ಕಾಲಾಷ್ಟಮಿ | Kalashtami

Kalashtami is the monthly day of Bhairava, the fierce form of Shiva, and above all of Kala Bhairava. It is the eighth tithi of every dark fortnight, so it comes round twelve or thirteen times a year. Devotees of Bhairava fast and worship him on each of them. The most significant of the year, as Drik Panchang puts it, is Kalabhairava Ashtami, also called Kalabhairava Jayanti or Bhairava Ashtami, the day on which Shiva is held to have appeared as Bhairava. That falls in the dark fortnight that is Kartika in the amanta calendar of Karnataka and Margashirsha in the North’s purnimanta reckoning; the day is the same in both.

Bhairava

The Shiva Purana tells how Brahma and Vishnu disputed which of them was greater, and Shiva appeared between them as a pillar of light without end. Brahma claimed falsely to have found its top. Bhairava was brought forth to punish him and cut off the fifth of Brahma’s heads. The act carried the sin of killing a brahmin, and the skull stuck to Bhairava’s hand. He wandered the three worlds with it, and only when he reached Kashi did the sin leave him and the skull fall from his hand.

Bhairava’s vehicle is the dog. He is worshipped in eight forms, the Ashta Bhairavas, and Shiva is said to have set a Bhairava to guard each of the Shakta pithas. The Kal Bhairav temple at Ujjain is one of his well-known shrines. In Karnataka, Sri Kalabhairaveshwara is worshipped as the guardian of the place, the kshetrapala, at Adichunchanagiri.

Which day Anudina gives

Bhairava’s worship belongs to the night, so the day is fixed by the night and not by sunrise. Anudina gives Kalashtami on the day on which the Ashtami of the dark fortnight is running in the night: it tests the moment one ghati after pradosha ends, which is the rule Drik Panchang states, that the Ashtami should prevail for at least one ghati after pradosha. The window it shows is nishita, the middle of the night, the hour of the Bhairava puja.

The night rule has a consequence that surprises some readers. When Ashtami begins in the afternoon, the night that holds it belongs to a day which was still Saptami at sunrise, and that is the day Anudina gives. Drik Panchang notes the same: the Kalashtami fast may fall on Saptami tithi.

On the one day of the year that is Kalabhairava Ashtami, Anudina lists that alone and does not repeat the monthly Kalashtami beside it. The next dates it gives are 1 November and 30 December 2026. Kalashtami is shown in every regional setting.

Other Ashtamis

The eighth of the bright fortnight is the monthly Durgashtami, for the goddess, so each lunar month has an Ashtami for Durga and one for Bhairava. Several yearly observances also fall on the dark Ashtami. Janmashtami is the dark Ashtami of Shravana in the amanta reckoning, and Ahoi Ashtami, the mothers’ fast before Deepavali, is the dark Ashtami of Ashwayuja; in 2026 it falls on the same day as Kalashtami. For Shiva’s monthly night, see Masa Shivaratri.