Sharad Navratri at home: kalash sthapana, nine days, kanya puja

When

• Kalash sthapana (ghatasthapana) is done on Pratipada, 11 October, in the morning muhurat. The panchang gives a window of roughly an hour after sunrise; if that is missed, the Abhijit muhurat around midday is the accepted alternative. Avoid the afternoon and night.
• Daily puja: once after bathing in the morning and once at dusk with the aarti. Keep the same times each day if you can; the routine is part of the practice.
• Kanya puja is done on Ashtami (18 October) or Navami (19 October). Many families do it on Ashtami; those who keep the full nine-day fast do it on Navami and break the fast after.
• Visarjan of the kalash and the sown barley is on Dashami, 20 October, after the morning puja.

Day one: kalash sthapana

Bathe, clean the puja space, and spread a red cloth on the chowki. Set the Devi's murti or photograph on it. Everything below is done facing east or north.

1. 1

   Sow the barley

   Fill the clay pot with soil, sow the barley, sprinkle water. The sprouts that grow over nine days are read as the Devi's blessing on the home. Keep the pot beside the kalash, not under it.

2. 2

   Fill the kalash

   Add water, a few drops of Gangajal if you have it, a coin, a betel nut, a little akshat and a flower. Tie a moli (red thread) around its neck.

3. 3

   Close it

   Arrange the mango leaves in the mouth, stems down, then set the coconut wrapped in red cloth on top with the tuft facing you (north or east, by family custom).

4. 4

   Invoke

   Light the diya and the agarbatti. With folded hands, invite the Devi to reside in the kalash for nine days: a simple sentence in your own language is enough; those who know the Sanskrit avahan may use it.

5. 5

   Sankalp

   State your resolve: how many days you will fast, which form, and that you undertake it for the family's welfare. Say it aloud once, with water in the right palm, then release the water into a plate.

6. 6

   Light the akhand jyoti

   Only if someone will be home to tend it. A diya that goes out is not an ill omen, but an unattended flame is a fire risk. A lamp lit and extinguished each puja is an accepted alternative.

Every day: morning and evening

1. 7

   Morning

   After bathing, sprinkle water on the kalash and the barley pot, offer a fresh flower, apply tilak to the Devi, light the diya and agarbatti, and read one chapter of the Saptashati or the Durga Chalisa. Offer a fruit or sweet as bhog.

2. 8

   Evening

   Aarti with camphor, a bhog of the day's dish, and the Devi's names. Families sing the Ambe Maa aarti; a recording is fine if nobody knows it.

3. 9

   The nine forms

   Each day honours one of the Navadurga: Shailputri, Brahmacharini, Chandraghanta, Kushmanda, Skandamata, Katyayani, Kalaratri, Mahagauri, Siddhidatri. Reading a few lines about the day's form before the puja gives the nine days their shape. The practice of wearing a colour each day is a modern custom; follow it if you enjoy it.

4. 10

   Bhog

   Sattvic only: fruit, milk sweets, halwa, coconut. Nothing with onion, garlic or grain that a fasting family member cannot share.

The vrat: what is eaten

Most families fast on the first and last days, or all nine. The rules are the same as any Vaishnav vrat: no grains (wheat, rice, lentils), no onion or garlic, no ordinary salt. What is allowed: fruit, milk and curd, sabudana, kuttu (buckwheat) and singhara (water chestnut) flours, samak rice, potatoes, sendha namak (rock salt), dry fruits, and tea or coffee if you take them.

One full meal in the evening after the aarti is the usual pattern (a phalahar), with fruit and milk during the day. Anyone pregnant, diabetic, elderly or unwell should adjust the fast to what their doctor allows; the intent matters, not the severity.

Ashtami or Navami: kanya puja

1. 11

   Invite

   Nine girls between two and ten years old, and one boy (the langur, for Bhairav). Fewer is fine; two or three girls honoured properly is better than nine rushed.

2. 12

   Welcome

   Wash their feet with water, apply tilak, tie a moli on the right wrist, seat them on a clean cloth facing east.

3. 13

   Feed

   The traditional meal is puri, sooji halwa and kala chana. Serve them first, before anyone in the house eats.

4. 14

   Gift and blessing

   A chunri, bangles or a small gift, and dakshina. Then touch their feet; on this day they are the Devi.

5. 15

   Havan

   Families that do a havan do it on this day before the kanya puja, with the Durga Saptashati's Navarna mantra. If you have never done one, a small one with a pandit is better than a large one alone.

Dashami: closing

1. 16

   Final puja

   Morning puja as usual, then thank the Devi and ask her to return next year.

2. 17

   Distribute the barley

   Cut the sprouts. Give a few blades to each family member to keep in a purse or a book; offer some to the Devi and to the elders.

3. 18

   Visarjan

   The kalash water is poured at the root of a tulsi or another plant, never down a drain. The coconut is broken and shared as prasad or offered in running water. The clay pot is returned to the earth.

4. 19

   Break the fast

   Those who fasted the full nine days eat after the kanya puja on Navami or after the Dashami puja, starting with the prasad.

What usually goes wrong

• Setting the kalash at night or in the afternoon because the morning was missed. Use the Abhijit muhurat; if that is gone too, set it the next morning and count from there.
• An akhand jyoti left alone in an empty flat. Choose the daily diya instead.
• Buying nine of everything. One Devi, one kalash, one diya, done with attention, is the practice.
• Pouring the kalash water into the sink. It goes to a plant or to the ground.
• Fasting too hard. Someone who faints on Ashtami has not kept a better vrat than someone who ate fruit.

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