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
Assam calendar, computed for Chennai
- Thursday, 7 October 2027
- Tuesday, 26 September 2028
- Sunday, 14 October 2029
Where Maha Ashtami 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
The days of Durga Puja
Part of the same festival, in order, in the Assam calendar
- Mahalaya …
- Maha Shashthi · Bodhon …
- Maha Saptami …
- Maha Ashtami(this page) …
- Maha Navami …
- Bijoya Dashami …
The dates, year by year
Assam calendar, computed for Chennai
What the day is
The eighth night of Sharad Navratri, the heart of Durga Puja. The Sandhi Puja is performed in the twenty-four minutes before and after the Ashtami turns into Navami, the fiercest moment of the nine nights; young girls are worshipped and fed as the Kumari Puja, and in many houses the weapons and tools are laid out.
- Deity
- Durga, Mahagauri
- Kind
- Festival Days of celebration: the house is decorated, a feast is cooked and the temple is visited.
Significance
Ashtami belongs to Mahagauri, the eighth form, white and calm, the goddess as she is when long austerity has washed her clean, and in many families her bhog is coconut and her flowers are white. The Devi Mahatmya tells how Kali sprang from the goddess's brow to slay the demons Chanda and Munda, and the tradition of the Sandhi Puja holds that this came at the join of the Ashtami and the Navami, which is why that moment is kept with such care. In a great many northern homes, Punjabi and Haryanvi ones above all, Ashtami rather than Navami is the day of the kanjak, and it is also the day the kuldevi, the family goddess, is given her own puja, with the suhag of a married woman offered to her by the women of the house. It is kept as the height of the nine days: the fast is at its strictest, the Saptashati is finished if it has been read through, and the goddess is thanked before she is sent back. Assam and Nepal both call the day Maha Ashtami; in Nepal its night is Kalratri, the black night, when the sacrifices to the goddess begin in the temples and the old palace squares, and in Assam it is the morning of the great anjali.
How it is kept
The puja as a household does it, in order. Tick each step as it is done.
Maha Ashtami: how it is kept
Keep ready
- a red chunri and a coconut
- the suhag set: bangles, sindoor, bindi, mehndi, comb and mirror
- white and red flowers, lotus if it can be had
- roli, rice and mauli
- the Durga Saptashati
- a havan kund, mango wood, ghee and havan samagri
- a hundred and eight small lamps for the Sandhi Puja
- halwa, puri and black chana for the kanjak
- small gifts for the girls
The steps
0 of 7 done
What is cooked
Nepal cooks the meat of the Ashtami offering with beaten rice, achar and sel roti as the feast of the night; the pandals of Assam serve the khichuri bhog with labra and payesh after the anjali.
The hour
Clock times for Thursday, 7 October 2027 at Chennai
Ashwina Shukla Ashtami at sunrise. The Sandhi Puja is at the junction of Ashtami and Navami, whenever in the day or night that falls.
The main rite. The Ashtami that holds the sunrise, with the Ashtami puja and, where the family keeps it today, the kanjak in the morning. The Sandhi Puja is done in the forty-eight minutes across the join of the Ashtami and the Navami, whenever in the day or night that falls.
| 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
The strictest fast of the nine days for those who keep them; it is broken after the Sandhi Puja or on the Navami with the kanya bhojan.
What is avoided
Those who keep the fast take no grain until the puja is done. In Nepal and in the shakta houses of Assam the meat of the sacrifice is eaten as prasad, so the vegetarian Ashtami of the plains is not the rule there.
The name
The same day, in every language that has a word for it
Where the regions differ
Bengal's Maha Ashtami and the north's Ashtami puja fall together; Karnataka and Andhra keep it as Durgashtami, and where Ashtami and Navami share a sunrise the almanacs put both pujas on one day. Nepal keeps the night as Kalratri, with the sacrifices at the Taleju and the Kot in Kathmandu; Assam keeps the anjali and the kumari puja, and the Sandhi Puja falls across the join with Navami wherever it is kept.
In other regions
- Kerala
- Kerala keeps Durgashtami as the evening of the pooja veppu, when the books, the pens and the instruments are laid before Saraswati and left untouched until Vijayadashami.
- Telugu
- The Telugu country keeps Durgashtami, and in Telangana it is Saddula Bathukamma, the last and largest day of the flower festival.
- Kannada
- Karnataka keeps Durgashtami within Dasara, with the goddess worshipped as Durga in the home and in the temples.
- North India
- The Hindi belt keeps the Ashtami puja at the kalash and, in many families, the kanjak, and the Devi temples, Vindhyachal, Kalkaji in Delhi and the hill shrines, draw long queues for the Ashtami darshan.
- Bengal
- Bengal keeps Maha Ashtami as the height of the puja: the pushpanjali in new clothes in the morning, the Kumari Puja in the great pandals and at Belur Math, and the Sandhi Puja with a hundred and eight lamps and lotuses.
- Punjab
- Punjabi families almost all do the kanjak on Ashtami, and the little girls go from house to house through the morning with their plates filling with puri, halwa and coins.
- Assam (the dates above)
- Assam keeps Maha Ashtami with the pushpanjali in the pandals of Guwahati and the country towns, the kumari puja in the older shakta shrines, and the Sandhi Puja across the join with Navami.
- Nepal
- Nepal keeps the night as Kalratri: goats, ducks and buffaloes are offered at the Taleju and at the Durga temples of every town, vegetarian houses cut an ash gourd in place of the animal, and families feast on the meat of the offering as prasad.
The dates above are the Assam 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
दुर्गा अष्टमी की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएंDurga Ashtami ki hardik shubhkamnayein
Where this day is kept
Nearest first from Chennai, with what is recorded about each.
Temples of Durga and Mahagauri 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)
- 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.