नवरात्रि व्रत कथा

This story is told in many ways; names and details shift from one home and one booklet to the next, but its heart stays the same. Once Brihaspati, the teacher of the gods, asked Brahma with folded hands, 'Grandsire, what is the greatness of the Navratri vrat kept in the bright fortnights of Chaitra and Ashwin? Who first kept it, and what is its fruit?' Brahma was pleased and said, 'Brihaspati, you have asked for the good of the world. Listen closely.'

Long ago, in a town called Pithat, lived a Brahmin whom many tellings call Anath, a single-minded devotee of the goddess Durga. Every morning after his bath he worshipped the Devi, lit the lamp and sat long in meditation. He had one daughter, Sumati, lovely to look at and gentle by nature. From childhood she sat by her father at the puja, gathered the flowers, poured ghee into the lamp and clapped along at the aarti. He was very proud of her.

One morning Sumati went out to play with her friends and was so lost in the game that she missed the Devi's worship that day. Her father kept looking at the door from his seat at the puja. When she came back, the Brahmin's heart filled with anger. 'Today you left the Devi's worship for a game,' he said. 'A daughter who forgets to serve Mother Bhagavati, I will give into the hands of a leper and a pauper.'

Sumati wiped her tears and said quietly, 'Father, your word is on my head. Marry me to whomever you wish. But what is written in my fate will come to pass; it is the Devi who gives the fruit.' This answer only made him angrier. He kept his word and married Sumati to a poor man suffering from leprosy. As he sent her away he said, 'Now let us see what your fate gives you.'

Sumati set out with her husband. They had no home, no food and no one to turn to. They spent the night in a thick forest outside the town. Her husband groaned with pain, and Sumati tended him all night. There was a cold wind, the sounds of wild animals, and her body was weak with hunger; yet there was no bitterness in her heart towards her father. Silently she kept calling, 'Mother, what happened, happened by your will. Only take away this suffering man's pain.'

Seeing her plight and her unshaken faith, the Devi's heart melted. One night a light spread through the forest and the Devi appeared before Sumati: 'Daughter, I am pleased with you. Ask for a boon.' Sumati asked in wonder, 'Mother, why this grace on me?' The Devi said, 'In your last birth you were the wife of a Nishad, a hunter. Your husband stole, and the king's men threw you both into prison. For nine days you had neither food nor water there. Those were the nine days of Navratri, and without knowing it you kept my vrat. By that merit I stand before you today.' (So the popular booklet tells it; in some tellings the nine hungry days pass in this very life, in the forest.)

Sumati folded her hands: 'Mother, if you are pleased, take away my husband's illness. I want nothing else for myself.' The Devi said, 'Give the merit of one of those nine days to your husband.' Sumati gave it in her heart, and in that instant his body was freed of the disease; his skin became clear and his face shone. With tears of joy Sumati fell at the Devi's feet.

The Devi blessed her with a son who would be wise, prosperous and renowned; the popular booklet names him Udalaya, some tellings Udalak. Sumati prayed, 'Mother, show the grace you showed me to every unhappy woman and every unhappy family. Tell me how your vrat is to be kept.' The Devi taught her: setting up the kalash on Pratipada, nine days of worship with discipline, restraint and pure food, and at the end a havan, the worship of young girls, giving and feeding others. Then the Devi vanished.

In time Sumati's home filled with happiness. Closing the story, Brahma said to Brihaspati, 'Whoever, woman or man, keeps the Navratri vrat with faith, the Devi takes away their troubles, blesses the home with happiness and children, and makes the mind clear. Whoever tells or hears this story also stays in her grace.'

The root of Navratri is the Devi Mahatmya, also called the Durga Saptashati or the Chandi Path. It is a part of the Markandeya Purana, and its middle story, the slaying of Mahishasura, is the best known. Here it is told briefly in our own words; recite the original only from a reliable printed copy. Mahishasura was a king of the asuras who could also take the form of a buffalo. In a war of a hundred years he defeated the gods, drove Indra out of heaven, seized the rights of the Sun, the Moon, Agni, Vayu, Varuna and Yama, and sat himself on Indra's throne. The gods wandered the earth like ordinary men.

