Dussehra and Navratri 2026: Dates, Nine Day Calendar, Songs

Somewhere before dawn on the first morning, a clay pot is filled with earth, a handful of barley is pressed in, and a lamp is lit that no one will let go out for nine days. That small flame is where Navratri begins, and it ends ten days later under a sky full of smoke, drums and cheering.

Dussehra and Navratri 2026 arrive late this year. The first lamp of the nine nights is lit on Sunday, 11 October 2026, and the tenth day, Dussehra, lands on Tuesday, 20 October 2026. Between those two dates lie nine nights of lamps, drums, dolls, flowers and fasting, the songs that fill them in every corner of the country, the two great stories behind the festival, the folk tales that grandmothers still tell, and nine days that move from first light to the small hours.

01The 2026 Calendar, Tithi by Tithi

Navratri follows the moon, not the calendar on the wall. It begins on Pratipada, the first lunar day of the bright fortnight of Ashwin, and climbs through Dwitiya, Tritiya and the rest until Navami. Because a tithi is measured from moonrise to moonrise, it rarely starts at midnight and ends at the next midnight. A tithi can begin in the evening of one date and finish before noon on the next, which is why two neighbouring dates can both claim the same rite.

That is exactly what happens in 2026. The Pratipada tithi begins late on the night of 10 October and holds through the evening of 11 October, so the kalash is installed on Sunday morning. Ashtami and Navami sit so close together that the Ashtami tithi stretches from Sunday evening into the late morning of Monday, and Navami follows straight after it. Families in different cities therefore observe Ashtami on different dates, according to their local panchang. Follow the one your family priest or temple publishes, and use the table above as the festival's frame.

The year also runs late. An extra lunar month was added to this year's calendar, and it pushed every autumn festival roughly a month beyond where it sat last year. That is why the pandals are rising and the Ramlila stages are being built in the second week of October, with the first chill of the season already in the evening air.

A tithi is a slice of the moon's journey, not a slice of the clock. That one idea explains nearly every confusion about festival dates.

Kalash Sthapana: Ghatasthapana Muhurat, 11 October 2026

The kalash is best installed in the morning window, roughly from 6:20 AM to 10:15 AM. If that window is missed, the Abhijit muhurat, around 11:45 AM to 12:30 PM, is the accepted fallback. These timings move a few minutes from one city to the next, so confirm with your local panchang.

Vijay Muhurat: The Victory Hour of 20 October

Dussehra turns on one afternoon watch called the Aparahna, and on a short victory window inside it called the Vijay Muhurat. The Dashami tithi begins at about 12:50 PM on 20 October and runs into the afternoon of 21 October, so the day belongs to Tuesday.

Panchangs differ by a few minutes, and every city shifts with its own sunrise and sunset. Readers abroad keep the same date as India, but should look up the Aparahna for their own city and treat the weekend before as the day many community Ravan Dahan events are held.

Milestone Dates at a Glance

• Ghatasthapana: The clay vessel, barley seeds, water and the coconut topped kalash are set in the puja corner. Everything that follows grows from this moment.
• Sandhi Puja: The short, intense hour at the junction of Ashtami and Navami, when the goddess is worshipped with 108 lamps.
• Kanya Pujan: On Ashtami or Navami, nine young girls are welcomed as living forms of the goddess, their feet washed and a meal of puri, halwa and black chana served.
• Ayudha Puja: Tools, books, vehicles and instruments are cleaned, garlanded and rested for a day, most visibly across the south.
• Vijayadashami: Ravan Dahan at dusk, Shami Puja in the afternoon, the immersion of Durga in Bengal and Assam.

When Regional Calendars Disagree

Three places read the same moon a little differently. Bengal counts its Durga Puja days from Shashthi, and in 2026 that count runs one day behind the all India Navratri count, so Maha Ashtami is on 19 October, Maha Navami on 20 October and Bijoya Dashami on 21 October. Mysuru follows its own local panchang, so its Vijayadashami and the great Jamboo Savari procession fall on Wednesday, 21 October. Kerala marks Vidyarambham, the day children write their first letters, on 21 October. None of them is wrong. They are reading the Dashami tithi, which begins at midday on 20 October and runs past midnight into 21 October.

