Kali Puja

About Kali Puja

Significance

Kali Puja, also called Shyama Puja, is the night worship of the goddess Kali on the new moon at the end of the dark fortnight, the same Amavasya on which most of India celebrates Diwali with the worship of Lakshmi. Kali is revered as the fierce, protecting form of the Divine Mother, who destroys ignorance and evil, and as the power of time itself.

The Devi Mahatmya of the Markandeya Purana (chapter 7) describes Kali springing from the brow of the goddess Ambika, dark and terrible, to slay the demons Chanda and Munda, after which she is named Chamunda; in chapter 8 she drinks the blood of Raktabija so that no new demons can rise from it. Kali worship as a household and community festival in Bengal grew in the eighteenth century, with the patronage of Raja Krishnachandra of Nadia commonly credited, and was deepened by the songs of Ramprasad Sen and by Sri Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar.

How and where it is observed

Kali Puja is a major festival in West Bengal, Assam, Tripura and Odisha, and in Mithila it is kept as Shyama Puja. Large crowds gather at Kalighat and Dakshineswar in Kolkata, at Tarapith in Birbhum, and at countless community pandals. On the night before, Bengali households keep Bhoot Chaturdashi, lighting fourteen lamps and eating a dish of fourteen greens, a custom traditionally meant to keep away restless spirits.

Rituals

The worship is performed at night, often in the hours around midnight, before an image of Kali, dark-skinned and four-armed, wearing a garland of heads and standing on the recumbent Shiva. Red hibiscus (joba) flowers, lamps, sweets and cooked offerings (bhog) are offered according to family and temple custom. Many devotees fast until the puja and keep vigil through the night, and community images are immersed a day or two later.

How the date is fixed

Kali Puja falls on Kartika Amavasya in the Purnimanta reckoning, the name also used in Bengal; Amanta calendars call it Ashvina Amavasya. Because the worship is at midnight, the Amavasya must prevail at Nishita, the eighth of the fifteen muhurtas of the night. If it covers Nishita on two nights, the night with the greater coverage is taken; if on neither, the day on which Amavasya prevails longest. Diwali Lakshmi Puja is dated by Amavasya at Pradosh, the early evening, so in some years the two fall on different dates.

Sources

• Devi Mahatmya (Markandeya Purana), chapters 7 and 8: Kali, Chanda–Munda and Raktabija
• Nirnaya Sindhu and Dharma Sindhu: Nishita-vyapini tithi convention for night worship
• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Kali

Customs differ between regions, communities and families; this description is background, not a prescription. The date above is calculated by the rule shown on this page.