Chitragupta Puja is kept on Yama Dwitiya

Chitragupta Puja is the worship of Chitragupta (चित्रगुप्त), the keeper of the record of every life’s deeds, and of the tools of writing: the kalam (pen) and the dawat (inkpot). Kayastha families keep it as their own household observance, and many call the day Kalam-Dawat Puja or simply Dawat Puja. It falls on the Shukla Dwitiya, the second lunar day of the bright fortnight, of the month of Kartik. That is the second lunar day after the Diwali Amavasya, and the same lunar day as Bhai Dooj, which is also called Yama Dwitiya.

In 2026 Diwali falls on Sunday, 8 November. The Pratipada, the first lunar day, follows on Monday and Tuesday, and the Dwitiya begins at 2:00 pm Indian Standard Time on Tuesday, 10 November. It ends at 3:53 pm on Wednesday, 11 November. Those two instants are the same moment everywhere on earth; only the clock reading changes from city to city.

A lunar day that begins in the early afternoon is the whole reason this year needs a guide. The puja belongs to a particular part of the day, and the Dwitiya arrives in the middle of it.

The afternoon window, and why India’s calendars disagree

Chitragupta Puja is kept with Bhai Dooj, and the tradition gives Yama Dwitiya the aparahna (अपराह्ण) kala: the fourth of five equal parts of the daylight, from sunrise to sunset. In most Indian cities in November that is roughly 12:30 pm to 3:30 pm. The day of the puja is the day whose aparahna holds the Dwitiya.

In 2026 the Dwitiya begins at 2:00 pm on Tuesday, inside every Indian city’s aparahna. So Tuesday’s window holds the Dwitiya for only part of its length, and Wednesday’s window holds it for the whole length. The two readings of the rule give two days. On the first reading, a day counts when the Dwitiya is present in its aparahna at all, and the first such day takes the rite: that is Tuesday. On the second reading, the Dwitiya must hold the window, not only touch it: that is Wednesday.

Our panchang keeps the first reading for Bhai Dooj, which shares this lunar day, and the date our Govardhan Puja and Bhai Dooj guide gives. A calendar that keeps the second reading prints Wednesday. Both are honest readings of one rule. If your family’s panchang or your priest names Wednesday, keep Wednesday.

What the table below adds is how strong Tuesday’s claim is where you live. Sunrise comes earlier in the east, so the afternoon window opens earlier too, and a fixed 2:00 pm falls nearer its end. In Kolkata the Dwitiya holds only the last 40 minutes of Tuesday’s window; in Mumbai it holds 105 minutes. On Wednesday it holds the whole window in every Indian city below.

If your family keeps Tuesday, the hours that count are not the whole window. The Dwitiya begins at 2:00 pm IST, so in India the puja on Tuesday begins at or after 2:00 pm and ends when the window closes. Each row below gives those hours first.

• Kolkata — on Tuesday, 2:00 pm to 2:41 pm: the last 40 minutes of a window that opens at 12:27 pm (30 per cent).
• Kathmandu — 2:15 pm to 3:03 pm Nepal time, where the Dwitiya begins at 2:15 pm: 48 minutes of a window that opens at 12:52 pm (37 per cent).
• Patna — 2:00 pm to 2:51 pm; the window opens at 12:39 pm (51 minutes, 38 per cent).
• Ranchi — 2:00 pm to 2:52 pm; the window opens at 12:39 pm (52 minutes, 39 per cent).
• Gorakhpur — 2:00 pm to 2:57 pm; the window opens at 12:45 pm (57 minutes, 43 per cent).
• Varanasi — 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm; the window opens at 12:47 pm (60 minutes, 45 per cent).
• Prayagraj — 2:00 pm to 3:04 pm; the window opens at 12:52 pm (64 minutes, 48 per cent).
• Lucknow — 2:00 pm to 3:06 pm; the window opens at 12:55 pm (66 minutes, 50 per cent).
• Delhi — 2:00 pm to 3:20 pm; the window opens at 1:09 pm (80 minutes, 61 per cent).
• Bengaluru — 2:00 pm to 3:31 pm; the window opens at 1:12 pm (91 minutes, 66 per cent).
• Mumbai — 2:00 pm to 3:45 pm; the window opens at 1:30 pm (105 minutes, 78 per cent).
• On Wednesday, 11 November, the Dwitiya holds the whole aparahna in all eleven cities, from the window’s opening time above to about the same closing time.