Mata Ki Sawari: On Which Beast Does the Goddess Travel?

Tradition says the goddess arrives and departs each year on a different mount, and that the day of the week decides which. When Navratri begins on a Sunday or a Monday she arrives on an elephant, a sign of rain, a good harvest and plenty. A Tuesday or Saturday brings her on a horse, Thursday or Friday on a palanquin, and Wednesday on a boat. Her departure follows the weekday on which the festival ends. In 2026 she arrives on an elephant, since the nine nights begin on a Sunday, and, as the festival closes on a Tuesday, she departs on a horse. Families and astrologers read the pair of mounts as a forecast for the year ahead, and the elephant of arrival is greeted with special joy.

Parana and Visarjan: Closing the Fast and Letting the Goddess Go

Those who fast through all nine days break the fast, a rite called Navratri Parana, on Tuesday, 20 October, after the Navami havan and the morning puja, with a small prasad of sweet halwa and fruit before a full meal. In Bengal and Assam, the immersion, called Visarjan or Bhasan, takes place on Bijoya Dashami, 21 October, with the exact hour fixed by each committee. In many north Indian homes, the kalash is removed on Vijayadashami and the sprouted barley is placed in running water or under a tree.

02Nine Days, Nine Goddesses, Nine Colours

The colours are a gift for photographers and for anyone who loves a crowd. On Day 3 the temple steps turn red with dupattas and sarees, on Day 5 the whole procession glows yellow, and on Day 8 the purple stretches from the courtyard to the street. If you plan to photograph the festival, shoot each day for its colour and the pictures will arrange themselves into a nine part story.

The Nine Forms and the Stories They Carry

Each of the nine forms carries a tale, and in many homes the grandmother tells it on the evening of its day.

Ashtami's Eight Mothers

On Ashtami, especially in Bengal, the goddess is worshipped together with the eight Mother forces who stand at her side, Brahmani, Maheshwari, Kaumari, Vaishnavi, Varahi, Narasimhi, Indrani and Chamunda, and with the sixty four Yoginis who dance around her. It is the night when the goddess is not alone but surrounded by every power in the universe.

03Nine Days and Nights, as They Unfold

The last night of Navratri is bright and loud and also a little sad. Everyone in the lane knows the goddess is about to leave.

04The Songs of Navratri and Dussehra

Ask anyone what Navratri sounds like and you will get a different answer in every state. The festival is carried as much by music as by ritual, and each region has its own voice. Some of it comes from the temple, some from the village square, and some from a radio switched on in the dark before dawn.

Gujarat: Garba and Dandiya

Garba begins as a circle around a lamp or an image of the goddess, with claps in a rolling three beat pattern that quickens as the night deepens. The word itself comes from garbha, the womb, and the clay pot with a lamp inside, called the garbo, is the heart of the circle. Dandiya follows with painted sticks clicking in pairs, partners spinning and ducking and trading places. Folk songs praising Amba and Kali are sung in call and response, and in recent decades Bollywood has added its own garba numbers to the playlist. The best garba nights last past midnight, and the sound of a dhol drifts through every street.

West Bengal and Assam: Dhak Bajche

In Bengal and Assam, the festival has its own soundtrack. It begins before dawn on Mahalaya, when the old radio recital of the goddess's story, voiced in Sanskrit verse by the legendary Birendra Krishna Bhadra, is played in homes across the region, and millions rise in the dark to hear it. The days that follow belong to the dhak, the dhunuchi dance, Shyama Sangeet and Agomoni songs that welcome the goddess home as a daughter returning to her parents. The farewell songs of Bijoya are tender and bittersweet, sung as the immersion procession winds toward the water.

Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh: Dasara Devotion

In the south the festival is sung in Sanskrit and the regional languages. The great hymn to the goddess as the slayer of Mahishasura, Aigiri Nandini, is chanted in temples and homes alike, its rolling verses building in a long, powerful rhythm. In Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, women sing for the Bommai Golu, the tiered display of dolls that fills living rooms with colour for nine evenings, and guests are invited in with sweets and a song. A guest who arrives is expected to sing a line or two in return, and the hostess presses a small bag of sundal, a warm salted chickpea snack, and a gift of kumkum and turmeric into every hand.