The grieving gods, with Brahma leading them, went to Vishnu and Shiva. Hearing of Mahishasura's cruelty, Vishnu filled with anger and a great radiance poured from his face; so it did from Brahma and Shiva, and then from Indra and all the gods. It gathered in one place like a mountain on fire, and from it a divine woman took form whose light filled the three worlds. The text calls her Ambika and Chandika; every home knows her as Durga Maa.

The gods gave the Devi their weapons: Shiva a trident, Vishnu a discus, Varuna a conch and a noose, Agni a spear, Vayu a bow and two quivers full of arrows, Indra the thunderbolt and a bell, Yama his staff, Brahma a water pot and a rosary, Kala (Time) a sword and shield, Vishwakarma an axe, and the Himalaya a lion to ride. So the power of all the gods stood up as one in the Devi.

The Devi's roar filled the sky and shook the earth. Hearing it, Mahishasura's vast army rushed out; his generals, Chikshura, Chamara, Udagra, Bashkala and many other mighty asuras, fell upon her. Riding her lion, the Devi fought that army alone, and one by one every general fell to her weapons. Folk tradition says this battle lasted nine days and nine nights, and the nine nights of Navratri are its memory.

Then Mahishasura came himself as a buffalo, digging up the earth with his hooves and hurling mountains with his horns. When the Devi threw her noose he became a lion; when the lion's head was cut off, a man with a sword; when the man was pierced with arrows, a huge elephant; and when the elephant's trunk was cut, a buffalo again. At last the Devi leapt onto the buffalo, pressed its neck down with her foot and pierced it with her trident. Mahishasura had come only halfway out of the buffalo's mouth when she struck off his head with her sword.

The gods praised the Devi with joy and asked a boon: 'Mother, whenever we call you in trouble, come to protect us.' The Devi gave her word and vanished. One meaning of the story is that Mahishasura is also within: dullness, pride and the shape-shifting faults of the mind, won over by nine days of restraint and practice.

Another story tied to Sharad Navratri is that of Shri Rama. It is not in the Valmiki Ramayana; it comes from the Krittivasi Ramayana of Bengal and the tradition of eastern India, and the Durga Puja of Bengal rests on it. In the tradition the gods are at rest in autumn, so waking the Devi then is called Akal Bodhan, the untimely awakening.

The war in Lanka was raging and Ravana was proving hard to defeat, for he himself worshipped the Devi and had her favour. So Shri Rama resolved that he too would please the Devi. He invoked her in autumn itself and began the worship. It needed one hundred and eight rare blue lotuses, which Hanuman searched out from far and wide.

At the end, as Rama offered the lotuses one by one, the Devi quietly hid one to test him. As the count drew to a close, one lotus was missing. Rama would not leave the worship incomplete. Then he remembered that people called him lotus-eyed. He resolved to offer one of his own eyes to the Devi, and raised an arrow, ready to take it out.

At that very moment the Devi appeared, held his hand and said, 'Rama, your devotion is complete. Victory will be yours.' Popular belief holds that Ravana fell on Dashami, the tenth, which is why the day is called Vijayadashami. In Bengal the Sandhi Puja, at the junction of Ashtami and Navami, still offers one hundred and eight lotuses and one hundred and eight lamps in memory of this story.

In north India the Ramlila is staged in these days and Ravana's effigy burns on Dussehra. The Devi Bhagavata Purana (third Skandha) also tells that on the sage Narada's advice Rama kept the Ashwin Navratri vrat before marching on Lanka. The feeling in every telling is one: even the greatest warrior bows to Shakti before victory.

Over the nine days of Navratri the nine forms of the Devi are worshipped in order. Each has its own spirit:

Day one, Shailaputri: daughter of Himalaya, the king of mountains, riding a bull, holding a trident and a lotus; the goddess of steadiness and new beginnings.

Day two, Brahmacharini: Parvati in fierce austerity to win Shiva, holding a rosary and a water pot; the form of tapas, patience and restraint.

Day three, Chandraghanta: a bell-shaped half moon on her forehead, riding a lion (a tiger in many images); courage and calm together.

