Chaitra Navratri 2027: Dates, Nine Forms of the Goddess and Kalash Sthapana

The spring Navratri and the nine goddesses

Of the year’s four Navratris, two are gupt (hidden), in Magha and Ashadha, and kept mainly by tantric practitioners; the two public ones fall in Chaitra and in autumnal Ashvin. Chaitra Navratri honours Durga as the protecting Mother through the Devi Mahatmya, or Durga Saptashati, whose frame story has King Suratha and the merchant Samadhi, both stripped of everything, learning from the sage Medhas to worship her; Bengal’s spring Basanti Puja traces itself to that tale. Opening the lunar new year and closing on Ram Navami, the nine days carry a strong sense of beginnings.

Each day belongs to one of the Navadurga, the nine forms of the goddess. Day one honours Shailaputri, daughter of the mountain king, who rides a bull and holds a trident. Day two is for Brahmacharini, the ascetic with rosary and water pot, remembered for her long penance to win Shiva. Day three belongs to Chandraghanta, a warrior form with a bell-shaped half-moon on her brow. Day four honours Kushmanda, who, tradition says, brought the universe into being with her gentle smile. Day five is for Skandamata, mother of Skanda (Kartikeya), shown with the child on her lap.

Day six honours Katyayani, the warrior goddess said to have appeared in the hermitage of the sage Katyayana. Day seven belongs to Kalaratri, the darkest and fiercest form, who dispels fear and ignorance. Day eight is for Mahagauri, radiant, white-clad and serene. Day nine closes the cycle with Siddhidatri, the giver of siddhi, spiritual accomplishment.

When Chaitra Navratri begins and how long it runs

Chaitra Navratri begins on Chaitra Shukla Pratipada, the first lunar day after the Chaitra new moon, and runs to Shukla Navami. As a Shukla paksha (waxing fortnight) festival it carries the same month name in North Indian purnimanta and southern amanta calendars. It usually begins between mid-March and mid-April. The first day also starts the Vikram Samvat new year in North India and is one of the sade teen muhurat, the three and a half self-auspicious days of the year.

The opening rite, Ghatasthapana or kalash sthapana, follows a time rule. Classical texts prefer the first third of the day while Pratipada prevails, and ask that it avoid Chitra nakshatra and Vaidhriti yoga (one of the twenty-seven yogas formed from the combined longitudes of the Sun and Moon), both thought unfavourable for a beginning. When neither can be avoided, the Abhijit muhurat, the eighth of the day’s fifteen muhurtas, around local noon, is used instead. The Pratipada start and end times on this page are calculated for New Delhi; a local panchang gives the exact ghatasthapana muhurat for your own city’s sunrise.

Navratri is counted in tithis, not civil days, so it does not always last exactly nine. A tithi that begins after one sunrise and ends before the next drops out of the count, while one that spans two sunrises repeats, and the festival then runs eight or ten days. Ashtami and Navami, the Kanya Pujan days, can shift in the same way, and panchangs that read the overlaps differently may list them a day apart. That is why the question “Chaitra Navratri kab se hai” comes up every spring.

Kalash sthapana and the daily worship

On Pratipada morning, after a bath, a clean corner is prepared and a layer of earth is spread on a low platform and sown with barley (jau). A copper or clay kalash is filled with water, a coin, a betel nut and akshat (unbroken rice), crowned with mango leaves and a coconut wrapped in red cloth and sacred thread, and set in or beside the barley bed. A sankalp states the intention for the nine days, Ganesha is worshipped first, and the goddess is invoked into the kalash. Many homes light an akhand jyoti, a lamp kept burning without a break until the end.

Each day the form of that day is worshipped with flowers, kumkum, incense and a food offering, and the barley is watered. Many devotees recite the Durga Saptashati, the 700 verses of the Devi Mahatmya from the Markandeya Purana arranged in thirteen chapters, either in full daily or spread across the nine days; others read the Durga Chalisa. Aarti is sung morning and evening, and in folk belief a thick green crop of barley is a good sign for the year ahead.

On Ashtami or Navami, by family custom, comes Kanya Pujan. Young girls, usually between two and ten years old, are welcomed as forms of the goddess: their feet are washed, a tilak is applied, a thread is tied on the wrist, and they are served halwa, puri and black chana before receiving small gifts. In many homes a boy joins them as Langur or Bhairav. A havan follows, the kalash water is sprinkled through the house, and the barley shoots are kept or offered to flowing water. Parana, the breaking of the fast, comes after the Navami rites or the next morning, by family custom.

Fasting customs and household observances

Fasting practice ranges widely. Some keep all nine days on fruit, milk and water, others take one phalahari (fasting-food) meal a day, and many fast only on the first and last days. Grains, pulses, onion and garlic are usually set aside, and ordinary salt gives way to sendha namak (rock salt). Kuttu (buckwheat) and singhara (water chestnut) flour, samak rice, sabudana, potatoes, makhana, milk and fruit are the fasting staples. Tradition allows a lighter fast for the elderly, the unwell, children and expectant mothers.

In many homes meat, alcohol and tobacco stay out of the house for the nine days, and some family members avoid cutting hair or nails and sleep on the floor. Where an akhand jyoti burns, someone keeps watch so that it neither goes out nor becomes a fire risk. The kalash is traditionally left undisturbed until its formal farewell, and families try to keep the house free of quarrels and harsh words for the duration.

New year festivals and regional customs

Chaitra Shukla Pratipada is New Year’s Day for much of India under other names. In Maharashtra it is Gudi Padwa: a gudi, a pole dressed in bright cloth with neem leaves and a garland of sugar crystals and capped with an upturned metal pot, is raised at the door or window, and the day begins with a bitter-sweet paste of neem and jaggery. Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana keep Ugadi with ugadi pachadi, a relish of six tastes, sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent, standing for the mixed experiences of the year ahead, and with panchanga shravanam, a reading of the new year’s almanac.

Sindhi families celebrate Cheti Chand, the birth anniversary of Jhulelal, around the same days; Kashmiri Pandits mark Navreh, their new year, and Manipur’s Meitei new year, Sajibu Nongma Panba, also falls in this season. Devi temples across the North fill with pilgrims through the nine days, some Bengali families hold Basanti Puja, and Nepal keeps Chaite Dashain on the Ashtami. Garba and the great Durga Puja pandals belong to the autumn Sharad Navratri, which has its own page.

Astrology of the spring Navratri

Navratri opens just after the new moon in sidereal Pisces (Meena), when the Sun and Moon have met in the last sign of the zodiac. Through the nine days the Sun moves towards Aries (Mesha), its sign of exaltation, which it enters at Mesha Sankranti around mid-April, sometimes during Navratri itself. The waxing Moon climbs out of Pisces and reaches Gemini or Cancer by Navami. The lunar month is named after Chitra nakshatra, near which its full moon falls.

Panchang tradition also gives the new year a ruling planet: the lord of the weekday on which Chaitra Shukla Pratipada begins is called the raja, or king, of the samvat year, and annual almanacs open with that reckoning. Pratipada’s classical deity is Agni, Ashtami’s is Shiva and Navami’s is Durga herself, which is why the closing days carry the weightiest rites. Navami is a Rikta (“empty”) tithi, yet in Chaitra it is filled by the goddess and by Rama’s birth.

Because Pratipada is itself a sade teen muhurat day, many families begin new work or make an important purchase on it without a separate muhurat. The Sun’s stay in Pisces is part of Kharmas, when weddings are generally postponed, but the worship of the goddess is not restricted by it.