Uttar Pradesh and the Heartland: Ramlila Music

Across the Hindi belt the tenth day is accompanied by Ram bhajans and the chanted Ramcharitmanas. Ramlila troupes recite the verses in a steady, rolling cadence, and the evening performance builds to the moment when Rama draws his bow. Between scenes, the crowd sings the songs of Rama's return, which are old, familiar and sung with real feeling. The tradition of Ramlila is so old and so alive that it has been recognised by UNESCO as part of the intangible heritage of humanity.

The Great Aartis and Stotras, and What They Mean

• Jai Ambe Gauri: The aarti sung at the end of nearly every Navratri puja. Its verses salute the goddess in her many forms, mother, protector and bestower of boons, and the congregation sings along while lamps are circled before her. It is usually sung at dusk, on every night of the festival.
• Durga Chalisa: Forty verses of praise that recount her power and compassion, recited on any day but especially on Ashtami. Many families read it aloud together at sunrise.
• Aigiri Nandini: The Mahishasura Mardini stotram, a hymn that celebrates the goddess as the destroyer of the buffalo demon. Its rhythm is forceful and exultant, and it is a staple of Dasara in the south and of Mahalaya and Ashtami elsewhere.
• Ya Devi Sarva Bhuteshu: A verse from the Devi Mahatmya that greets the goddess as present in every being, as strength, as memory, as peace. It is chanted slowly, in a rising, rolling cadence, and is often the heart of a Navratri evening.

A Night in Songs, from Dusk to Dawn

A good Navratri night has its own order of music. At dusk the conch and the bell open the evening aarti, and the first hymns of Jai Ambe Gauri roll through the courtyard. After dinner the dhol takes over, and the slow, rhythmic garba tunes of the early evening gradually lift into the fast, driving beats of the late night. In the pandals of the east, the dhak thunders in a rhythm that every Bengali heart knows by heart, and the dhunuchi smoke curls around the drummers. In the plains of Punjab, a Jagrata moves from soft bhents at midnight to a thundering Jai Mata Di at three in the morning. And in Telangana, women sing Uyyalo around a mound of flowers in the glow of dusk. Each is the voice of the same goddess, speaking in a different tongue.

Agomoni and Bijoya: Songs of Arrival and Farewell

Bengal keeps two special families of songs for the beginning and the end. Agomoni songs sing of the goddess's arrival, written in the voice of a mother, Menaka, who has waited all year for her daughter Uma to come home from the mountain and who cannot sleep with joy. Bijoya songs belong to the last day, and their mood is a mother's grief as she must again let her daughter go. The most beloved of these songs have been sung for generations, and a Bengali listener can feel tears gather at the first line. This is why the last evening of Durga Puja, for all its drums, has a note of tenderness that is hard to put into words.

05Two Stories, One Tenth Day

Rama and Ravana

In the north and the heartland, Dussehra is the day Rama defeated Ravana. The ten headed king of Lanka had carried off Sita, and after a long war that ran through jungles, bridges of stone and a burning city, Rama drew his bow on the tenth day and ended the battle. The effigies burning at dusk are Ravana and his brother and son, and the fire is a reminder that pride, however mighty, falls in the end.

Durga and Mahishasura

In the east and the south, the same day belongs to the goddess. Mahishasura, a buffalo demon who had received a boon that no man could kill him, laid waste to heaven and earth. The gods, powerless, gathered their energies into a single blaze, and from that blaze Durga rose, riding a lion, armed with a weapon from each god. She fought him for nine nights, and on the tenth she struck him down. The nine nights of Navratri are that battle, and Vijayadashami is the morning after.

The two stories do not compete. In some places Rama is said to have invoked the goddess before his final battle, and in others she is said to have blessed him. Together they say one thing: that light wins, and that the winning takes nine nights of effort.