Outside India: Tuesday in the UK, the US and the Gulf; Wednesday in Singapore and Sydney

Abroad, the same two instants land at very different hours, and in most cities that removes the split. In London the Dwitiya begins at 8:30 am on Tuesday and ends at 10:23 am on Wednesday. Tuesday’s afternoon window is inside it from start to end, and Wednesday’s window comes after it has ended. So Tuesday is the day on both readings.

In New Jersey, New York and Toronto the Dwitiya begins at 3:30 am on Tuesday and ends at 5:23 am on Wednesday, before sunrise. In Houston it runs from 2:30 am on Tuesday to 4:23 am on Wednesday. In all of them Tuesday’s afternoon is wholly Dwitiya, so the date is Tuesday with no argument. Dubai is close to India’s clock but still clear: the Dwitiya begins at 12:30 pm there, before the window opens, and fills all of Tuesday’s afternoon, while it holds only 57 per cent of Wednesday’s.

East of India the answer turns the other way. In Singapore the Dwitiya begins at 4:30 pm on Tuesday, five minutes after Tuesday’s window has closed, so the day is Wednesday. In Sydney it begins at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, at sunset, long after Tuesday’s window has closed, so the day is Wednesday there too. A family in Singapore that copies the Indian date keeps the puja on a Tuesday afternoon that holds no Dwitiya at all.

For a city not listed here, open the Diwali 2026 city tool, which applies the same rule to Bhai Dooj at your own location, or the daily panchang for the tithi and its end time where you live.

• London — Tuesday, 10 November; aparahna 12:39 pm to 2:28 pm, all Dwitiya.
• Edison, New Jersey, and the New York area — Tuesday; 12:42 pm to 2:43 pm, all Dwitiya.
• Toronto — Tuesday; 1:00 pm to 2:58 pm, all Dwitiya.
• Houston — Tuesday; 1:09 pm to 3:19 pm, all Dwitiya.
• Dubai — Tuesday; 1:08 pm to 3:21 pm, all Dwitiya.
• Singapore — Wednesday, 11 November; 2:01 pm to 4:25 pm, all Dwitiya.
• Sydney — Wednesday; 2:01 pm to 4:47 pm, all Dwitiya.

Who Chitragupta is, and why his day is Yama’s day

In the Puranas, Chitragupta sits beside Yama, the lord of death and of dharma, and keeps the account of what each being has done. The Garuda Purana, the text many Hindu families read in the days after a death, places him in Yama’s court with his record. The name is usually explained as chitra (bright, or written in many colours) and gupta (hidden): the one who keeps a full record of what was done, including what was done in secret.

Kayastha families tell how Chitragupta came to be. Brahma, so the story goes, had made the world and given Yama the task of judging every being, and Yama asked for help with the record. Brahma sat in long meditation, and from his whole body (kaya) a figure stood up holding a pen and an inkpot. Brahma named him Chitragupta and sent him to keep Yama’s record. From kaya, the story says, comes the name Kayastha, and Kayastha families honour Chitragupta as their ancestor. Versions differ from family to family, and this guide tells the story as the families tell it.

His worship falls on Yama Dwitiya because Chitragupta serves Yama. The same day holds the Bhai Dooj story of Yama visiting his sister Yamuna, and in many Kayastha homes the afternoon holds both: the sister’s tilak for her brother, and the household’s puja of the pen.

The pen put down at Diwali

In many Kayastha families the pen is put down after the Diwali Lakshmi Puja and not taken up again until the Chitragupta Puja is done. For those days the household does no writing and no accounts. The custom is the reason the puja matters so much in those homes: it is the day the family takes up its work again, and it offers the first writing of the new year to the keeper of all records.

