Astro River InstituteThe seventh night of Navratri belongs to Kalaratri — Kalratri, Kaalratri — the fiercest of the nine forms. This year's date for the seventh night in your city is in the box below.
Every other form of the Goddess in Navratri is beautiful in the ordinary way. The seventh is not. Maa Kalratri — Kālarātri, "the night of time" — is black as a moonless night, her hair wild and unbound, a donkey beneath her, an iron weapon in one hand and a burning torch in the other.
And yet one of her names is Shubhankari, "she who does good". That is the whole meaning of the seventh night. The darkest form of the Goddess is not dark towards her devotees. She is dark towards everything that frightens them — and she is darker than all of it.
Quick overview
- Night: the seventh of Navratri — Saptami, the seventh lunar day of the bright fortnight.
- Her name: Kālarātri, "the night of Kala" — of time, and of death. Spelled Kalratri and Kaalratri as well.
- Who she is: the most terrible form of Durga, the destroyer of fear and of what causes it.
- How she is shown: black, with wild hair, four arms, riding a donkey, with an iron hook or cleaver and a torch or sword; two hands in blessing.
- Her other name: Shubhankari, "she who does good".
- Her mantra: ॐ देवी कालरात्र्यै नमः — Om Devī Kālarātryai namaḥ.
- Bhog commonly offered: jaggery (gud) — a family custom whose lists vary.
This year
Chaitra Navratri 2027: Wednesday 7 April to Thursday 15 April
9 days in New Delhi
- Night 7 · Kalratri
- Tuesday 13 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 night of time
Kāla means time, and also death, which is time's end; rātri is night. Kalaratri is the night in which time itself is swallowed — the dissolution at the end of an age, when everything returns to the dark it came from. In the Devi Mahatmya the Goddess is praised as kālarātri, the night of dissolution, among her great names.
The seventh night of Navratri gives that cosmic darkness a face, and turns it to the devotee's side. In the devotional telling, she is the form the Goddess takes to destroy what no gentler form can reach — demons, ghosts, the terrors of the night, and the fear inside a person that no one else can see. When the Devi Mahatmya's demon Raktabija multiplied from every drop of his spilled blood, it was the dark Goddess who drank the blood before it could fall. Kalaratri carries that ferocity into the nine nights.
That is why her worship is not frightening to those who keep it. You go to her precisely because she is more terrible than the thing you are afraid of.
How she is shown
In the popular pictures, Kalaratri is black, with unbound hair, three eyes and four arms: in one hand an iron hook or cleaver, in another a torch or sword; the other two hands are raised in the gestures of fearlessness and of blessing. She rides a donkey — her meditation verse places her on one — the humblest of mounts, carrying the most terrible of the Goddess's forms.
The contrast is deliberate. The weapons are for what threatens you; the open hands are for you.
Her mantra and her verse
The short mantra many families use on the seventh day:
ॐ देवी कालरात्र्यै नमः
Om Devī Kālarātryai namaḥ — "Om, salutation to the Goddess Kalaratri."
Her meditation verse (dhyāna), as it is recited in the Navadurga worship:
एकवेणी जपाकर्णपूरा नग्ना खरास्थिता ।
लम्बोष्ठी कर्णिकाकर्णी तैलाभ्यक्तशरीरिणी ॥
वामपादोल्लसल्लोहलताकण्टकभूषणा ।
वर्धन्मूर्धध्वजा कृष्णा कालरात्रिर्भयङ्करी ॥Ekaveṇī japā-karṇapūrā nagnā kharāsthitā, lamboṣṭhī karṇikākarṇī tailābhyakta-śarīriṇī. Vāma-pādollasal-lohalatā-kaṇṭaka-bhūṣaṇā, vardhan-mūrdha-dhvajā kṛṣṇā kālarātrir bhayaṅkarī.
The verse pictures her with a single braid and hibiscus flowers at her ears, unclothed, seated on a donkey, long-lipped, her body anointed with oil, her left foot bright with an ornament of iron thorns — dark: Kalaratri, the terrifying. One phrase of the last line is read differently in different manuscripts, and we leave it untranslated.
Her verse is older than the others. It first appears as a prescription for making her image, in a medieval manual of temple images, and was later taken into the Navadurga worship. 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 seventh night is kept
The kalash is worshipped as on every day, and Kalaratri as the form of the day. Many families offer her jaggery. Her day is a natural day to pray for protection — for a family member far from home, for a house that has known trouble, for a mind that cannot sleep for worry.
In Bengal, the seventh day is Maha Saptami, the first full day of Durga Puja. At dawn a bundle of nine plants, the navapatrika — often called kola bou, "the banana bride" — is bathed in the river, dressed in a red-bordered sari and set beside the image of Ganesha. The great worship begins.
The seventh night also leads straight into the greatest of the nine: Durga Ashtami, with its sandhi puja and, in many homes, kanya pujan.
Durga Ashtami: which day, and the sandhi puja · Kanya pujan: the ages, the names and the vidhi
Bhog and colour
The bhog most widely offered to Kalaratri is jaggery (gud), or sweets made with it. This is a popular custom rather than a rule of the texts; keep your family's list if it differs.
The colour worn on the seventh day is not fixed to Kalaratri; in the modern custom of nine colours it changes each 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 seventh day of Navratri? Kalaratri (also spelled Kalratri and Kaalratri), the seventh of the nine forms of Durga named in the Devi Kavacham — the fiercest of the nine.
Why is Kalratri so fearsome? Because she is the form the Goddess takes against what frightens her devotees. Her ferocity is turned outward, against harm; to those who worship her she shows the gestures of fearlessness and blessing. One of her names is Shubhankari, "she who does good".
What is the mantra for Maa Kalratri? Om Devī Kālarātryai namaḥ — "Om, salutation to the Goddess Kalaratri." Her meditation verse is given above.
What bhog is offered to Kalratri? Jaggery, or sweets made with jaggery, by popular custom. Lists vary by family.
Why does Kalratri ride a donkey? Her meditation verse places her on a donkey — the humblest of mounts carrying the most terrible form of the Goddess. Devotees read it as a sign that nothing is too low for her protection.
What happens on Maha Saptami in Bengal? The navapatrika — the nine plants, the kola bou — is bathed at dawn and installed beside the Goddess, and the first full day of Durga Puja begins.
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 6 — Katyayani, the warrior · Night 8 — Mahagauri, the radiant one · The bhog for all nine days · Navratri: the nine nights, all on one page
