Sharad Navratri 2027
30 September 2027

Sharad (Shardiya) Navratri runs for nine nights, from Ashwin Shukla Pratipada to Navami, and each day is given to one of the nine forms of Durga: Shailputri, Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta, Kushmanda, Skandamata, Katyayani, Kalaratri, Mahagauri and Siddhidatri. The day after Navami is Vijayadashami. Of the four Navratris in the year, this autumn one and Chaitra Navratri in spring are kept in most homes; the two in Magha and Ashadha are called Gupt Navratri.

The story behind these nights comes from the Devi Mahatmya, part of the Markandeya Purana, which tells how the Devi defeated the buffalo-demon Mahishasura when the gods could not. Its seven hundred verses, read as the Durga Saptashati, are recited in many homes through the nine days. Families keep the vrat (fast), light the jyoti, sow barley beside the kalash and close with kanya pujan, honouring the Devi in young girls.

• Kalash of copper or clay, with a coin and supari inside
• Clean soil and barley (jau) for sowing
• Five mango leaves
• Coconut wrapped in red cloth or chunari
• Ganga jal
• Roli, akshat and kalava
• Red chunari for the Devi
• Ghee and a diya, or a lamp for the akhand jyoti
• Flowers, fruits and sweets for bhog
• Durga Saptashati book

Source: Devi Mahatmya (Markandeya Purana), the slaying of Mahishasura

Mahishasura, a demon who could take the form of a buffalo, defeated the gods in battle and took Indra’s place in heaven. The gods, led by Brahma, went to Vishnu and Shiva and told them what had happened.

As they listened, their anger blazed out as light, and light came from the bodies of the other gods too. It gathered into one radiance and took the form of a goddess. The gods gave her their weapons: Shiva a trident from his own, Vishnu a discus from his, and Himavan, the mountain, gave her a lion to ride.

She went into battle and destroyed Mahishasura’s army and generals. Mahisha himself fought her in many shapes: a buffalo, a lion, a man with a sword, an elephant, and the buffalo again. At last she pressed him down with her foot and struck him with her trident, and as he began to come out of the buffalo’s mouth in his own form, she cut off his head with her sword.

The gods praised her, and she promised to come to their aid whenever they remembered her in trouble. This is why she is called Mahishasuramardini.

What to do

• Set up the kalash in the north-east corner if you can, the direction tradition gives to the gods.
• Sprinkle a little water on the barley each day; its growth is traditionally taken as a good sign for the year ahead.
• Keep the vrat at a level your health allows; phalahar with fruit, milk, kuttu or singhara flour and sendha namak is the usual way, and tradition values the bhav over hardship.
• If you light an akhand jyoti, make sure someone is at home to tend it, so it is never left burning unattended.

What to avoid

• Onion, garlic, meat and alcohol are kept out of the kitchen in most homes for the nine days, so that the food offered and eaten stays sattvik.
• Those keeping the vrat avoid grains and ordinary salt, and use sendha namak (rock salt) instead.
• Many families avoid cutting hair or nails and shaving during the nine days; follow your own family’s custom here.

In the north, Ramlila is staged through these nights and ends with Ravana dahan on Dussehra. In Gujarat the nights are for Garba, danced in circles around the garbo, an earthen pot with a lamp inside. In Bengal the same days are Durga Puja, whose main days run from Shashthi to Dashami; Bengal calls this autumn worship Akal Bodhan, the untimely awakening of the goddess, after Rama’s worship of her before his battle with Ravana as the Krittivasi Ramayana tells it.

Since this is Shukla paksha, Amanta and Purnimanta calendars both call it Ashwin, so there is no month-name difference. Days can still differ: a tithi can be skipped or can hold over two sunrises, so Navratri is sometimes eight days long or ten, read at each place’s own sunrise. Bengal’s panjikas reckon Ashtami and Navami by their own rules, so Bengal’s Navami can fall a day after the north’s.