Narakasura was the son of Maa Bhumi, the Earth, and he ruled Pragjyotishapura. Bhagwan Krishna is the one who kills him in the two Puranas that tell this battle, the Bhagavata Purana (10.59) and the Vishnu Purana (Book V, chapter 29). His discus takes Narakasura’s head in the Bhagavata, while in the Vishnu Purana he cuts Narakasura in two.
Parikshit’s question opens the Bhagavata chapter. He asks how Bhagwan Krishna killed Bhauma, as this text calls Narakasura, and freed the women he held captive.
The popular telling of the Narak Chaturdashi story hands the last blow to Satyabhama instead.
Narak Chaturdashi in 2026: Sunday, 8 November. Chaturdashi tithi: 10:47 AM on 7 November to 11:27 AM on 8 November.
Checked on 4 Nov 2026. Timings for your city in the Tirth Spiritual Calendar
Dates and timings are from the Tirth Spiritual Calendar, calculated for New Delhi using the traditional North Indian panchang. Timings change from city to city; see the Tirth Spiritual Calendar for your location.
What did Narakasura steal from the devas?
Depends on which Purana you open, because the two lists aren’t the same.
The Bhagavata keeps it to three. Varuna Dev’s umbrella, Maa Aditi’s earrings and the Mani-parvata, a peak used as a playground. Indra Dev pins all three on Bhauma.
The list gets much longer once you turn to the Vishnu Purana, which is also where Indra Dev rides into Dvaraka on Airavata to make his report. Narakasura has carried off the maidens of gods, sages, asuras and kings. Varuna Dev’s umbrella is gone, and so are Maa Aditi’s earrings and the crest jewel of Mount Mandara. Now he wants Airavata too. Which is the very elephant Indra Dev rode in on.
Both Puranas then send Bhagwan Krishna to Pragjyotishapura on Garuda Dev, with Satyabhama, his queen, beside him.
How did Bhagwan Krishna kill Narakasura?
Satyabhama is on Garuda Dev’s back when Mura climbs out of the moat, all five heads of him, and goes for Garuda Dev with a trident (Bhagavata 10.59.6 to 10). What woke him was Bhagwan Krishna’s conch. That same blast broke the magic seals on the city, after mountains, weapons, water, fire, wind and the mura-pasha, a barrier of nooses, had already given way to his club, arrows and discus (10.59.3 to 5).
The discus takes Mura’s heads.
Those verses call the weapon cakra. The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust translation does not name it Sudarshana here, though Tagare’s translation of the Bhagavata and Wilson’s Vishnu Purana both do.
Pitha leads Mura’s sons in next. They fall too. Then Narakasura rides out on an elephant to fight, and it is the discus again that takes his head (10.59.21), with sages and devas showering flowers straight after (10.59.22).
Wilson’s Vishnu Purana runs the fight another way. Bhagwan Krishna’s discus slices through Mura’s nooses first, then Mura, his sons and others are killed, Narakasura’s troops are defeated, and he cuts Narakasura in two.
Satyabhama rides with him on Garuda Dev in both books, and that chapter of the Vishnu Purana never shows her fighting. Nobody grants Narakasura a boon anywhere in it either.
So where does Satyabhama’s last blow come from?
When the fighting is done, Maa Bhumi comes to Bhagwan Krishna, the Earth herself and Narakasura’s mother.
Her gifts in the Bhagavata (10.59.23 to 32) are Maa Aditi’s earrings and Varuna Dev’s umbrella, the Mani-parvata peak and the Vaijayanti garland, and she prays to him and asks him to keep her son’s child safe. He grants the child fearlessness and goes on into the palace, and inside it are the royal women Narakasura had kept captive. Sixteen thousand of them by the Bhagavata verse (10.59.33), and 16,100 by the Vishnu Purana’s count. Each of them, the Bhagavata says, chooses Bhagwan Krishna as her husband, and he sends them all to Dvaraka with palanquins, treasure, chariots and horses.
She asks for something else in the Vishnu Purana. The two earrings go to him there too, along with her praise and a request that he forgive her son’s sins. After that he frees the 16,100 women, sends elephants and horses on to Dvaraka, takes back Varuna Dev’s umbrella and the crest jewel of Mount Mandara, and sets off for heaven to give the earrings back.
Here the popular telling adds a boon. Only his mother can kill him, it says, and Satyabhama is an incarnation of Maa Bhumi. So when Bhagwan Krishna falls in a swoon (or only pretends to), she picks up the fight and lands the final blow herself, a mother ending her own son.
The boon, the swoon and Satyabhama’s blow are all missing from the two chapters above.
I don’t think anyone needs to stop telling it at home. Just say it’s the popular telling when you do.
Why do lamps mark Narakasura’s fall, and what happens in Goa?
Narak Chaturdashi has its own lamps and its own reason for them, separate from what you may have read about Dhanteras or Diwali. That reason comes from the popular telling.
In it the dying Narakasura asks that people keep his death with joy and lights instead of hatred. Which is why festival pages say the lamps are lit on this day. The two Purana chapters never mention it.
Goa burns its Narkasur figures before the sun is up. They’re built from bamboo, cloth and paper among other things, and they stand on show all night until then. Burning times differ from one community to the next. An early-morning oil bath follows.
Frequently asked questions
Who was Narakasura’s mother?
Maa Bhumi. She is the Earth, and in both Puranas she comes forward only after Bhagwan Krishna has killed her son. She asks him to pardon her son’s sins in the Vishnu Purana.
Did Satyabhama kill Narakasura?
No. Both Bhagavata 10.59 and Vishnu Purana V.29 have Bhagwan Krishna kill him, and her final blow comes from the popular telling. She rides beside him on Garuda Dev in both Puranas, and the Vishnu Purana never shows her fighting.
What boon did Narakasura have?
Nobody but his mother could kill him. That is the boon in the popular telling. You won’t find it in Bhagavata 10.59 or in Vishnu Purana V.29.
How many women did Bhagwan Krishna free from Narakasura?
Bhagavata 10.59.33 says sixteen thousand and the Vishnu Purana says 16,100. The Sanskrit of the Bhagavata verse, shat-sahasra-adhika-ayutam, works out to ten thousand plus six thousand, and Tagare’s translation puts “and one hundred” in brackets after it. The extra hundred comes from Vishnu Purana 5.29.31, which is where Sridhara’s commentary on the Bhagavata, the Bhavartha Dipika, takes it from. Even the Bhaktivedanta Book Trust translation, which gives sixteen thousand, quotes the Vishnu Purana’s 16,100 in its note on that verse.
Why are lamps lit on Narak Chaturdashi?
That answer comes from festival pages. As Narakasura died, they say, he asked for his death to be marked with lights. One version has Satyabhama grant him the wish. Neither Purana says so.
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