Deepa aradhana

தீபாராதனை

The lamp shown to the deity and then held out to you. You pass your hands over the flame and touch them to your eyes. It closes the worship, and it costs nothing.

Before you take this on

  • An open camphor flame in a dense standing crowd. Synthetic fabric catches easily.
  • Camphor smoke in an enclosed stone sanctum is an irritant, and a problem if you have asthma.

What you do

  1. Stay where you are at the close of the worship. Nothing is required of you in advance.
  2. Watch the priest circle the camphor flame before the deity, clockwise.
  3. When the flame is held out toward you, pass your palms over it and touch them to your eyes, then your head.
  4. Take the theertham and the dab of kumkum or sacred ash that usually follow straight after.

Why it is done

More than one account explains this custom. They are given separately because they are separate — merging them into one story would invent a consensus that does not exist.

Shaiva Agama — Kamikagama

The Kamikagama prescribes nirajana, the waving of a lighted camphor or wick, at the close of the incense and lamp offerings in the night worship. A chapter of the text is given over to the rite.

  • Agama: Kamikagama, Uttara Pada 1.60–63 (S. Sabharatanam translation): the offering of nirajana at the end of dhupa and dipa himalayanacademy.com · seen 2026-09-18
  • Scholarship: Kamikagama, chapter 7, on the rite of ceremonial lamp-waving (nirajana), per Gollner, The Descent of Scripture: A History of the Kamikagama wisdomlib.org · seen 2026-09-18

Pancharatra

The Pancharatra corpus treats the same rite. The Isvarasamhita discusses when and how the waving of lights is to be done, and the Padmasamhita names a distinct form performed over a pot.

  • Scholarship: Isvarasamhita and Padmasamhita on nirajana, per H. Daniel Smith, Catalogue of Pancaratra Agama Texts wisdomlib.org · seen 2026-09-18

Why the flame is brought to you, as commonly taught

The explanation given almost everywhere — that the lamp is shown to devotees so they may take the deity's light or heat into themselves — could not be traced to any Agama, Purana or temple authority. Nor could the sixteen-step upachara sequence in which the lamp is the thirteenth, which is asserted to come from the Agamas without any text, chapter or verse being named. Recorded as convention.

Put simply

A flame is shown to the god, then brought to you. You warm your hands over it and touch your eyes.

Where it is observed

At temples generally, rather than at particular ones.

Sources

  • Temple administration: Shree Jagannatha Temple Administration, daily rituals — Mangala Alati at 05:30 and Sandhya Alati at 18:00 shreejagannatha.in · seen 2026-09-18
  • Scholarship: Diparadhana, 'worshipping an idol by waving a light before it' — Monier-Williams and the Practical Sanskrit-English Dictionary wisdomlib.org · seen 2026-09-18

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