The nine kanyas as nine Durgas · 60–90 minutes including the meal
Kanya pujan (Ashtami/Navami)
Navratri Ashtami/Navami (19 Oct 2026; 7–9 Oct 2027)
In the simplest words
On Ashtami or Navami, little girls become the goddess — feet washed, food served first, small gifts given — because Devi lives in them.
Navratri's most demanding rite needs no priest — it needs humility: nine girls received as the goddess herself, feet washed by the household's own hands, fed first and best, sent home honoured. The theology is a mirror; how the kanyas are treated is how the Devi was.
Samagri — what you need
0/5 gatheredThe vidhi, step by step
0/6 doneInvite the day before
Kanyas are requested, not summoned — homes go and ask, and a yes is received as the Devi's own.
Receive & wash the feet
At the door with akshat-pushpa; each kanya's feet washed and dried by the family, seated on clean asans.
या देवी सर्वभूतेषु शक्तिरूपेण संस्थिता । नमस्तस्यै नमस्तस्यै नमस्तस्यै नमो नमः ॥
Yā devī sarva-bhūteṣu śakti-rūpeṇa saṁsthitā, namas tasyai namas tasyai namas tasyai namo namaḥ
To the Goddess who abides in all beings in the form of power — salutations to her, salutations to her, salutations to her, again and again. The litany's grammar is its teaching: she is not summoned from elsewhere — she is found already standing (samsthita) in every being, as power itself. The triple salute is for a presence discovered in creatures one had merely looked at until now.
Source: Durgā Saptaśatī, chapter 5 (Devī Māhātmya)
Moli, tilak, chunari
Moli on the wrist, roli-akshat tilak, the chunari draped — the batuk honoured alongside as Bhairav.
ॐ ऐं ह्रीं क्लीं चामुण्डायै विच्चे
Oṁ Aiṁ Hrīṁ Klīṁ Cāmuṇḍāyai Vicce
Om — Aim, Hreem, Kleem — salutations to Chamunda. Nine syllables hold the Mother's three faces at once: great wisdom, great energy, great transformation. Vicce has no single agreed translation — commentators offer 'I bow' or 'I take refuge' among others — and recitation leaves it as it is. The navarna does not petition for one thing — it invokes the whole force by which anything is overcome.
Source: Durgā Saptaśatī (Devī Māhātmya) recitation tradition
The bhog, served kneeling
Puri-chana-halwa served by the eldest with their own hands; the kanyas eat first, unhurried, asked twice.
Dakshina & pranam
Gift and dakshina in each palm; then the whole household bows — adults to children — and takes their blessing.
ॐ दुं दुर्गायै नमः
Oṁ Duṁ Durgāyai Namaḥ
Om — Dum — salutations to Durga. Her name means the fortress hard to assail; Dum is that protection struck as a single drum-beat of sound. The mantra is itself what it grants: something to hold when afraid. The reciter asks not for a world without danger but for the Mother's own quality inside it — unassailability of heart.
Source: Traditional bīja-mantra of the Devi worship corpus
See them home
Walked to the door (or home) as honoured guests. The rite's afterlife: a home that fed girls as goddesses must keep treating them so.
Note: Ashtami or Navami is family custom; 2026's compressed tithis mean either day serves (see the Durga Ashtami entry). This is the northern kanjak form; Bengal's Kumari Puja honours one girl on Ashtami, as Belur Math does. Numbers flex — even one kanya honoured with full heart is the complete rite, say the elders.