The Three Battles of the Devi Mahatmya

The great scripture of the goddess, the Devi Mahatmya, tells her story in three episodes. In the first, the goddess rises from the cosmic sleep of Vishnu to slay the demons Madhu and Kaitabha, who threatened to destroy the creator Brahma. In the second, the gods combine their fires into a single blaze, and from it comes Durga, who defeats Mahishasura after a long battle in which the demon changes shape again and again, from buffalo to lion to elephant to a man who rises from the body of the buffalo. In the third, she faces the brothers Shumbha and Nishumbha, and from her brow springs the fierce form of Chamunda, who joins the battle. Raktabeeja, a demon whose every drop of blood becomes another demon, nearly overwhelms the gods until Kali drinks the blood before it can touch the ground. The three episodes are read aloud in the nights of Navratri, and many families complete the recital by the ninth day.

The Ten Heads and the Secret of the Navel

The ten heads of Ravana are read in many homes as ten vices, among them lust, anger, greed, attachment, pride, envy and ego. The grandmothers say that each burning effigy is a reminder to look at one's own heads. The tale of his death has its own secret. For all of Rama's arrows, Ravana could not be killed, because each time a head was cut, another grew. It was his brother Vibhishana, standing at Rama's side, who revealed that the source of Ravana's life lay in a store of nectar in his navel. Rama fixed a single arrow to his bow, released it, and the king of Lanka fell. This is why, in so many places, the final arrow of the Ramlila is aimed at the belly of the effigy.

Akal Bodhan: The Lotus and the Eye

Bengal tells the meeting of the two stories in its own way. Durga is traditionally worshipped in spring, so an autumn worship is called Akal Bodhan, the untimely awakening. The tale goes that on the eve of the great battle, Rama, uncertain of victory, woke the goddess out of season and promised her one hundred and eight blue lotuses. Hanuman raced across the land to gather them. When the last lotus was offered, one was found missing. Rama, who was known as Kamalanayan, the lotus eyed, raised an arrow to pluck out his own eye and place it at her feet. The goddess appeared before the arrow could fall, stayed his hand and blessed him. That is why, so the grandmothers say, the autumn puja is the great one, and why the days of her worship in Bengal end in a victory of their own.

The Shami Tree and the Hidden Weapons

A third story hangs on the humble shami tree. In the great epic, the five Pandava brothers spent a final year of exile in disguise, and before they entered the kingdom of Virata they hid their weapons in the branches of a shami tree. On Vijayadashami they took them down again and marched to war. In another telling, Rama himself bowed before a shami tree before he crossed to Lanka. This is why, on the tenth afternoon, families touch the tree, offer its leaves to elders and exchange them as a token of victory, and why in many places cutting a shami on this day is thought to bring ill luck.

Three stories, one tree, one goddess and a hundred and eight lotuses. Every region keeps the one it loves best and borrows from the rest.

Ravana, the Scholar

Not every village tells the story with Ravana as the villain alone. He was a master of the Vedas and of music, a devotee who is said to have composed the Shiva Tandava Stotram, and a king who ruled a golden city. In Kanpur, the old Dashanan temple, dedicated to the ten headed one, opens its doors only once a year, on Vijayadashami morning, when devotees come for a single day of worship before the doors close again for another twelve months. In Baijnath in Himachal Pradesh, local tradition holds that Ravana's penance to Shiva was accepted here, and the town keeps away from burning his image. The festival leaves room for both the victor and the vanquished.

06State by State: How India Keeps the Nine Nights

No two states keep this festival the same way. One lights a lamp and dances around it, another builds a doll city on wooden steps, another floats a tower of flowers on a lake. The table gives the whole map at a glance, and each state below has its own stories, songs and kitchen.

1. Assam, Tripura and West BengalDurga Puja: the daughter comes home

   In these three states the festival has a different name and a different heartbeat. It is Durga Puja, Sharodotsab, Pujo, and above all a homecoming. For four nights the goddess is a married daughter visiting her parents' house, and she arrives with her four children, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesha and Kartik, all painted on a single frame behind her. The whole society of a neighbourhood becomes her family for the week, cooking for her, dressing her and dancing for her.

