Dhanteras Decoded: A Broom, a Lamp and 7 Gold Myths

Why so late this year?

2026 has an extra lunar month (called Adhik Maas). So Dhanteras and Diwali come about three weeks later than in 2025, when Dhanteras was on 18 October.

"Dhanteras" means the 13th day (teras) of wealth (dhan). It falls on the 13th day of the waning moon.

The five days, 2026

• 🪔 Fri 6 Nov: Dhanteras
• 🛁 Sat 7 Nov: Naraka Chaturdashi
• ✨ Sun 8 Nov: Deepavali, Lakshmi Puja
• 🐄 Mon 9 Nov: Govardhan Puja / Bali Padyami
• 👫 Tue 10 Nov: Bhai Dooj

Next year it moves again: Dhanteras 2027 falls on 27 October.

The story, as it is told

King Hima's 16-year-old son was fated to die of a snakebite on the fourth night after his wedding.

That night his clever bride piled her gold and jewels at the door and lit lamps everywhere. She kept him awake with songs and stories.

Yama, the god of death, came as a serpent. The glitter of lamps and gold blinded him. He sat on the heap of jewels, listening to her songs all night, and slipped away at dawn.

The prince lived. That is one reason homes light lamps and bring in gold or metal on this day.

The humble broom

In tradition, Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, enters a clean home. A new broom on Dhanteras means sweeping out the old year and making room for the new.

Some families also say: never lend your broom on Dhanteras. You'd be lending your luck!

The pots and vessels

The day is also Dhanvantari Jayanti. In the churning of the ocean, Dhanvantari, the god of Ayurveda, rose holding a pot of amrit, the nectar of life.

A popular explanation: that is why families buy a new vessel, in brass, copper, silver or steel.

From 2016, India marked National Ayurveda Day on Dhanteras. Because the date kept moving, a government notice of March 2025 fixed it to 23 September every year.

What families do

• Bathrooms, wash areas and water vessels are cleaned.
• The big copper or brass pot, the hande, is decorated and filled with fresh water.
• It warms through the night for the early-morning oil bath on Naraka Chaturdashi.

In the Malnad hills

Families fetch water from rivers and wells. Some Halakki homes fill a new clay pot with water and healing tree barks, honouring a goddess of medicinal herbs.

Same idea as the broom and Dhanvantari: clean, fresh and healthy before the lights.

I've saved ₹10,000. That gets me a decent gold coin, right?

On 3 Nov 2026, 24-carat gold was ₹1,39,640 per 10 grams. ₹10,000 now buys about 0.7 gram of it.

What ₹10,000 bought, using yearly average prices, before GST. Our arithmetic.

Your ₹10,000 buys one-fifth of what it did in 2016. That is why coins of 0.5 g and even 0.1 g now sell.

The board says ₹12,800 a gram for 22 carat. So 10 grams = ₹1,28,000.

A 10-gram 22K chain, the real bill

Our arithmetic. Making charges vary by design and shop; intricate pieces can cost 10–20%.

The board price is only the gold. Here the bill is about ₹20,000 more. Always ask for making charges in writing before you choose.

Anyone can punch a stamp. A hallmark proves nothing.

Since 1 April 2023, hallmarked gold jewellery cannot be sold without a 6-character HUID code. Each code is unique to one piece, so it can be traced.

Look for 3 marks: the BIS triangle, the purity (916 = 22K, 750 = 18K) and the HUID.

Check it yourself in 30 seconds: free BIS Care app → "Verify HUID" → type the code. It should match the shop, purity and type of item on your bill.

I'll buy my coin from the bank. Purest gold, and they'll take it back if I need cash.

Banks can sell gold coins, but RBI rules don't let them buy them back. Union Bank's own FAQ says it plainly: "No."

The purity is real. The "easy buy-back" is not. You can pay more going in and get less coming out.

₹10 of gold on my payment app is as safe as a mutual fund. Surely someone regulates it.

On 8 Nov 2025, SEBI, the market regulator, warned that "digital gold" products are outside its rules. They are neither securities nor commodity contracts, so none of its investor protection applies.

If you want gold on a screen, SEBI points to regulated options: gold ETFs (gold funds traded on the stock exchange) and electronic gold receipts.

Gold delivered with my onions in 10 minutes? Can't be real.

Since Dhanteras 2024, Blinkit, Zepto, Swiggy Instamart and BigBasket deliver branded coins from big jewellers, some as small as 0.1 gram.

It caught on fast: on Akshaya Tritiya 2024, Instamart said coin sales jumped 500% over its Dhanteras sales.

The coins come from known brands. Still: compare the price per gram with a jeweller's, keep the bill, and check the hallmark.

Gold never loses. If I sell my chain tomorrow, I'll get my ₹1.48 lakh back.

When you sell, you are paid for the gold only. Making charges and GST are gone. Some shops also cut a few per cent for melting; others, in exchange offers, cut nothing.

Our chain from Myth 2, sold the next day with a 2% cut: about ₹1,25,440. That's roughly ₹22,500 less than you paid.

Jewellery is for wearing and gifting. The gold price must rise about 18% just for you to break even (our arithmetic). Ask about the buy-back cut before you buy.

Dhanteras 2025, as estimated by traders' body CAIT

spent across India in one day. Gold and silver alone: about ₹60,000 crore, up 25% on 2024.

Where the rest went

This year: gold slipped about 7% in October, and trade bodies expect 10–12% more buying, much of it in lighter, 18-carat pieces.

Yearly average prices; 2026 is the 3 Nov rate. Grams: our arithmetic, before GST.

The long climb

From the 2016 average to August 2026, gold grew about 18% a year. Over five years, about 26% a year.

In late January 2026, gold touched about ₹1.78 lakh. Today it is around ₹1.40 lakh, roughly one-fifth lower. Gold climbs, but not in a straight line.

Silver, per kilogram

Nov 2025 national rate (Business Standard); Feb peak is the Delhi rate (Business Today); Oct 2026 (Anand Rathi).

Silver more than doubled in three months, then fell about 40%. Still, it is about 48% higher than a year ago (our arithmetic).

On Dhanteras 2025, silver coin sales rose 35–40% as buyers looked for something cheaper than gold.

Sources: GST rules, BIS, RBI and SEBI notices (see footer). An ETF needs a demat (share-holding) account.

The one-line rule

Buying to wear? Jewellery. Buying for the puja? A small hallmarked coin. Buying to save? The cheapest regulated route.

The shopping is where money leaks. Making charges, missing HUIDs, bank coins nobody buys back, unregulated apps. The festival doesn't need any of it.

Buy the meaning, not the weight. Even 0.5 gram of hallmarked gold, or a steel pot, keeps the tradition. Put real savings where costs are low and rules are clear.

Before Friday

• Fix a budget first. Then decide grams, not the other way round.
• Install the BIS Care app (free).
• Ask two shops for making charges and their buy-back cut.

At the counter

• Check the 3 marks and verify the HUID.
• Get a GST bill showing weight, purity, making charge and tax separately.
• Skip bank coins if you might sell; skip "no-bill" discounts always.