Mahā Navamī (Āyudha Pūjā)

When it falls

The ninth lunar day of the bright half of Āśvayuja, the last night of Navarātri, the day before Vijaya Daśamī.

The Phala almanac gives the exact day for your own city; the lunar and solar rules above are what it computes from.

The story

The ninth night ends the fight: Mahiṣāsura falls, and the goddess is Mahiṣāsuramardinī from that moment.

In the south the reading is different and the day belongs to what people work with. The Pāṇḍavas are said to have hidden their weapons in a śamī tree through their year in disguise and taken them back on this day, so the tools of a trade are laid down and worshipped rather than used.

Sarasvatī is invoked on the same day, which is why books are stacked before the lamp and not opened until tomorrow.

How the day is kept

• Tools, instruments, machines, computers and vehicles are cleaned, marked with turmeric and vermilion, garlanded, and left idle for the day.
• Books and musical instruments are placed before the goddess; children's slates are put down and picked up again on Vijaya Daśamī.
• Buses, lorries and autorickshaws across the south carry banana stems, limes under the wheels and marigold across the bonnet.
• In Bengal the day is Mahānavamī, with the last of the great ārātis and the day's feast before the immersion tomorrow.

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