Chaitra Navratri: What, Why, When, How

What it is

Chaitra Navratri is the spring Navratri: nine nights of worship of the Goddess in the bright half of Chaitra, at the start of the Hindu lunar year. It begins on the first tithi, Chaitra Shukla Pratipada, and ends on the ninth, Navami, the tithi of Ram Navami, the birthday of Rama. It is also called Vasanta (spring) Navaratri, and Rama Navaratri because it ends with Rama's birthday.

Families keep it much as they keep the autumn Navratri: they set up a sacred pot with sprouting barley, keep a lamp, fast, read the Devi Mahatmyam and honour young girls on Ashtami or Navami. The first day, or in some years the day after it, is also New Year's Day for many families: the start of the Vikram Samvat in North India, Ugadi for Telugu and Kannada families, Gudi Padwa for Marathi families and Navreh for Kashmiri Pandits. Bengali families keep a spring Durga Puja, Basanti Puja, in these days, and Rajasthan celebrates Gangaur, the worship of Gauri, on the third day.

Many temples, from Vaishno Devi in Jammu to the Devi temples of Himachal Pradesh, hold large gatherings, and Rama temples abroad often read the Ramayana through these nine days.

Why it is kept

The king and the merchant. The Devi Mahatmyam, the text read through every Navratri, opens with two men who had lost everything: King Suratha, driven from his kingdom, and a merchant named Samadhi, cast out by his own family. They meet in the forest at the hermitage of the sage Medhas, who tells them the deeds of the Goddess. At the end of the text the two go to a river to worship her. In F. E. Pargiter's translation, “They both made an earthen image of the goddess on that sand-bank, and paid worship to it with flowers, incense, fire and libations of water” (Markandeya Purana, canto 93). Bengali tradition holds that this was the first Durga Puja, and keeps its memory in the spring Basanti Puja.

Two seasons for the Goddess. The Devi Bhagavata Purana (book 3, chapter 26) describes the Navaratra vow and says that it is kept in both spring and autumn, in the months of Chaitra and Ashvin, with autumn as its special season. So the same nine nights, with the same prayers and the same nine forms of the Goddess, come twice a year.

The new year and Rama's birthday. A passage of the Brahma Purana, quoted in the medieval digests on festival rules, says that Brahma created the world at sunrise on the first day of the bright half of Chaitra and began the counting of time; many calendars begin the year on this day. The nine nights end on Ram Navami, when Rama was born at midday; many families read the Ramayana or the Ramcharitmanas through the nine days and complete it on his birthday.

The texts behind the story

• Devi Mahatmyam (Markandeya Purana, cantos 81 and 93): the story of King Suratha and the merchant. F. E. Pargiter (tr.), The Markandeya Purana (Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1904). Pargiter died 1927: public domain. Quoted verbatim from canto 93, verses 7–8 (p. 523). (canto 81, p. 465; canto 93, verses 7–8, pp. 522–523)
• Devi Bhagavata Purana, book 3, chapter 26 (the Navaratra vow in spring and autumn). Swami Vijnanananda (tr.), The Srimad Devi Bhagawatam (Allahabad: Panini Office, 1921–23). Public domain. Summarised in our own words. Read in the archive.org full-text transcription of this translation; the 1922 scan srimaddevibhagav26vijnuoft holds only books 9–12. (book 3, chapter 26, verses 3–8)
• Brahma Purana, as quoted in the medieval digests on festival rules (Kalpataru, Hemadri, Krtyaratnakara): Brahma created the world at sunrise on the first day of the bright half of Chaitra and began the counting of time. Read in P. V. Kane, History of Dharmasastra, vol. 5, part 1 (Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1958), which summarises it. Kane died 1972: cited, not quoted. (vol. 5, part 1, pp. 82–83)

When it is kept

Chaitra Navratri begins with Ghatasthapana, the setting up of the sacred pot, on the day the Shukla Pratipada of Chaitra is present in the first third of the daytime at your location, and runs tithi by tithi to the day on which Navami is present at sunrise. Ram Navami itself (engine id ram-navami) is decided by midday, so in some years it falls on the day before that last day. This is the rule most Smarta panchangs use. Because a tithi can repeat or drop out, the festival can last eight, nine or ten days. In a year with an extra (adhika) month, the app places it in the regular (nija) Chaitra, as it does every annual festival.

The date, from the calendar engine

• Chaitra Navratri 2027: Chaitra Navratri Ghatasthapana falls on Wednesday, April 7, 2027 in Washington DC (computed for this city). The date is the same in New Delhi.

The date depends on your city. Every city we cover is on the year page.