   Kumartuli: Where the Goddess Is Made

   Weeks before the festival, the potters' quarter of Kolkata called Kumartuli turns into a dream workshop. Straw and jute are tied into skeletons, riverbank clay is pressed over them, and the faces of the goddess are shaped by hands that learned the craft from fathers and grandfathers. Tradition asks for a handful of soil from the threshold of a woman shunned by society to be mixed into the clay, as a quiet statement that the goddess belongs to those who stand outside the temple gate too. The eyes are painted last, on Mahalaya, in a ritual called Chokkhu Daan. The artist works with great stillness, and the idol seems to come alive as the pupils are drawn in.

   Baro Yari: The Twelve Friends Who Began the Public Puja

   Durga Puja was once a rich family's affair, held in private courtyards. The story goes that in 1790, in the town of Guptipara, twelve friends could not afford a puja of their own and decided to collect money from the whole community. They called it Baro Yari, the twelve friends' puja, and the idea of the community puja was born. Every neighbourhood committee in Bengal today, from a village crossing to a big city lane, is an heir to that small gathering of friends.

   Pandal Hopping: A Walk Through a City of Lights

   The great pandals of Kolkata are built as temporary architecture, copies of palaces, forests, lanterns and imaginary worlds, made of bamboo, cloth, clay, jute and thousands of bulbs. Families go out in the evening in their new clothes and join slow queues that curl around whole blocks, stopping to eat, to meet old friends and to take photographs. The festival in Kolkata has been recognised by UNESCO as an intangible cultural heritage, and a pandal hopping night is its living proof. After the immersion, a grand carnival of tableaux rolls down the Red Road.

   Dhunuchi Naach: Dancing With Fire and Smoke

   On Ashtami and Navami evenings the aarti turns into a performance. Dancers hold earthen burners called dhunuchi, filled with glowing coconut husk and sprinkled with incense, and sway to the beat of the dhak. Some balance two or three burners at once, one in each hand and one between the teeth, spinning slowly while the smoke makes a cloud above them. The drummers, the dhakis, carry long plumes of white kaash grass on their drums, and their thunder is the sound people recall when they remember Puja.

   Mahalaya, and the Tale of Karna's Gold

   Mahalaya begins the season. In Bengal it is a day to remember the ancestors, and a folk tale explains why. When the warrior Karna, famed for his generosity, died and reached heaven, his meal was served as heaps of gold. He had given gold in charity all his life, but never food, and so he found nothing to eat. The gods let him return to the earth for a fortnight to offer food and water to his forefathers, and that fortnight became Pitru Paksha, which ends on Mahalaya. At dawn, millions listen to the old radio recital of the goddess's story, voiced by Birendra Krishna Bhadra, with music by Pankaj Kumar Mullick, a broadcast that many have heard every year of their lives.

   Bodhon to Bijoya: Day by Day in 2026

   Day	Date	What happens
   Mahalaya	Saturday, 10 October	Radio recital before dawn, Chokkhu Daan, the goddess is called to the earth
   Maha Shashthi	Friday evening, 16 October, into Saturday, 17 October	Bodhon, the awakening of the goddess, and the unveiling of her face
   Maha Saptami	Sunday, 18 October	Dawn bath of the Kola Bou and the main puja begins
   Maha Ashtami	Monday, 19 October	Pushpanjali, Kumari Puja and Sandhi Puja in the late morning
   Maha Navami	Tuesday, 20 October	Navami Homa and the evening aarti with dhunuchi dancing
   Bijoya Dashami	Wednesday, 21 October	Boron, Sindoor Khela, the immersion and the exchange of Bijoya greetings

   Some local calendars place Shashthi on 16 October, and the Sandhi Puja window is commonly given as the late morning of 19 October, close to when Ashtami ends. Your neighbourhood committee publishes the exact hour.

   Kola Bou: The Banana Bride of Maha Saptami

   In Bengal, a quiet ritual takes place at dawn on Maha Saptami, before the goddess is fully unveiled. The Navapatrika, often called Kola Bou, is a bundle of nine plants, banana, turmeric, paddy, wood apple, pomegranate, ashoka and others, tied together and draped in a red bordered saree. A priest leads it, with conch shells and dhak drumming, down to the river for a bath, and it is carried back to the pandal like a bride entering her new home, her face veiled and her saree pulled low over her head. Each plant in the bundle is a vital herb or crop of the season after the monsoon, from grain to medicine to fruit, so the ritual is, at heart, a thanksgiving for everything the land has given. It is also a quiet reminder that the goddess lives as much in a field as in a temple.