Not every family keeps the pause, and its length differs: some put the pen down on Diwali night, some on the day after. If your family has its own rule, keep it. Students in these families often place their books and pens before Chitragupta too, which makes the day as much about learning as about accounts.

The kalam-dawat puja at home, in order

The steps below are a frame for a household Chitragupta Puja, kept in the afternoon hours the Dwitiya holds on your day. In India on Tuesday, begin at or after 2:00 pm IST, and in Kathmandu at or after 2:15 pm. In London, the Americas and Dubai on Tuesday, in Singapore and Sydney on Wednesday, and in the Indian cities listed above on Wednesday, the whole window counts. Families differ in the order and in the words they use. This page does not print mantras; your family’s own puja book, or your priest, gives the ones your family uses.

• Prepare: clean the puja place. Set a picture or image of Chitragupta, or a written name, on a clean cloth. Beside it, set a new pen, an inkpot (or a bottle of ink), fresh paper or a new notebook, and the household’s account books.
• Set out the puja things: a diya, roli or sandalwood paste, akshat (unbroken rice), flowers, a little honey or sugar, and a sweet for prasad.
• Light the diya and take the sankalpa: the spoken intention that names who is doing the puja, where, on which day, and why.
• Worship Ganesha first, as every puja begins. Then worship Chitragupta, and apply roli and akshat to the pen, the inkpot and the books.
• Write the first page. On the fresh paper, many families write an invocation, the names of the deities, and a short account of the household’s income and expenses, with a prayer for the year ahead. Some families write the names of family members; some write a single line. Fold the paper and offer it before Chitragupta.
• Read the katha, if your family keeps one: many households read a Chitragupta katha from a printed booklet.
• Close with aarti, share the prasad, and take up the pen again.

Honest questions, honest answers

Is Chitragupta Puja on the same day as Bhai Dooj? Yes. Both belong to the Kartik Shukla Dwitiya in the afternoon window, so wherever you live they fall on the same day. Many families keep the tilak and the puja in the same afternoon.

Our printed calendar from Patna says Wednesday. Is it wrong? No. It keeps the second reading of the same rule, under which the Dwitiya must fill the afternoon window. In Patna the Dwitiya holds only 38 per cent of Tuesday’s window and all of Wednesday’s, so Wednesday has a strong claim there. Keep the day your family and your priest keep.

We live in New Jersey. Should we follow the Indian date? By the rule our panchang applies to Bhai Dooj, the day is Tuesday in India and Tuesday in New Jersey, so here the dates agree. The difference is that in New Jersey Tuesday is not in doubt: the Dwitiya holds the whole of Tuesday’s afternoon and has ended before sunrise on Wednesday. A family that follows a Wednesday calendar from India would keep the puja in New Jersey on a Wednesday afternoon that holds the Tritiya, the third lunar day, not the Dwitiya.

We live in Singapore. Why is our day different? The Dwitiya begins at 4:30 pm there on Tuesday, after the afternoon window has closed. Wednesday afternoon, 2:01 pm to 4:25 pm, is the first window it holds.

Must the puja be in the afternoon? The aparahna is the window the tradition gives the day. If work or school makes that impossible, many families keep the puja later on the same day, while the Dwitiya still runs. Ask your priest what your family should do.

Can someone who is not a Kayastha keep Chitragupta Puja? It is a Kayastha household custom, and this guide is written for those families. Anyone who wishes to honour Chitragupta can ask their own priest how to do it.

Going deeper

For Bhai Dooj and the Govardhan Annakut the same week, read our Govardhan Puja and Bhai Dooj guide. For Yama’s other evening in the Diwali week, the lamp lit for him on Dhanteras, read our Dhanteras 2026 guide. For the trading families’ worship of the new books, read our Chopda Pujan guide. For all five days of Diwali at your own city, open the Diwali 2026 city tool.