Astro River InstituteMaha Navami is the ninth and last day of Navratri — the day of Siddhidatri, of the havan and, in many homes, of kanya pujan. This year's date for your country is in the box below.
For eight days the kalash has stood in the corner of the room, the lamp beside it, the barley growing green in its bed of earth. On the ninth day the worship comes to its end. A fire is lit and the offerings are poured into it; the girls come to be fed; in the south the tools and books of the house are laid before the Goddess; in Bengal the last evening of Durga Puja is kept with a heaviness everyone recognises, because tomorrow she leaves.
This page explains which day Maha Navami falls on, the Goddess of the day, the havan as Dharmasindhu gives it, when the fast is broken, and how the ninth day is kept across India.
Quick overview
- What it is: the ninth lunar day (Navami) of the bright fortnight of Navratri, and the last of the nine nights.
- The form of the day: Siddhidatri, "the giver of attainment".
- The havan: the fire offering that completes the Navratri worship — offered by day, as Dharmasindhu sets it.
- Kanya pujan: on Navami or on Ashtami, as your family keeps it.
- Across India: Ayudha Puja in the south, the last day of Durga Puja in Bengal, the last night of garba in Gujarat.
- In spring: the Navami of Chaitra Navratri is Ram Navami.
- The next day: Vijayadashami — Dussehra.
This year
Chaitra Navratri 2027: Wednesday 7 April to Thursday 15 April
9 days in New Delhi
- Maha Navami
- Wednesday 14 April — the same day as Durga Ashtami. Navami begins at 15:25; the Navami worship and havan follow, by day, after that.
- Navami tithi
- Wednesday 14 April 15:25 to Thursday 15 April 13:22
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.
Which day is Maha Navami?
Navami is a tithi — a stretch of the Moon's motion, not of the clock — so it does not begin at sunrise, and it is not always kept on the day whose sunrise it holds. Dharmasindhu pairs it with Ashtami. When Navami begins during a day whose sunrise belongs to Ashtami — a Navami "pierced" by Ashtami, Ashtami-viddha — the text says the Navami fast and worship are kept on that day; only the bali offering is left for the Navami that runs on into Dashami.
So in some years Durga Ashtami and Maha Navami fall on the same day: Ashtami holds the morning, the sandhi puja marks the turn, and the Navami worship and havan follow, by day, once Navami has begun. Because all of this depends on the local sunrise, the result can differ between India and North America. The box above gives the day for your country.
Ashtami and Navami are joined by the sandhi puja, offered in the forty-eight minutes around the moment one ends and the other begins.
Durga Ashtami and the sandhi puja
The Goddess of the day: Siddhidatri
The ninth form of Durga in the Devi Kavacham is Siddhidatri, "she who gives the siddhis" — the attainments that come with completed practice. She is shown seated on a lotus, or on a lion, with four arms, attended by gods, sages and siddhas. A later devotional story holds that Shiva himself received his attainments from her, and became half of her in the form of Ardhanarishvara.
It is fitting that the last of the nine should be the one who gives: the nine days have been a practice, and the ninth asks for its fruit.
Mantra: ॐ देवी सिद्धिदात्र्यै नमः — Om Devī Siddhidātryai namaḥ — "Om, salutation to the Goddess Siddhidatri."
Siddhidatri: her story, her mantra and the worship of her day
The Navami havan
The Navratri worship ends in fire. Dharmasindhu, the eighteenth-century digest of observance that many Hindu almanacs still follow, sets the havan on Navami and says it is offered by day, not at night. For the offerings it names the mantra of Durga, or the verses of the Durga Saptashati — the seven hundred verses of the Devi Mahatmya — with ghee, white sesame and sweet rice (payasam).
How it is done at home, in the order most family priests follow:
- After the morning bath and the worship of the kalash, prepare the havan kund — a metal or brick fire-pit, or a square of bricks on a bed of sand — in a place where the smoke can clear.
- Make the sankalpa: that you offer this havan to complete the Navratri worship.