   Kumari Puja: The Child on the Throne

   Kanya Pujan is a household custom. Kumari Puja is its grander, stricter cousin, most famous at Belur Math in Bengal and in the tantric temples. A young girl is bathed, dressed in new clothes, seated on a decorated seat and worshipped as the goddess herself, with flowers, lamps and food laid at her feet. The old texts of the Devi tradition name the girl by her age, with each year of childhood standing for a distinct form of the goddess. What strikes every onlooker is the reversal. A child of any family, rich or poor, any caste or background, becomes for that hour the sovereign of the universe, and grown men bow to her. The festival that celebrates female power makes the point in the plainest way possible.

   Sindoor Khela: The Goddess Who Is Not Yet Gone

   On the tenth morning in Bengal and Assam, before the immersion, the goddess is offered sweets, betel leaf and vermilion on her feet and forehead, and a little is pressed to her cheek. The married women of the pandal then turn to each other and smear red sindoor across foreheads and cheeks, laughing and sometimes crying. It is a farewell to a daughter who spent four days at her parents' house and must now return to her husband Shiva on Mount Kailash. Mothers know that feeling well, and the red streaked faces, the shared sweets and the tight hugs make it one of the most moving moments of the entire festival. The goddess leaves, but the women hold on to each other.

   Assam: Nilachal Hill and the Neighbourhood Pandal

   In Guwahati, the festival belongs to the neighbourhood committees and to the old hill of Nilachal, where the Kamakhya temple, one of the great seats of the goddess, sees heavy crowds through these days. Assamese Durga Puja keeps the Bengali rhythm of Bodhon, Anjali and Visarjan, but wears an Assamese face, with bhog served on banana leaf, the dhaak and dhol of the region, and women dressed in the golden mekhela chador. The immersion happens on the banks of the Brahmaputra, and the river at dusk, lit by lamps and floating flowers, is one of the finest sights of the festival.

   Tripura: Royal Courtyards and a Shakti Peeth

   Tripura keeps the Bengali Durga Puja in the lanes of Agartala and in old royal households, and the Tripura Sundari temple in Udaipur, one of the 51 Shakti Peeths, draws devotees from every corner of the state during Navratri. The goddess leaves, as in Bengal, on Dashami, carried to the water to the sound of drums.

   On the Plate: Bhog, Luchi and the Navami Feast

   No Durga Puja is complete without bhog, the shared meal that is first offered to the goddess. A typical plate has khichuri, a golden rice and lentil dish, with labra, a mixed vegetable curry, begun bhaja, slices of brinjal fried in batter, tomato chutney and payesh, a rice pudding with jaggery. On Ashtami, many families hold the fast until Anjali is offered and then sit to luchi, soft puffed breads, with alur dom or cholar dal. On Navami afternoon, Bengali homes celebrate with a meat curry, usually kosha mangsho, cooked slowly over low heat. Pandal lanes fill with the smell of phuchka, ghugni, egg rolls and kathi rolls, and on Bijoya the table sets itself with nimki, narkel naru, ghugni and sandesh for the friends who come to touch the feet of the elders.

   Shubho Bijoya: The Sweetest Goodbye

   On the last day the greeting is Shubho Bijoya, and visitors go from house to house touching the feet of elders and eating sandesh, a custom called Bijoya Sammilani. Old quarrels are forgiven over a plate of nimki, and young cousins bow to grandparents who bless them with a hand on the head. The festival ends not with a bang but with a thousand small embraces.

   In Bengal the goddess is not a distant deity. She is a daughter who comes home hungry, and the whole city cooks for her.

2. Andhra Pradesh and Tamil NaduGolu and Kolu: a city of dolls

   In the Tamil and Telugu homes of the south, the festival is a house show. A shelf of tiered steps is set up in the main room, covered in cloth, and dolls of gods, scholars, farmers, weddings, markets and animals are arranged in rows. The steps are always laid in odd numbers, five, seven, nine or eleven, and the topmost step holds the gods. Bommai Golu and Kolu are among the most beloved of all festival customs, because they turn every house into a miniature museum and every guest into a visitor.

