Navratri Ghatasthapana: Method, Muhurat and the Nine Days

Navratri comes four times a year, though the Chaitra and Ashwin observances are the ones widely kept. Over these nine days the nine forms of Durga are worshipped.

The foundation of the whole observance is Ghatasthapana. Done properly, the nine days of practice rest on solid ground.

The meaning

Ghata means pot and sthapana means installation. The kalash is understood as a representation of the universe.

The texts say that Vishnu resides at the mouth of the kalash, Rudra at its neck and Brahma at its base, with the mother powers in its centre.

Installing the kalash is therefore an act of invocation rather than a formality.

The muhurat

Ghatasthapana is performed on Pratipada, and the morning is the preferred time.

Two conditions are excluded. The first is Chitra nakshatra and the second is Vaidhriti yoga. If either falls during the morning of Pratipada, the installation is moved to Abhijit muhurat, the period of roughly forty eight minutes around midday.

An important rule is that Ghatasthapana is never performed at night.

Materials

A wide clay vessel, clean soil, barley seed, a clay or copper kalash, pure water, Ganga water, mango or ashoka leaves, a coconut, red cloth, mauli, rice, a betel nut, a coin, a piece of turmeric, durva grass, the five gems, roli, sandalwood, flowers, incense, a lamp, offering food, and an image of the goddess.

The sequence

Bathe, put on clean clothes and purify the place with Ganga water. The north east corner is preferred.

Spread clean soil in the wide vessel, sow the barley and sprinkle a little water.

Purify the kalash and fill it with water, adding Ganga water, the betel nut, coin, rice, durva, turmeric and the five gems.

Place five or seven mango leaves at the mouth with their tips outward.

Wrap the coconut in red cloth, tie mauli around it and set it on the kalash, with its face upward or towards you.

Set the kalash in the centre of the barley vessel.

Invoke Ganesha, then Varuna in the kalash, and then Durga.

Take the sankalpa for the nine days of observance. Light the lamp, and where an unbroken flame is intended, make that resolve explicitly.

The nine days

The first day is Shailaputri, the second Brahmacharini, the third Chandraghanta, the fourth Kushmanda, the fifth Skandamata, the sixth Katyayani, the seventh Kalaratri, the eighth Mahagauri and the ninth Siddhidatri.

On the eighth or ninth day the worship of young girls is performed, with nine girls and one boy fed and given gifts.

Reading the barley

The barley grown during Navratri is treated as an indication.

Dense, green and upright growth is taken as a sign of prosperity. Weak or yellow growth is read as a call for greater care and practice.

Observances

Keep to simple food through the nine days, avoiding garlic, onion and meat.

If an unbroken lamp has been vowed, it should not be allowed to go out and the house should not be left empty.

The kalash should remain undisturbed for the nine days.

Sprinkle a little water on the barley each day.

On the tenth day the immersion is performed. The barley is placed in a river or clean water, and some is kept in the safe or the grain store.

For families abroad

The Ghatasthapana muhurat should be computed from local sunrise and a local panchang. A muhurat calculated for India does not apply elsewhere.

Where materials are unavailable, local substitutes are accepted. Where mango leaves cannot be found, ashoka or another auspicious leaf may be used. What matters is the resolve and the observance.