- Worship Ganesha, and light the fire with ghee and dry wood, mango wood where you can find it.
- Offer ghee into the fire with each mantra — svāhā at the end of each — together with the sesame and the sweet rice or the havan mixture your family uses. Those who read the Saptashati offer at its verses; others repeat the Navarna mantra or the name of the Goddess a fixed number of times, often 108.
- Close with a last full offering — many families offer a coconut wrapped in red cloth, filled with ghee — and the aarti.
Where a family has no one to lead the havan, the temple's Navami havan is joined instead.
Kanya pujan on Navami
Many families keep kanya pujan on Navami, after the havan: girls from two to ten years old are welcomed, their feet washed, and they are fed halwa, puri and black chana as the Goddess herself. Others keep it on Ashtami. Both are right.
Kanya pujan: the ages, the names and the vidhi
When the fast is broken
The breaking of the fast — the parana — follows family custom. Many families break it on Navami, after the havan and the kanya pujan, with the same halwa, puri and chana that the girls were served. Many almanacs list the Navratri parana on Dashami morning instead, once the nine days are complete. Dharmasindhu leaves the form of the Navratri fast to the family; follow your own house.
On Dashami, the kalash is worshipped one last time, its water sprinkled through the house, and the barley shoots taken as the Goddess's blessing — tucked behind the ear, placed in the cash box, or kept in the prayer room.
Maha Navami across India
Bengal keeps Maha Navami as the last full day of Durga Puja: the Navami puja, the havan, the great bhog shared at the pandal, and an evening of aarti and drumming before the Goddess leaves on Dashami.
Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra keep Ayudha Puja on Navami: tools, weapons, books, musical instruments, machines and vehicles are cleaned, marked with sandal paste and kumkum, and worshipped — the instruments of one's work honoured as gifts of the Goddess. Saraswati Puja falls on the same day in much of the south, and in Mysuru the palace keeps its own Ayudha Puja on the eve of the Dasara procession. In Kerala, the books laid before Saraswati stay there through Navami, unread, until Vijayadashami.
Gujarat dances its last garba of the nine nights.
Punjab and the north hold kanjak, the havan and the last jagratas; Ram Lila reaches the eve of the battle.
In spring, the Navami of Chaitra Navratri is Ram Navami, the birthday of Rama, kept at midday.
Questions we are asked
When is Maha Navami this year? The date for your country is in the box at the top of this page. It follows Dharmasindhu's rule: the Navami worship is kept on the day Navami begins if that day's sunrise belongs to Ashtami, and otherwise on the day whose sunrise Navami holds. It can differ by a day between India and North America.
Why are Durga Ashtami and Maha Navami sometimes on the same day? Because when Navami begins during the day of Ashtami, Dharmasindhu keeps the Navami fast and worship on that same day. Ashtami is worshipped in the morning, the sandhi puja is offered as Ashtami ends, and the Navami worship and havan follow by day.
Which goddess is worshipped on Navami? Siddhidatri, the ninth of the nine forms of Durga, "the giver of attainment".
What time should the Navami havan be done? By day. Dharmasindhu sets the Navratri havan on Navami and says it is not offered at night. Most families offer it in the morning, after the worship of the kalash.
Is kanya pujan done on Navami? In many families, yes — after the havan. Others keep it on Ashtami. Both are right.
When should the Navratri fast be broken? By family custom: on Navami after the havan and kanya pujan, or on Dashami morning, as many almanacs list it.
What is Ayudha Puja? The worship of tools, books, instruments and vehicles on Navami, kept in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra, with Saraswati Puja on the same day in much of the south.
What is the difference between Maha Navami and Ram Navami? Both are a Navami that closes a Navratri. Maha Navami closes Sharad Navratri in autumn; Ram Navami, Rama's birthday, closes Chaitra Navratri in spring.
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.
Navratri: the nine nights, all on one page · Night 8 — Mahagauri, the night before · The bhog for all nine days · The colours of Navratri ·