   Marapachi Bommai and the Heirloom Dolls

   The first dolls on the display are often a pair of wooden figures called Marapachi Bommai, dressed as a bride and groom and handed to a young woman at her wedding by her mother. Each year the pair is dressed again, and the grandmother's dolls stand beside the grandchildren's, so the steps hold a family's whole history. Many households add a new scene every year, a village, a temple festival, a school, a cricket match, a city street, and the best displays tell a story that changes with the season.

   Thamboolam and the Evening Visit

   Each evening, women invite neighbours and friends to see the Golu. A guest is received with turmeric, kumkum and a thamboolam bag of betel leaves, areca nut, a coconut, flowers and a small gift. The hostess asks her visitors to sing, and a shy child will be coaxed to recite a verse. On the final day, in a tender closing ritual, one doll is laid on its side as if put to sleep, and the display is slowly dismantled over the days after Vijayadashami.

   Sundal for Nine Evenings

   Every evening has its own sundal, a warm snack of boiled lentils or legumes tempered with mustard seeds, curry leaves and fresh coconut. Chickpea, peanut, green gram, black eyed pea, white pea and kidney bean all take turns, and neighbours quietly compete over whose is the most fragrant. The plate is joined by sweet pongal, tamarind rice, curd rice and sesame sweets, and on Vijayadashami the family eats a feast that closes the cycle.

   Kulasai: A Dasara Unlike Any Other

   On the southern coast of Tamil Nadu, in the small town of Kulasekarapattinam, the Mutharamman temple hosts a ten day Dasara that draws crowds from across the country. Devotees take vows weeks in advance and dress as gods and goddesses, as Kali with a tongue of red cloth, as Murugan, as monkeys and soldiers, and as ordinary people in the guise of a promise to the goddess. They go door to door collecting offerings, and on the night of Vijayadashami, on the beach, the victory over the buffalo demon is enacted at midnight. The effect of a hundred thousand costumed pilgrims on a dark seashore is unforgettable.

   Vijayawada: The Goddess on the Hill

   In Andhra Pradesh, the Kanaka Durga temple on the Indrakeeladri hill above Vijayawada is the centre of the festival. Each day the goddess is adorned as a different form, among them Bala Tripura Sundari, Annapurna, Gayatri, Saraswati and Mahishasuramardini, and the lines of devotees climb the hill by the thousand. On Vijayadashami evening, a decorated boat carries the deities on the Krishna river in the Teppotsavam, with lamps reflected in the dark water. The prasadam of the season is pulihora, tamarind rice, with daddojanam, curd rice, sweet chakkara pongal and ariselu.

   On the tenth day, the Ayudha Puja of the south brings the workshop into the festival, and Vijayadashami is the day children begin their first lessons, a thread that links Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh with Kerala and Karnataka.

3. Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar PradeshRamlila and Kanya Pujan: the story told in the open air

   Ramlila stages tell the whole Ramayana across ten evenings, and on the last night giant effigies burn in open fields. Across this belt, the festival is about a story so familiar that the audience knows every verse, and still gasps when the arrow is drawn. Boys with painted faces play Rama, Lakshmana and Hanuman, a villager in a golden crown plays Ravana, and every night ends with the lamp being carried back to the temple.

   Ramnagar: A Month Long Play Across a Town

   The most famous of all is the Ramlila of Ramnagar, across the river from Varanasi. It runs for around a month, and instead of being staged on one platform, it unfolds across the whole town, with different parts of it serving as Ayodhya, the forest, the ocean shore and Lanka. The audience walks from scene to scene with the actors, carrying torches and cushions, and the old Maharaja of Benares traditionally arrives to watch. In the old days there was no electricity and no microphone, and the verses carried through the night air on trained voices.

   Bharat Milap: The Meeting of the Brothers

   The day after Dussehra in Varanasi belongs to Bharat Milap, the tender moment when Rama returns from exile and meets his brother Bharat. At the famed Nati Imli ground, a crowd of tens of thousands waits in the dusk. As the chariot of Rama arrives and the brothers embrace, the crowd goes silent, and then bursts into a roar. The chariot is then carried on the shoulders of local men in a custom that has been repeated for centuries.

