Festival Durga, Ganesha, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartikeya
Maha Shashthi · Bodhon
The sixth day of the bright fortnight of Ashwin, the first day of Durga Puja, when the goddess is called awake.
Maha Shashthi · Bodhon 2027 falls on Tuesday, 5 October, computed for Chennai.
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
- Tuesday, 5 October 2027
- Sunday, 24 September 2028
- Saturday, 13 October 2029
Where Maha Shashthi · Bodhon falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 5 Oct
- 2028: 24 Sep, 10 days earlier
- 2029: 13 Oct, 18 days later
The days of Durga Puja
Part of the same festival, in order, in the Bengal calendar
- Mahalaya …
- Maha Shashthi · Bodhon(this page) …
- Maha Saptami …
- Maha Ashtami …
- Maha Navami …
- Bijoya Dashami …
The dates, year by year
Bengal calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The sixth day of the bright fortnight of Ashwin, the first day of Durga Puja, when the goddess is called awake. The bodhon is done under a bel tree, the amantran invites her and the adhibas prepares her seat; in the evening the cloth is lifted from the face of the pratima, the dhak begins and the pandals open to the crowd. Bengal counts the puja as four days and this is the first of them.
- Deity
- Durga, Ganesha, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kartikeya
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
For Bengal the puja is a homecoming before it is a war: Uma leaves Kailash each autumn to spend four days in her father's house with her four children, and the agamani songs sung in the weeks before are a mother's songs of waiting for a married daughter. The autumn waking is Rama's: the Krittivasi Ramayana tells that he called the goddess out of season before he crossed to Lanka and offered her a hundred and eight blue lotuses, and when one was found missing he began to pluck out his own lotus eye to make up the number, until she stopped him and gave him victory. From tonight the days run in their order: the kola bou's bath and the first anjali on the Saptami, the Sandhi Puja with its hundred and eight lamps and lotuses at the join of the Ashtami and the Navami, the Navami homa, and the Dashami's sindur and farewell. The Shashthi is also a mothers' day, when many Bengali mothers keep the Shashthi vrat for their children and take no rice.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Maha Shashthi · Bodhon: how it is kept
Keep ready
- a bel tree or a bel branch in a ghat
- a ghat of water with mango leaves
- the adhibas tray of auspicious things
- sindur and sandal paste
- new clothes for the four days
- a dhunuchi with resin and coconut husk
- a conch
- flowers and bel leaves
The steps
0 of 7 done
What is cooked
The Shashthi is a light day at home: luchi, alur dom, sabu and fruit, with no rice for the mothers who keep the vrat. The pandal evenings run on phuchka, egg rolls and mughlai paratha, and the bhog of the family pujas begins on the Saptami.
The hour
Clock times for Tuesday, 5 October 2027 at Chennai
Ashwin Shukla Shashthi at sunrise; the bodhon is at dusk under the bel tree, and the unveiling of the face follows it.
The main rite. Ashwin Shukla Shashthi at sunrise; the bodhon is done at dusk under a bel tree or before a bel branch, and the face of the pratima is unveiled after it.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | 05:58 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
| Sunset | 17:56 | the moment the sun goes down |
| Pradosha kala | 17:56 to 20:20 | the 2 h 24 min after sunset, the evening worship hour |
Sunrise 05:58, sunset 17:56, 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 Shashti from 01:37 until next day 02:33 | then Shukla Saptami until 2 days later, 04:14 |
| Nakshatra | Jyeshtha until next day 02:15 | then Mula until 2 days later, 04:29 |
| Rahu kaal | 14:57 to 16:27 (1 h 30 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 08:58 to 10:28 (1 h 30 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 11:57 to 13:27 (1 h 30 min) | the eighth of Saturn’s son; what is done in it is said to repeat |
| Abhijit | 11:33 to 12:21 (0 h 48 min) | the midday muhurta, good for most things |
| Moonrise | 10:40 | moonset 22:10 |
For Tuesday, 5 October 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
No fast is prescribed on the Shashthi. Many keep the four days without fish or meat, and some take one meal a day until the anjali of each morning.
What is avoided
Mothers keeping the Shashthi vrat take no rice that day. A house in ashauch after a birth or a death does not hold the puja itself, and many houses keep the four days without fish or meat while others eat both; the family's custom is followed.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Bengal, Assam, Odisha and Tripura count Durga Puja from the Shashthi; the north and the Deccan count nine nights from the Pratipada, so what is the eighth night there is the third day here. The autumn puja is the akal bodhan, the untimely waking, which is why the goddess has to be called awake at all.
In other regions
- North India
- The north keeps the same tithi as the sixth night of Sharad Navratri, the night of Katyayani, and the probashi Bengali associations of Delhi, Chittaranjan Park above all, hold the bodhon exactly as at home.
- Bengal (the dates above)
- Bengal counts the puja from this evening, in the pandals of Kolkata, the bonedi bari of the old north of the city and the sarbojanin pujas that grew from the twelve friends' baroyari at Guptipara; Bangladesh keeps the same days in its thousands of mandaps.
- Assam
- Assam opens its Durga Puja on the same Shashthi, and the Assamese and Bengali pujas of Guwahati and the tea towns open their pandals the same evening.
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 মহাষষ্ঠীShubho Mahashashthi
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
- Maa Cuttack Chandi Temple 1,015 kmOdisha
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Cuttack’s own Devi on the Mahanadi bank, whose Durga Puja and Kali Puja behind the silver and gold filigree backdrops are the city’s great nights.
- Sri Ramakrishna Temple, Belur Math 1,363 kmHowrah, West Bengal
The gazetteer line for this temple names the day. Kalpataru Day on 1 January and Durga Puja are its days.
Temples of Durga, Ganesha, Lakshmi and Kartikeya 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 · Venkatakrishnan (Parthasarathy) with the arrow scars on his face
- Vadapalani Andavar Temple 7.3 kmChennai, Tamil Nadu · Murugan as Vadapalani Andavar
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · The eight forms of Lakshmi in shrines on four floors, facing the sea
- Chennai, Tamil Nadu · Adhivyadhihara Bhaktha Anjaneyar, thirty-two feet tall from a single block of granite
1 more temple in this gazetteer is recorded for the day. Find temples near you.
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
- Ayi Giri Nandini (Mahishasura Mardini)
- 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.