Latitude, longitude and time zone 13.08, 80.27
Asia/Kolkata · UTC+5:30
The date of a festival depends on the place.
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A tithi that ends at dusk in Chennai can still be running at dusk a thousand kilometres west, which moves the day. Sunrise and sunset here are computed for the place above.
When it falls next
Bengal calendar, computed for Chennai
- Saturday, 9 October 2027
- Wednesday, 27 September 2028
- Monday, 15 October 2029
Where Maha Navami falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 9 Oct
- 2028: 27 Sep, 11 days earlier
- 2029: 15 Oct, 17 days later
The days of Durga Puja
Part of the same festival, in order, in the Bengal calendar
- Mahalaya …
- Maha Shashthi · Bodhon …
- Maha Saptami …
- Maha Ashtami …
- Maha Navami(this page) …
- Bijoya Dashami …
The dates, year by year
Bengal calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The ninth and last night of Navratri. The kanya pujan or kanjak is done: nine girls, with a boy for Bhairav, are washed at the feet, fed halwa, puri and chana and sent away with a gift, and the nine days' fast is given up after it. In Mysore and Vijayanagara the day carried the royal review of the army and the Ayudha Puja.
- Deity
- Durga, Siddhidatri, Saraswati
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
Navami is given to Siddhidatri, the ninth form, the goddess who grants every accomplishment, and it is the day the nine days are gathered up and closed. The heart of it in the northern home is the kanjak: the Devi Bhagavata gives each age of a girl from two to ten its own name as a form of the goddess, and the little girls fed that morning are worshipped as the mother herself come to eat in the house. The boy who sits with them is called the langur, for Hanuman, or taken as Bhairav, the goddess's guardian, and many families hold the kanjak incomplete without him. The havan that follows gives the nine days' prayer back to the fire, and only when its last coconut has gone in is the fast given up. Elders say that a house which bows to its own daughters on Navami is honoured by the goddess through the year. Bengal counts the Navami as the last full day the goddess spends in her father's house before she goes back to Kailash, and the sorrow of the coming parting colours the whole evening.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Maha Navami: how it is kept
Keep ready
- a plate and a jug of water for washing the girls' feet
- a clean cloth and a mat
- mauli thread, roli and rice
- small red chunris for the girls
- suji, ghee and sugar for the halwa
- atta for the puris
- black chana soaked overnight
- leaf plates or steel plates
- coins or notes, bangles or small gifts
- a havan kund with mango wood, ghee and havan samagri
- a dry coconut and red cloth for the purnahuti
The steps
0 of 9 done
What is cooked
The kanjak plate is the same across the north: suji halwa in ghee, puri and dry black chana, with a banana, a piece of coconut and sometimes a little kheer, and the family breaks its fast on the same food. Bengal offers the largest bhog of the puja on Navami, khichuri, labra, fried vegetables, chutney and payesh, and many homes cook mutton for the day. The south makes sundal, sweet pongal and payasam for the Saraswati and Ayudha Puja, and Nepal feasts on the meat of the Navami offering.
The hour
Clock times for Saturday, 9 October 2027 at Chennai
Ashwina Shukla Navami at sunrise; the kanya pujan is in the morning, and the havan closes the nine nights.
The main rite. The Navami that holds the sunrise, with the kanjak and the havan in the morning. Some families give up the fast the same day after the havan, others on the Dashami morning, by their own custom.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | 05:59 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
Sunrise 05:59, sunset 17:54, UTC+5.5. These are the instants the rule is read at, not the temple's own puja times, which every temple prints for itself.
The day itself
| What | When | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Tithi | Shukla Navami from previous day 06:28 until 09:02 | then Shukla Dasami until next day 11:41 |
| Nakshatra | Uttara Ashadha until 10:18 | then Shravana until next day 13:26 |
| Rahu kaal | 08:57 to 10:27 (1 h 29 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 13:26 to 14:55 (1 h 29 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 05:59 to 07:28 (1 h 29 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:32 to 12:20 (0 h 48 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 13:51 | moonset next day 01:36 |
For Saturday, 9 October 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
The fast is broken with the kanjak prasad. In the east the Navami bhog is offered to Durga and shared.
