Festival Durga, Mahishasuramardini
Durgashtami
The eighth night of Sharad Navaratri, held to be the fiercest and the most powerful of the nine: Durga as Mahishasuramardini is worshipped, and in Karnataka the Ayudha Puja of arms and tools often falls here.
Durgashtami 2027 falls on Thursday, 7 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
Telugu calendar, computed for Chennai
- Thursday, 7 October 2027
- Tuesday, 26 September 2028
- Sunday, 14 October 2029
Where Durgashtami falls on the solar year, and how far the date moves between occurrences.
- 2027: 7 Oct
- 2028: 26 Sep, 10 days earlier
- 2029: 14 Oct, 17 days later
Navaratri to Vijayadashami
Part of the same festival, in order, in the Telugu calendar
- Navaratri begins …
- Durgashtami(this page) …
- Saraswati Puja · Ayudha Puja · Sri Panchami …
- Vijayadasami …
The dates, year by year
Telugu calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The eighth night of Sharad Navaratri, held to be the fiercest and the most powerful of the nine: Durga as Mahishasuramardini is worshipped, and in Karnataka the Ayudha Puja of arms and tools often falls here. Young girls are fed and given cloth as the Kumari Puja.
- Deity
- Durga, Mahishasuramardini
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
On the eighth day the Navaratri turns from the gentle forms of the goddess to the one who ends Mahishasura, and Durgashtami is kept as the night her strength is fullest. In Telangana it is also the last and grandest evening of Bathukamma, Saddula Bathukamma, when the tallest flower stacks of the nine days are built, the women sing late into the night, and every family brings saddulu, flavoured rice of several kinds, to share at the tank. In Karnataka the day falls in the middle of the Mysuru Dasara, with Chamundeshwari worshipped on her hill above the city and the gombe, the dolls, arranged at home around the pattada gombe, the wedded pair. The Kumari Puja feeds young girls because the goddess is held to be present in them as the unmarried Durga.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Durgashtami: how it is kept
Keep ready
- red flowers and kumkum for the archana
- the Navaratri kalasam and lamp
- new cloth, bangles and ribbons for the Kumari Puja
- the Devi Mahatmyam or the Lalita Sahasranama
- gunuka, tangedu, banthi and chamanthi flowers
- a flat thambalam and turmeric for the Gauramma
- rice, tamarind, lemon, sesame, coconut and curd for the saddulu
The steps
0 of 7 done
What is cooked
Telangana cooks the saddulu for the last Bathukamma: pulihora with tamarind or lemon, coconut rice, sesame rice and curd rice, with malida, crumbled roti pounded with jaggery and ghee. Andhra homes offer chakkara pongali and pulihora to Durga; Karnataka makes chitranna, puliyogare, kosambari and payasa, and the girls of the Kumari Puja are fed first.
The hour
Clock times for Thursday, 7 October 2027 at Chennai
Ashwayuja Shukla Ashtami at sunrise; the Sandhi Puja of the Bengali rite falls in the twenty-four minutes either side of the Ashtami turning into Navami.
The main rite. Ashwayuja Shukla Ashtami at sunrise. The Durga puja is done in the morning and again in the evening, and the Bathukamma is played at dusk and floated after dark.
| Instant | Time | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Sunrise | 05:58 | the udaya tithi, the tithi running as the sun comes up |
Sunrise 05:58, sunset 17:55, 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 Ashtami from 04:14 until next day 06:28 | then Shukla Navami until 2 days later, 09:02 |
| Nakshatra | Purva Ashadha until next day 07:14 | then Uttara Ashadha until 2 days later, 10:18 |
| Rahu kaal | 13:26 to 14:56 (1 h 30 min) | the eighth of the daylight left alone for a beginning |
| Yamaganda | 05:58 to 07:28 (1 h 30 min) | the eighth ruled by Yama, also avoided |
| Gulika | 08:58 to 10:27 (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 | 12:23 | moonset 23:56 |
For Thursday, 7 October 2027 at Chennai. A time marked "previous day" or "next day" is on the clock of that day.
The fast
Many keep the whole nine nights on one meal a day or on fruit; the Ashtami fast is the strictest of them and is broken after the evening puja.
What is avoided
Homes that keep the goddess's nine days take no meat or liquor, and those fasting take one meal or none before the evening puja. A Bathukamma is not left unfloated overnight.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Karnataka and Andhra keep it as a Durga night; Bengal keeps the same day as Maha Ashtami, the heart of Durga Puja; Tamil Nadu counts it as the eighth day of the Kolu.
In other regions
- Tamil Nadu
- Tamil Nadu counts it the eighth day of the kolu, with the Durgashtami puja before the Saraswati Puja of the next day.
- Telugu (the dates above)
- Andhra keeps Durgashtami at the Kanaka Durga temple on Indrakeeladri in Vijayawada, where the goddess wears a different alankaram each day of the Dasara; Telangana keeps it as Saddula Bathukamma, the closing and grandest night of the flowers.
- Kannada
- Karnataka keeps it in the midst of the Mysuru Dasara, with the gombe at home and a kumkumarchane for Durga, and the Ayudha Puje of the tools on this day or the next.
- North India
- The north keeps Durga Ashtami with kanya pujan, feeding young girls halwa, puri and black chana.
- Bengal
- Bengal keeps the same day as Maha Ashtami, with the pushpanjali in the morning and the Sandhi Puja at the turn into Navami.
The dates above are the Telugu 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
దుర్గాష్టమి శుభాకాంక్షలుDurgashtami shubhakankshalu
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.
- Ayi Giri Nandini (Mahishasura Mardini)
- 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.