Traditions and regional customs

• Smarta: Ghatasthapana in the first third of the day of Chaitra Shukla Pratipada; nine nights to Ram Navami
• North Indian: the Vikram Samvat new year begins on the first day
• Bengali: Basanti Puja, the spring Durga Puja
• Rajasthani: Gangaur on Chaitra Shukla Tritiya
• Kashmiri Pandit: Navreh, the new year
• South Indian temples: Vasanta Navaratri and the Rama Navami festival

Why the day can differ

Ghatasthapana is decided by the first third of your own day, so cities can begin on different dates, and a city abroad can differ from India by a day. The last day is decided by sunrise and Ram Navami by midday, so the length of the festival and the day of Ram Navami can also differ by city.

Families differ on the day of Kanya Puja (Ashtami or Navami) and on whether the fast ends on Navami or the next morning. Some priests also avoid particular nakshatras or yogas for Ghatasthapana; the app does not apply such tests, so follow your priest if your family uses them.

How to keep it at home

1. On the first day, clean the puja place and set a picture or murti of the Goddess on a low table with a red cloth. Many families also greet the new year with a new calendar, fresh flowers and neem leaves.
2. Ghatasthapana: sow barley or wheat in a wide clay tray of soil, set a kalash of water on it with mango leaves and a coconut wrapped in red cloth, and invite the Goddess into it with a prayer, within the time shown in the app. Water the seeds daily.
3. Keep a lamp for the nine days, or light it at the morning and evening puja. An electric lamp is a safe choice where an open flame cannot be watched.
4. Each day, worship the Goddess with water, kumkum, rice, red flowers, incense and a simple offering. Families who follow the nine forms remember one each day: Shailaputri, Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta, Kushmanda, Skandamata, Katyayani, Kalaratri, Mahagauri and Siddhidatri.
5. Prayers commonly read: the Devi Mahatmyam (Durga Saptashati) over the nine days, the Durga Chalisa, the Siddha Kunjika Stotram, the Mahishasura Mardini Stotram ("Ayi giri nandini") and the aarti "Jai Ambe Gauri". Families who read the Ramayana or the Ramcharitmanas through the nine days plan it to finish on Ram Navami.
6. On Ashtami or Navami, honour young girls in Kanya Puja with a meal of halwa, puri and black chana and a small gift. On Ram Navami, celebrate Rama's birth at midday (see the Ram Navami guide), then offer the barley shoots and close the Navratri.

Fasting

Customs range from fasting all nine days on fruit, milk and fasting foods, to one meal a day, to fasting only on the first day and on Ashtami or Navami. Fasting food leaves out grains, lentils, onion and garlic and uses buckwheat, water chestnut flour, amaranth, barnyard millet, sago, potatoes and rock salt. Spring is warm in many places, so drink enough water. Anyone who is pregnant, unwell, diabetic, elderly or on regular medicine should keep a light fast, or none, and talk to a doctor first.

Food

Fasting dishes include sabudana khichdi, kuttu or singhara puri, samak rice pulao, makhana kheer and potatoes with cumin and rock salt. Kanya Puja brings halwa, puri and black chana. New Year tables add neem with jaggery, and Rajasthani homes make ghewar for Gangaur.

For children

A king who had lost his kingdom and a merchant who had lost his family met in a quiet forest. A wise sage told them stories of the Goddess, the great mother who helps the gods whenever they call her. The two friends went to a riverbank, shaped a small figure of the Goddess from clay, and prayed with flowers and water. Spring is a time of new beginnings, and Chaitra Navratri starts the new year with nine nights of prayer.

Something to do together

Sow a few barley or wheat seeds in a small pot on the first day and keep a picture diary: draw the shoots each day until Ram Navami.

Sources

• Panchang engine rules navratri-chaitra and ram-navami (packages/panchang/data/festivals.json), with the sources each rule lists.
• F. E. Pargiter (tr.), The Markandeya Purana (Calcutta, 1904), cantos 81 and 93. Public domain.
• Swami Vijnanananda (tr.), The Srimad Devi Bhagawatam (Allahabad: Panini Office, 1921–23), book 3, chapter 26. Public domain. Read in the archive.org full-text transcription of the same translation.
• Wikipedia, "Navaratri" (the Navaratris of Chaitra and Ashvin, among the four seasonal ones).
• P. V. Kane, History of Dharmasastra, vol. 5, part 1 (Poona, 1958), pp. 82–83: the Brahma Purana passage on Chaitra Shukla Pratipada as quoted in the medieval digests. Cited, not quoted.

Related guides

• Ugadi (Yugadi)
• Gudi Padwa