Astro River InstituteThe second night of Navratri belongs to Brahmacharini, the Goddess in her years of penance. This year's date for the second night in your city is in the box below.
On the first night the Goddess was born again, the daughter of the mountain. On the second she sets out to win what she wants — and she does it not by force, not by charm, but by keeping a vow longer than anyone thought she could.
Maa Brahmacharini is Parvati in her years of austerity, the young woman who went into the forest to win Shiva and would not come back without him. She is shown on foot, in white, with a rosary in one hand and a water pot in the other: no weapons, no mount, nothing but the practice. Of all the nine she is the easiest to recognise in ordinary life. She is anyone who has kept at a hard thing, quietly, when no one was watching.
Quick overview
- Night: the second of Navratri — Dwitiya, the second lunar day of the bright fortnight.
- Her name: Brahmacāriṇī, "she who walks in brahman" — the one who keeps the ascetic's vow.
- Who she is: Parvati in penance, to win Shiva as her husband.
- How she is shown: standing, barefoot, in white, a rosary (japa mala) in her right hand and a water pot (kamandalu) in her left.
- Her mantra: ॐ देवी ब्रह्मचारिण्यै नमः — Om Devī Brahmacāriṇyai namaḥ.
- Bhog commonly offered: sugar or mishri — a family custom whose lists vary.
This year
Chaitra Navratri 2027: Wednesday 7 April to Thursday 15 April
9 days in New Delhi
- Night 2 · Brahmacharini
- Thursday 8 April
Times are New Delhi clock time. Computed for each city from the positions of the Sun and Moon (Lahiri). Where your family or temple follows its own panchang, follow that.
Who she is: the penance of Parvati
Parvati, the mountain's daughter, had set her heart on Shiva. But Shiva, grieving Sati, had withdrawn into meditation on the mountain and would not look at anyone. The gods sent Kama, the god of desire, to wake him; Shiva opened his third eye and burned Kama to ash. Desire had failed.
So Parvati chose the other road. She left her father's palace, put on bark garments, and went into the forest to do tapas — the heat of austerity. The Shiva Purana tells it at length, and so does Kalidasa's Kumarasambhava, the great Sanskrit poem of her marriage. She ate fruit, then only leaves; and then she gave up even leaves, and so was called Aparna, "without a leaf". She stood in water through winter and among fires through summer.
At last Shiva came to her in disguise, as a young ascetic, and tried to talk her out of it — what did she want with a wild man who lived in cremation grounds? She would not hear a word against him. Then he showed himself, and agreed to marry her.
That is the whole lesson of Brahmacharini: what desire could not win, devotion did.
How she is shown
Brahmacharini is the plainest of the nine. She stands on her own feet, with no lion and no bull beneath her. She wears white, the colour of the renunciant. In her right hand is a rosary for counting the name of God; in her left, a water pot — the only possession of the wandering ascetic.
Her calm is not softness. It is the face of someone who has already decided.
Her mantra and her verse
The short mantra many families use on the second day:
ॐ देवी ब्रह्मचारिण्यै नमः
Om Devī Brahmacāriṇyai namaḥ — "Om, salutation to the Goddess Brahmacharini."
Her meditation verse (dhyāna), as it is recited in the Navadurga worship:
दधाना करपद्माभ्यामक्षमालाकमण्डलू ।
देवी प्रसीदतु मयि ब्रह्मचारिण्यनुत्तमा ॥Dadhānā kara-padmābhyām akṣa-mālā-kamaṇḍalū, devī prasīdatu mayi brahmacāriṇy anuttamā.
"Holding a rosary and a water pot in her lotus hands — may the Goddess Brahmacharini, the unsurpassed, be gracious to me."
The nine meditation verses come from the later ritual tradition of the Navadurga worship; the Devi Mahatmya itself gives only the nine names.
How the second night is kept
The kalash installed on the first morning is worshipped again, and Brahmacharini is worshipped as the form of the day: flowers, the lamp, the mantra and the bhog. Many families keep the second day as a day of particular discipline — a stricter fast, more of the Devi Mahatmya read, more japa — in her honour.
Her day is a good one to begin any practice that needs keeping: a daily mantra, a course of study, an early hour. The Goddess of the second night is the patron of the promise kept.
Ghatasthapana and the daily worship of the kalash
Bhog and colour
The bhog most widely offered to Brahmacharini is sugar or mishri (crystallised sugar), shared afterwards as prasad. This is a popular custom, not a rule of the texts; keep your family's own list if it differs.
The colour worn on the second day is not fixed to Brahmacharini; in the modern custom of nine colours, it changes every year with the weekday on which Navratri begins.
→ This year's colours of Navratri, day by day
Questions we are asked
Which goddess is worshipped on the second day of Navratri? Brahmacharini — Parvati in her years of penance to win Shiva. She is the second of the nine forms of Durga named in the Devi Kavacham.
What does Brahmacharini mean? "She who walks in brahman" — one who keeps the vow of the ascetic. It names Parvati's penance in the forest.
What is the mantra for Maa Brahmacharini? Om Devī Brahmacāriṇyai namaḥ — "Om, salutation to the Goddess Brahmacharini." Her meditation verse is given above.
What bhog is offered to Brahmacharini? Sugar or mishri, by popular custom. Lists vary by family.
Why is Parvati called Aparna? Because in her penance for Shiva she gave up eating even leaves — a-parṇā, "without a leaf". Kalidasa's Kumarasambhava gives her the name (canto 5, verse 28).
This page teaches. The dates are computed for each city from the positions of the Sun and Moon. Where a family or temple follows its own panchang, follow that.
Night 1 — Shailaputri, daughter of the mountain · Night 3 — Chandraghanta, the bell of the moon · The bhog for all nine days · Kanya pujan
