Kartik (Damodara) Month

What is Kartik month?

Kartik month 2026 begins on Monday, 26 October and ends on Monday, 23 November, and Kartik Purnima falls on Tuesday, 24 November. Vaishnavas call it Damodara month. Every evening of it, devotees hold up a small lamp before Lord Krishna as Damodara, the child His mother tied with a rope, and sing the eight verses of Damodarashtakam.

The pastime behind the month

One morning in Gokula, Mother Yasoda sent her maidservants to other work and sat down to churn the butter herself. As she churned, she sang of His childhood pastimes, and her heart was full of her son. Her bangles tinkled, and the flowers in her hair came loose. Krishna came to her hungry, caught hold of the churning rod and would not let her go on until she fed Him. She took Him on her lap, but the milk on the stove began to boil over, and she set Him down to save it.

That was more than the child would bear. With red eyes and false tears He broke the pot of yogurt with a stone, carried off the butter, and sat on an upturned grinding mortar feeding it to the monkeys, glancing about in case His mother came. She did, with a stick in her hand, and He ran. Srila Prabhupada writes in the Krsna book that she was chasing "the Supreme Personality of Godhead, who is never approached even by the meditations of great yogis."

When she caught Him, He was close to tears, rubbing the kajal around His eyes. She threw the stick away and decided only to tie Him to the mortar for a while. Every rope she joined fell short by two fingers, however many she added. Then the Bhagavatam describes the moment the Lord gave in:

स्वमातुः स्विन्नगात्राया विस्रस्तकबरस्रजः ।
दृष्ट्वा परिश्रमं कृष्णः कृपयासीत् स्वबन्धने ॥

sva-mātuḥ svinna-gātrāyā visrasta-kabara-srajaḥ / dṛṣṭvā pariśramaṁ kṛṣṇaḥ kṛpayāsīt sva-bandhane

Because of mother Yaśodā’s hard labor, her whole body became covered with perspiration, and the flowers and comb were falling from her hair. When child Kṛṣṇa saw His mother thus fatigued, He became merciful to her and agreed to be bound.

Srimad-Bhagavatam 10.9.18

From that day He is called Damodara, and the Caitanya-caritamrta names Lord Damodara as the presiding Deity of Kartik (Madhya-lila 20.201). In The Nectar of Devotion, Srila Prabhupada adds:

It is said that just as Lord Dāmodara is very dear to His devotees, so the month known as Dāmodara or Kārttika is also very dear to them.

The Nectar of Devotion, Chapter 12

How to keep Kartik

Srila Prabhupada kept the month simple. In Mayapur in 1974, a week before Kartik began, he told his disciples:

The duty will be that in the evening you'll offer candle, a small candle, all of you, just before the Deity; not within the room, outside the room; and chant the Dāmodarāṣṭaka, namāmīśvaram.

Lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.8.31, Mayapur, 11 October 1974

So when evening comes, light a small ghee lamp, stand before the Deity or a picture of Lord Damodara at home, and offer it while you sing Damodarashtakam. Kartik is also the last month of Caturmasya. In his purport to Caitanya-caritamrta, Madhya-lila 4.169, Srila Prabhupada writes that in Kartik one should not eat fish or any non-vegetarian food, and that masur and urad dal are counted with them.

Kartik festivals in 2026

Hardly a week of Kartik passes without a festival or the day of a great Vaishnava. Each name below opens its own page with the date and, for an Ekadashi, the time to break the fast at Kurukshetra.

• Monday, 26 October: Disappearance Day of Sri Murari Gupta, Sri Krsna Saradiya Rasayatra
• Friday, 30 October: Disappearance Day of Srila Narottama Dasa Thakura
• Monday, 2 November: Bahulastami
• Tuesday, 3 November: Appearance Day of Sri Virabhadra
• Thursday, 5 November: Rama Ekadashi
• Monday, 9 November: Dipavali and Dipa Dana
• Tuesday, 10 November: Appearance Day of Sri Rasikananda, Bali Daityaraja Puja, Govardhana Puja and Go Puja
• Wednesday, 11 November: Disappearance Day of Sri Vasudeva Ghosh
• Friday, 13 November: Disappearance Day of Srila Prabhupada
• Tuesday, 17 November: Disappearance Day of Sri Dhananjaya Pandita, Disappearance Day of Sri Gadadhara Dasa Gosvami, Disappearance Day of Sri Srinivasa Acarya, Gopastami and Gosthastami
• Wednesday, 18 November: Jagaddhatri Puja
• Saturday, 21 November: Disappearance Day of Srila Gaura Kisora Dasa Babaji, First day of Bhisma Pancaka, Utthana Ekadashi
• Monday, 23 November: Disappearance Day of Sri Bhugarbha Gosvami, Disappearance Day of Sri Kasisvara Pandita
• Tuesday, 24 November: Appearance Day of Sri Nimbarkacarya, Last day of Bhisma Pancaka, Sri Krsna Rasayatra, Tulasi-Saligrama Vivaha

Kartik at ISKCON Kurukshetra

Every evening of Kartik, devotees at ISKCON Kurukshetra offer lamps to Lord Damodara and sing Damodarashtakam together. Come and offer one with them, here on the land where Lord Krishna spoke the Bhagavad-gita.