What is avoided
Nobody tastes the prasad before the girls have eaten, and onion and garlic stay out of the kitchen until the havan is over. In the south the books and tools laid down for Saraswati and Ayudha Puja are not used on the day.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
The north does the kanjak on Ashtami or Navami, by family custom; the south keeps the same day as Saraswati Puja and Ayudha Puja and puts the books and tools away on it. Nepal opens the Taleju Bhawani temple in Kathmandu for the one day of the year it is open to the public, and the tools, the vehicles and the aeroplanes are worshipped. Bengal keeps the Navami as the last full day of the puja: the homa in the morning, the largest bhog of the four days, and the Navami arati that people wait all evening to see.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu
- Tamil Nadu keeps the same Navami as Saraswati Puja and Ayudha Puja: the books, the tools and the vehicles are cleaned, marked with sandal and kumkum and worshipped with sundal and pori.
- Kerala
- Kerala keeps Mahanavami with the books still resting before Saraswati, so the house neither reads nor writes until the next morning.
- Telugu
- The Telugu country keeps Mahanavami with the Ayudha Puja of the tools, the machines and the vehicles, and the crowds at the Kanaka Durga temple in Vijayawada.
- Kannada
- Karnataka keeps Mahanavami with the Ayudha Puja, and at Mysore the palace worships the royal arms, the horses and the elephants before the Jamboo Savari of the next day.
- North India
- The Hindi belt does the kanjak on the Ashtami or the Navami by family custom and closes the nine days with the havan, and the Devi temples hold their purnahuti through the morning.
- Maharashtra
- Maharashtra keeps Khande Navami, the worship of the sword and the tools of the house and the trade, and the Navratra closes with the havan before the ghat is lifted on the Dashami.
- Bengal (the dates above)
- Bengal keeps Maha Nabami with the Nabami homa in the morning, the largest bhog of the four days, and the evening arati with the dhunuchi dance to the dhak that the pandals fill for; many homes cook mutton, the old offering of the Navami.
- Punjab
- Punjabi families who did not keep the kanjak on Ashtami keep it today, and the khetri is left standing for Dussehra.
- Assam
- Assam keeps Navami much as Bengal does, with the bhog and the evening arati in the pandals.
- Nepal
- Nepal keeps Maha Navami with the worship of the tools, the vehicles and even the aeroplanes, blessed so that they carry no accident through the year, and the Taleju Bhawani temple of Kathmandu opens its doors to the public on this one day.
The dates above are the Bengal reckoning, because that is the calendar this key belongs to. Switch the tradition on the calendar page to see how another one dates the same day.
Greeting
What is said to family and friends on the day
শুভ মহানবমীShubho Mahanobomi
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
Temples of Durga near you
Not recorded for this day in particular: the nearest temples of the day's own gods, for a reader whose own temple is not listed above.
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Adi Kamakshi and Kamakshi, standing on the pancha agni penance
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Devi Karumariamman in her three forms
- Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu · Kamakshi Devi seated in padmasana with the Sri Chakra
- Chengalpattu, Tamil Nadu · Adhiparasakthi as the swayambhu in the anthill
Your family's own temple comes first, and its calendar is the one that decides.
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A temple is listed here only where the gazetteer's own line names this day, or where this day's own entry names the town, or where the day belongs to the ancestors or the nagas and the temple is recorded for that rite. Where neither table says anything, nothing is listed as kept for the day; where fewer than three are, the nearest temples of the day's own gods are added under a heading of their own.
Mantras
The prayers said with the day. Each opens with its words and meaning.
- Durga Saptashati (Devi Mahatmyam)
- Ya Devi Sarvabhuteshu
- Sarvamangala Mangalye
A name without a link is a long reading, read in full from the family’s own copy or at the place of worship; the library prints the shorter prayers.
Every date here is computed from the Sun and Moon for the place entered, by the rule printed beside it.
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A printed panchangam can differ by a day where an almanac reads a tithi at a different instant, and a family's own custom always comes first. Where the practice genuinely varies, the text says so rather than choosing for you.