Day four, Kushmanda: whose gentle smile is said to have brought forth the universe; the goddess of energy, health and light.

Day five, Skandamata: the mother with the child Skanda (Kartikeya) on her lap; the form of a mother's love and the welfare of children.

Day six, Katyayani: the warrior goddess who appeared at the hermitage of the sage Katyayana; in the tradition she is worshipped by those hoping for a good husband.

Day seven, Kalaratri: dark as night, the fierce form that destroys fear; terrible to look at but kind in her gifts, which is why she is also called Shubhankari, the giver of good.

Day eight, Mahagauri: the calm goddess, fair and radiant after her austerity; the form of purity and forgiveness.

Day nine, Siddhidatri: seated on a lotus, the giver of every accomplishment; the completion of the practice.

Day one, Ghatasthapana: on Pratipada barley is sown in a clay dish, a water-filled kalash is set on it with mango leaves and a coconut wrapped in red cloth at its mouth, and the Devi is invited in; many homes also light the akhand jyoti, a lamp kept burning for nine days. The full list of materials, the step-by-step method and the full rule for the muhurat are on our page Navratri Ghatasthapana Vidhi.

The time of Ghatasthapana: on the Pratipada, inside the first third of the day from sunrise. If a dual-nature lagna (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius or Pisces) rises there for at least one muhurta, that is the best time; if not, the first third itself is the window, less any part under Vaidhriti yoga and then Chitra nakshatra when clean time remains. This is the 'Ghatasthapana muhurat' in the box above. The second window is the Abhijit muhurat around midday, never taken on a Wednesday.

The nine days: morning and evening light a lamp before the Devi, remember the form of the day, offer flowers, unbroken rice and roli, offer food, do the aarti and chant 'Om Dum Durgayai Namah'. The Durga Chalisa and the Durga Kavach are in this library; read the Durga Saptashati from a reliable printed copy.

The fast: some keep all nine days, some the first and last, some only Ashtami. Grains, pulses, onion, garlic and ordinary salt are given up for fruit, milk and fasting flours such as buckwheat and water-chestnut (the full list is in the questions below), and the whole family gives up meat and alcohol in these days.

The ill, pregnant women, the elderly, children and anyone on medicine should keep a light or symbolic fast: one sattvic meal, giving up grain only, or only the puja and japa. The Devi is pleased by faith and restraint, not by hunger. Restraint is not only about food: keeping away from anger, harsh words and quarrels, and honouring the women and daughters of the house, is the greatest rule of this vrat.

During periods: the traditional view is that a woman does not touch the kalash, the images or the puja materials in those days, and another member of the household does the puja; she may continue the fast, chant in her mind and hear the story. Many families and teachers today also hold that this is a natural state of the body and that worship of the heart is never barred. Decide by your family's tradition; do not count the fast as broken.

Closing: on Ashtami or Navami, whichever is your family's custom, come the havan and the kanya pujan: in many homes nine young girls and one boy (the Langur) have their feet washed and a tilak put on, are fed halwa, puri and chana, and are sent off with gifts; the full method is on the Kanya Pujan Vidhi page. The fast is broken after the kanya pujan and havan, or on Dashami as your tradition holds.

By tradition the Navratri vrat is kept for relief from trouble, peace in the home, the welfare of children, good marriages for daughters and steadiness of mind. The three stories carry one message: Sumati's, that true devotion asks not for itself but for others; Mahishasura's, that when all strengths become one even great injustice cannot stand; and Rama's, that humility comes before victory.

Navratri falls where the seasons meet, and the kanya pujan teaches us to see the Devi in every daughter. Do not take this as a promise of results; it is a practice of faith and self-discipline, whose first fruit is a quiet mind.

In Navratri the Devi's aarti closes the morning and evening puja. The one sung most widely in north India is 'Jai Ambe Gauri', and with it, or in its place, many homes sing 'Ambe Tu Hai Jagdambe Kali'; both are in this library with their full text. Do the aarti with a ghee lamp or camphor, with the bell and the conch, then say 'Jai Mata Di' and share the prasad.