नवरात्र आणि दसरा

Nine nights of the Goddess

Śāradīya Navrātri begins on the first day of the bright half of Āśvin, usually in September or October, and the nine nights are given to the Goddess. Across India it is kept in many ways, but the common thread is the victory of good over evil, told in the region’s own epics, above all the Devī Māhātmya. In much of India each night honours one of the Goddess’s nine forms, the Navadurgā, from Śailaputrī on the first night to Siddhidātrī on the ninth.

The story: the Goddess and Mahiṣa

The Devī Māhātmya, seven hundred verses in thirteen chapters of the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, generally dated between 400 and 600 CE, tells three battles. In the first, Viṣṇu slays the demons Madhu and Kaiṭabha once the Goddess lets him wake. In the second, the gods are defeated by Mahiṣa, the shape-shifting buffalo demon; their anger pours out as light, the light gathers into the Goddess, each god gives her his weapon, and she kills Mahiṣa. In the third she destroys Śumbha and Niśumbha and their armies.

The Mahiṣāsuramardinī Stotra praises her as the slayer of Mahiṣa, and its verses name the demons of all three battles.

• श्रीदुर्गासप्तशतीDurga Saptashati
• महिषासुरमर्दिनीMahishasura Mardini Stotra

In Maharashtra

Many Maharashtrian homes set up the ghaṭ on the first day, sow nine grains at its foot and keep a lamp burning for nine nights, and every evening the Goddess’s āratī is sung. Girls play the bhoṇḍlā around a drawn elephant. The great temples of the Goddess fill: Maharashtra counts three and a half seats of the Goddess, Mahālakṣmī at Kolhapur, Tuḷjā Bhavānī at Tuḷjāpūr and Reṇukā at Māhūr, with Saptaśṛṅgī at Vaṇī as the half.

• दुर्गे दुर्घट भारीDurge Durghat Bhari
• महालक्ष्मीची आरतीMahalakshmi Aarti

Vijayādaśamī

The tenth day remembers victory, and which victory depends on where you are: in some regions Rāma’s over Rāvaṇa, in others the Goddess’s over Mahiṣa. It is one of the three and a half most auspicious days of the year, the साडेतीन मुहूर्त, when new work is begun; Maratha armies, Shivaji’s and the Peshwas’, set out on their campaigns on Dasarā.

Āpṭā leaves, śamī and the boundary

On Dasarā people give one another āpṭā leaves as ‘gold’. The śamī tree is worshipped, because the Pāṇḍavas hid their weapons in a śamī for their year in hiding, and Arjuna took them back from it to defeat the Kaurava army. In the evening many cross the boundary of the village, the सीमोल्लंघन. Sarasvatī, the goddess of learning, is worshipped too, and children draw her sign on their slates.

The texts for these days

The library’s Navrātri page gathers the chants for the nine nights, and its Dasarā page those for the tenth day. Our guide to keeping Navrātri at home sets out the ghaṭasthāpanā and the days that follow, step by step.

• महिषासुरमर्दिनीMahishasura Mardini Stotra
• दुर्गे दुर्घट भारीDurge Durghat Bhari
• रामरक्षाRam Raksha Stotra
• घालीन लोटांगणGhalin Lotangan