Diwali puja samagri list: all 40 items, and the Lakshmi puja muhurat for 2026

The short answer: Diwali 2026 is on Sunday, 8 November. Lakshmi Puja is done in pradosh, the window that starts at sunset and lasts about two and a half hours. In Delhi that is 5:30 pm to 8:08 pm. Many families also prefer the part of it when Taurus is rising (the sthir or "fixed" lagna), which in Delhi runs 5:57 pm to 7:54 pm. The table below covers ten cities, and our free Choghadiya tool and panchang pages give the evening for any other city.

The samagri list below has 40 items. It comes from N.D. Shrimali's Lakshmi Pujan manual, which asks you to gather "whatever is possible" from it. You do not need every item to do the puja properly.

The 40-item Diwali puja samagri list

This is the manual's list, in its own order, with each item explained in plain words.

रात्रि को महालक्ष्मी के पूजन से पहले निम्न वस्तुओं में से जो जो सम्भव हो, वे पहले से ही मंगा कर रख लेने चाहिए ।

"Before the night's Mahalakshmi puja, get whichever of the following items you can and keep them ready." — N.D. Shrimali, Lakshmi Pujan

Sindoor tip: you will use sindoor on the walls as well as in the puja. Buy it from a brand that states it is free of lead and mercury, since cheap sindoor is often adulterated.

Diwali morning: what the manual asks you to do first

The manual's routine starts in the morning, long before the puja:

1. Mark the walls. After your bath, mix sindoor and ghee into a paste in a clay pot. Use it to draw a swastika, or the numeric "fifteen" (pandrahiya) or "twenty" (bisa) yantra, on the wall of the puja place, home or shop. Also write the auspicious words "शुभ लाभ" (shubh labh, "good fortune, gain"), "श्री महालक्ष्म्यै" and "श्री कुबेराय नमः" with the same paste or with kumkum.
2. Hang a toran. Tie a string of mango or peepal leaves across the main door.
3. Set a kalash at the door. Fill a clean pot with water, draw a swastika on it with kumkum and place it by the door. On top, put a small bowl with a little rice, a turmeric knot, mango leaves, lotus seeds, a lotus flower and durva grass. Tie kalava around its neck.

Setting up the puja place

From the same manual:

• Clean the spot. Plaster it with cow dung in the traditional way, or wash it with clean water if the floor is paved.
• Place a wooden chowki, spread red cloth on it, and set the Ganesha and Lakshmi images on it.
• Put a plate with a swastika drawn in it, and in it your coins, cash or jewellery. The manual says these are worshipped along with Lakshmi.
• If you keep accounts, place the account books, pen and inkpot near the chowki. Open the new book, draw a swastika in kumkum or saffron on the first, third or fifth page, and write below it: श्री गणेशाय नमः, श्री महालक्ष्म्यै नमः, श्री कुबेराय नमः, followed by the date and day.
• On a second chowki with white cloth, set a copper kalash topped with a coconut. Light a lamp in front of Ganesha, and light the incense.
• Sit facing east or north. The manual says the head of the house should sit with his wife on his right, and invite the whole family to take part.

The puja itself begins with Ganesha, as every puja does, and then moves to Lakshmi.

When to do Lakshmi Puja: what the texts say

The Skanda Purana and the Dharma Sindhu both say pradosh. The Skanda Purana's chapter on the Diwali days (Kartika Mahatmya) says that on the amavasya, after the day's bath and the offering to the ancestors, one should worship Lakshmi at pradosh. The Dharma Sindhu sets out the whole day:

अथाश्विनामावास्यायां प्रातरभ्यङ्गः प्रदोषे दीपदानलक्ष्मीपूजनादि विहितम् ।

"On this amavasya: an oil bath in the morning, and at pradosh the offering of lamps, Lakshmi puja and the rest." — Dharma Sindhu, Ashvina-masa section, on the Diwali amavasya (Chowkhamba Hindi edition)

It quotes the older authority Hemadri to the same effect: "दीपान् दत्त्वा प्रदोषे तु लक्ष्मीं पूज्य यथाविधि", "having offered lamps at pradosh, worship Lakshmi according to the rite."

