Navratri 2026

How India keeps Navratri

Gujarat: garba and dandiya

In Gujarat the nine nights are danced. Garba is danced in circles around the garbo, a clay pot pierced with holes and lit from inside, the lamp in it standing for the goddess and for life in the womb, garbha, which gives the dance its name. Dandiya raas is the stick dance, danced in pairs, and recalls the goddess fighting Mahishasura. Ahmedabad and Vadodara run grounds that hold tens of thousands a night, and the custom has gone with Gujaratis to Mumbai, London and New Jersey.

Bengal: Durga Puja

Bengal keeps the last five days as Durga Puja, the goddess returning to her parents' home with her children. It opens with Mahalaya on 10 October, when the radio recital of Mahishasura Mardini plays before dawn. The idol's eyes are painted in that week, and the puja proper runs from Shashthi on 17 October with the Bodhon, the awakening. Saptami begins with the Kolabou, a banana plant bathed and dressed as the goddess.

Ashtami on 19 October carries the Sandhi Puja and the anjali, and the evenings fill with dhunuchi naach, dancing with smoking clay censers. On Bijoya Dashami, Wednesday, 21 October 2026 by the Bengali almanac, married women smear sindoor on the goddess and on each other before the idols go to the river. Kolkata's Durga Puja is on UNESCO's list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2021.

The south: Golu, Saraswati Puja and Bathukamma

In Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, families set up the Golu or Bommai Kolu, an odd number of steps, usually five, seven or nine, crowded with dolls of gods, saints, village scenes and wedding processions, some handed down for generations. Women visit one another's Golu in the evenings and go home with turmeric, kumkum and sundal.

The last three days go to Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati. In Kerala, books and instruments are placed before Saraswati on Durgashtami and not touched until Dashami, when small children write their first letters in a tray of rice, the Vidyarambham. On Navami the south keeps Ayudha Puja, worshipping tools, vehicles and machines.

In Telangana the festival is Bathukamma: women stack seasonal flowers into a tall cone, sing and dance around it each evening, and on the last day set the stacks afloat on a lake or tank.

The north and the hills

In the north, Navratri is when the Ramlila is staged night by night, ending in Ravan Dahan on Dussehra, and when the shrines of the Devi fill: Vaishno Devi in Jammu, the Shaktipeeths, and the Mata temples of Himachal. Mysuru lights its palace for all ten days, and in the Kullu valley the village devtas set out for Dhalpur so they arrive by Vijayadashami, which is where the Kullu Dussehra story begins.

Devi temples to visit in Navratri

Navratri is when India goes to the goddess at her own seats, and many of the oldest are Shaktipeeths: places where, by the legend, parts of Sati's body fell to earth when Vishnu cut it apart to end Shiva's grief-stricken dance. Both Navratris bring fairs that run all nine days, so expect long queues on Ashtami.

Himachal Pradesh: the goddess in the hills

Himachal calls itself Devbhoomi, the land of the gods, and the lower hills of Bilaspur, Una and Kangra hold more great Devi shrines in a small area than anywhere else in the country.

Shri Naina Devi, Bilaspur. On a triangular hilltop about 1,219 metres up, looking down on the Gobind Sagar reservoir on one side and towards Anandpur Sahib on the other. It is a Shaktipeeth, the place where Sati's eyes, her naina, fell, and the goddess is worshipped in the form of a pair of eyes, with Kali on her left and Ganesha on her right. A local story adds a herdsman named Naina, who found a white cow pouring her milk over a stone that turned out to be the goddess. The Navratri melas of Chaitra and Ashwin and the Shravan Ashtami fair bring lakhs of pilgrims, many of them walking up from Punjab; a ropeway now runs to the top for those who cannot climb.

Chintpurni, Una. The Chhinnamastika Shaktipeeth, of the goddess who holds her own severed head, and the name says what pilgrims come for: Chintpurni, the one who takes away worries. Devotees tie a red thread at the shrine with a wish and come back to untie it once the wish is granted.

Jwalamukhi (Jwala Ji), Kangra. There is no idol. The goddess is a set of nine flames that burn out of the rock without fuel, named for nine goddesses including Mahakali, Annapurna, Chandi, Hinglaj, Vindhyavasini, Mahalakshmi, Saraswati, Ambika and Anji Devi. The temple keeps the story of Akbar, who is said to have tried to put the flames out and, failing, offered a gold canopy that turned into some other metal; it is still shown.

Brajeshwari (Vajreshwari) Devi, Kangra. The Shaktipeeth in Kangra town where Sati's left breast is said to have fallen. Its wealth drew Mahmud of Ghazni in the eleventh century; the Kangra earthquake of 1905 flattened it, and it was rebuilt by 1920.

Chamunda Devi, near Palampur. On the bank of the Baner river below the Dhauladhar, about 15 km from Dharamshala, where the goddess is worshipped as Chamunda, slayer of Chanda and Munda, beside Shiva as Nandikeshwar.

Bhima Kali, Sarahan. Far up the Sutlej valley, about 180 km beyond Shimla, the temple of the old Bushahr kings, built in the hill style of stone and timber. It is counted among the Shaktipeeths as the place where Sati's ear fell.

Closer to the plains, Tara Devi stands on a hilltop above Shimla and Bala Sundari at Trilokpur in Sirmaur holds its own Navratri fair, and in Manali the goddess of the Kullu royal house, Hidimba Devi, has the wooden temple of 1553 under the deodars; she is the one the whole Kullu Dussehra waits for.

The Nau Devi yatra

Pilgrims from Punjab, Haryana and Delhi have long made a single journey to nine of these goddesses, the Nau Devi or Saat Behna yatra, the goddesses being thought of as sisters: Naina Devi, Chintpurni, Jwalamukhi, Vajreshwari and Chamunda in Himachal, Vaishno Devi in the Trikuta hills of Jammu, Mansa Devi at Panchkula, Kalika at Kalka, and Shakumbhari near Saharanpur. Vaishno Devi, whose cave above Katra holds the three pindis of Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati, is counted the eldest sister.

Across India

• Kalkaji and Jhandewalan, Delhi. The two Devi temples Delhi queues at through Navratri, with fairs outside both.
• Kamakhya, Guwahati. On Nilachal hill, among the most important Shaktipeeths, and the centre of the tantric tradition.
• Kalighat and Dakshineswar, Kolkata. Kalighat is a Shaktipeeth of Kali; Dakshineswar is the temple where Ramakrishna served as priest.
• Vindhyavasini, Vindhyachal. Near Mirzapur on the Ganga, where pilgrims walk the trikona between Vindhyavasini, Kali Khoh and Ashtabhuja.
• Sharda Devi, Maihar. On a hilltop in Madhya Pradesh reached by more than a thousand steps or a ropeway.
• Ambaji, Gujarat. A Shaktipeeth in Banaskantha where there is no idol; the Shri Yantra is worshipped instead.
• Tulja Bhavani, Tuljapur, and Mahalakshmi, Kolhapur. Tulja Bhavani was the family goddess of Shivaji; Kolhapur's Mahalakshmi is one of Maharashtra's Shaktipeeths.
• Chamundeshwari, Mysuru. On Chamundi Hill above the city, the goddess carried in the Jamboo Savari on Dasara.
• Kanaka Durga, Vijayawada. On Indrakeeladri hill over the Krishna, with one of the biggest Dasara festivals in the south.
• Karni Mata, Deshnok. Near Bikaner, famous for the thousands of rats, the kabbas, that live in the temple and are fed as the goddess's own.