal-dipped sticks. It is rolled by an NGO production unit under a Government-backed programme. For the dhupa step of a daily puja, sandalwood-style fragrances such as our Natural Chandan and Natural Kesar Chandan are traditionally used, and you can see every fragrance in our agarbatti collection.

Texts are quoted from the translations named above; customs vary by region, community and family. Where we found no fixed rule we say so. Confirm your household's practice with your family purohit, and follow fire-safety advice whenever incense is lit.