Pradosh means the first three muhurtas of the night (a muhurta is one-fifteenth of the night). In early November that comes to about two and a half hours from sunset.

The fixed lagna. Many almanacs and later manuals narrow the window further, to the time a sthir (fixed) sign is rising: Vrishabha (Taurus) in the evening, or Simha (Leo) after midnight. The Mantra-Tantra-Yantra Vigyan magazine, for example, says Lakshmi Puja should be done in a fixed lagna so that what is done stays. That is a later practice layered on top of the pradosh rule, so the table gives both. The Taurus window falls almost entirely inside pradosh this year.

Why 8 November and not the 9th: the amavasya runs from 11:28 am on Sunday 8 November to 12:32 pm on Monday 9 November. Only on Sunday is it still running at pradosh, after sunset. The Dharma Sindhu's rule is to take the amavasya present at pradosh, so Lakshmi Puja is on Sunday, 8 November.

Lakshmi Puja muhurat, Sunday 8 November 2026

Times are in IST, worked out by our panchang engine for each city's coordinates. Pradosh runs from sunset for three-fifteenths of the night. The Vrishabha column is the time Taurus is rising, and the last column is where the two windows overlap.

For your own city: open the dated panchang for 8 November, for example Delhi, 8 November 2026, or use the Aaj Ka Panchang tool for any place. Note the sunset time: pradosh starts there and runs for roughly two and a half hours (2 hours 38 minutes in Delhi this year). The same page shows the Udaya Lagna (rising sign) timeline, where you can find Vrishabha. If you also follow choghadiya, the Choghadiya page for 8 November lists the night's slots (change the city in the address or on the page).

What the Skanda Purana adds for the night

The same Kartika Mahatmya chapter gives a few details that rarely make it into modern lists:

• A bed of lotus flowers. It says Lakshmi does not leave the house of someone who makes her a bed of lotus flowers that night.
• Milk laddus. Cook cow's milk well with mace, clove, cardamom and camphor, add sugar, shape it into laddus, and offer them to Mahalakshmi.
• A short praise. After the puja, praise her as the light within every lamp: "Mahalakshmi, you who dwell in the flame of the lamp, you are the light of all lights, of the sun, moon, fire, gold and stars. Salutation to you."
• Lamps everywhere. After the praise, offer lamps at pradosh: at temples, at crossroads, on riverbanks, in cowsheds, at the foot of trees, and in every home.
• Feed others first. Feed Brahmins and hungry people before eating yourself, then eat dressed in new clothes.

Sources

• N.D. Shrimali, Lakshmi Pujan: the morning wall markings, toran and door kalash; the 40-item list; setting up the chowki, coins and account books.
• Skanda Purana (Gita Press abridged Hindi edition): Vaishnava Khanda, Kartika Mahatmya, the chapter on the festivals from Trayodashi to Diwali (Lakshmi puja at pradosh, lotus bed, milk laddus, praise, lamps).
• Dharma Sindhu (Chowkhamba Hindi edition): Ashvina-masa section, Diwali amavasya (morning oil bath, Lakshmi puja at pradosh, the rule for choosing the day; Hemadri quoted).
• Mantra-Tantra-Yantra Vigyan (October 1993 issue): Lakshmi Puja in a fixed (sthir) lagna.
• Dates, pradosh and lagna times: computed by Kundlit's panchang engine (Swiss Ephemeris, Lahiri ayanamsha) for each city's coordinates.

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The night before Diwali is Kali Chaudas. See Kali Chaudas 2026: the date, meaning and a home puja. Reading in Hindi? Our festival page is also in Hindi: दिवाली 2026.