Sharad Navratri

Overview

Sharad Navratri — the autumn “nine nights” — runs from Ashwin Shukla Pratipada to Navami and ends in Vijayadashami on the tenth day. It is the largest of the year’s four Navratris, the one meant when people say the word without qualification. Across North and West India it is nine days of fasting, the daily worship of one of the nine forms of Durga, and the recitation of the Devi Mahatmya; in Gujarat it is nine nights of garba; in Bengal its last four days are Durga Puja; in Mysuru it is Dasara. The Chaitra Navratri in spring mirrors it.

Story and scripture

The festival’s text is the Devi Mahatmya, thirteen chapters of the Markandeya Purana also called the Durga Saptashati or Chandi Path. It tells three battles: the Goddess as Yoganidra freeing Vishnu to kill Madhu and Kaitabha; her killing of the buffalo demon Mahishasura after nine days of fighting, from which the nine nights are counted; and her defeat of Shumbha and Nishumbha with the help of the Matrikas and Kali. Recitation of the whole text over the nine days, or of the Saptashloki (seven verses that stand for it), is the festival’s central practice for those who read it.

The Devi Kavacham, recited before the Mahatmya, lists the Navadurga — the nine forms assigned to the nine tithis: Shailaputri, Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta, Kushmanda, Skandamata, Katyayani, Kalaratri, Mahagauri, Siddhidatri.

The Ramayana connection is later: the Ramcharitmanas tradition holds that Rama worshipped Durga for nine days before the battle with Ravana, and the Vijayadashami that follows Navratri is his victory as much as hers.

How the nine days are kept

Ghatasthapana. On the first morning a pot (kalash or ghata) is installed on a bed of soil sown with barley; the sprouts that come up over the nine days are distributed on the last. The pot is Durga’s seat for the festival. The Pratipada tithi should be current in the morning when it is placed — one reason calendars are careful about the first day.

Daily worship. A lamp kept burning (akhand jyoti) in many homes; each day’s form of Durga worshipped with her colour, flower and offering; the Devi Mahatmya or the Saptashloki read; the Durga aarti in the evening. Many fast for all nine days on fruit, milk and non-grain flours, some on the first and last days only.

Ashtami and Navami. Durga Ashtami is the peak: Mahagauri is worshipped and, in many homes, Kanya Puja — nine young girls fed and honoured as forms of the Goddess. Maha Navami repeats it for those who keep Navami as the main day, and closes the fast. The Havan (fire offering) with the Mahatmya’s verses is done on one of these two days.

Jaap. The most-kept counts are a Durga mantra (a mala or more each day), the Saptashloki, and for those who do not read Sanskrit, the Durga Chalisa. The texts are linked below.

Regional forms

• Gujarat: nine nights of garba and dandiya raas around a lit pot or an image of the Goddess, the dance itself the worship.
• West Bengal, Odisha, Assam: Durga Puja from Shashthi to Dashami; the first five days are quiet.
• Karnataka: Mysuru Dasara, ten days of court ceremony ending in the elephant procession on Vijayadashami; households keep Bombe Habba, the display of dolls, as in Tamil Nadu’s Golu and Andhra’s Bommala Koluvu.
• Maharashtra: the ghatasthapana as in the north; Ashtami is kept as the day of the household Goddess (Kuladevi).
• Punjab, Himachal, Haryana: fasting and Kanya Puja on Ashtami, with jagrans (all-night singing) through the nine nights.
• Tamil Nadu: Navaratri Golu, with the last three days given to Saraswati (Ayudha Puja on Navami, Vijayadashami as the day for beginning study).

The dates

Each day is the day its tithi is current at sunrise in one’s own city. The table maps every form to its date and says when a tithi has been skipped or repeated. Dussehra follows on Dashami.

Mantra, aarti and chalisa for Sharad Navratri

Mantra Om Dum Durgayai Namah ॐ दुं दुर्गायै नमः Mantra Durga Saptashloki या देवी सर्वभूतेषु Aarti Jai Ambe Gauri जय अम्बे गौरी Chalisa Durga Chalisa दुर्गा चालीसा