   Delhi and Beyond: Ramlila at the Fort

   In Delhi, the grounds near the Red Fort and Ramlila Maidan hold large community stagings, with effigies as tall as houses, and Bengali neighbourhoods such as Chittaranjan Park hold their own full Durga Puja. In Bihar, Patna hosts its main Ravan Vadh at the big maidan, and in Jharkhand, Ranchi and Jamshedpur have large Bengali communities who keep pandal circuits much as Kolkata does. The streets glow in the evening and the effigies are filled with fireworks.

   Nav Durga: Nine Temples in Nine Days

   In Varanasi, devout visitors follow the Nav Durga Darshan, visiting nine different temples of the goddess in nine days, with the ancient Durga Kund temple among them. Another great pilgrimage is to Vindhyachal near Mirzapur, where lines of devotees wait through the night during Navratri to see the goddess Vindhyavasini.

   Kanya Pujan: Nine Girls, Nine Goddesses

   On Ashtami or Navami, households across this belt invite nine young girls to their homes. Each child is welcomed like a goddess, her feet washed, her forehead marked with a tilak and a red thread tied on her wrist. A meal of puri, halwa and black chana is placed in her hands, and the family gives her a gift, a small toy, a bangle, a ribbon or a coin. It is a moving custom, and the girls, who are used to being scolded, find that the whole house bows to them for the morning.

   Bisrakh: A Dussehra Without Fireworks

   Not everyone cheers at the burning of Ravana. In Bisrakh in Uttar Pradesh, believed to be Ravana's birthplace, the day passes in quiet recitation rather than fireworks. Villagers speak of him as a son of the soil, a learned man who was born here, and the festival passes in respectful stillness.

   On the Plate: Vrat Thalis and the Jalebi Morning

   The fasting kitchens of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are creative. Kuttu puris with potato curry, singhare ke atte ka halwa, sama rice khichdi, sabudana vada and thick makhana kheer take the place of grains. When the fasting ends, Dussehra morning in many homes begins with hot jalebi and kachori, and the evening ends with roasted corn, paan and the long walk home from the Ravan Dahan ground.

4. Haryana and PunjabNavratra and Kanjak: the night of the Jagrata

   In Haryana and Punjab, the festival is called Navratra, and it is observed with great discipline. Many families fast for the first eight days, sow jau, barley, in a pot on the first morning, and break the fast on Ashtami or Navami with Kanjak, the worship of young girls.

   Jagrata: The Night That Does Not End

   A Jagrata is a whole night of devotion. A stage is set with an image of the goddess, singers arrive with harmonium, dholak and chimta, and the evening opens with a Mata ki Chowki, a gathering of songs called bhents. Through the long hours, a singer calls out a verse, and the crowd answers with a roaring Jai Mata Di. The songs grow faster, the clapping louder, and as dawn approaches the final aarti is sung and a free community meal, a langar, is served to everyone present, from the singers to the passers by.

   Kanjak: Nine Girls and a Little Boy

   On the morning of Kanjak, nine girls and one small boy are seated on a row of mats. The boy represents Bhairon, the guardian who walks beside the goddess, and is often called Langur. Each child is worshipped, fed a plate of halwa, puri and kala chana, and given a chunri, a bangle, a coin or a note. Only then does the family sit down to break its own fast. Smaller households sometimes find it hard to gather ten children, and neighbours call on one another through the morning to be sure that every family has its guests.

   Temples of the Plains

   Haryana's Mansa Devi temple in Panchkula holds a huge Navratri fair, with lines of pilgrims stretching into the night. In Punjab, Amritsar's Durgiana temple, built in a style that deliberately recalls the Golden Temple with a sacred pool and a silver doored sanctum, draws crowds, and Jalandhar's Devi Talab Mandir hosts a lively Navratri festival around its ancient tank. On Dussehra, towering effigies of Ravana, Kumbhakarna and Meghnad are burnt in every large town, and Chandigarh's ground is a sea of families.

   On the Plate: Langar and Prasad

   The festival tastes of kada prasad, a warm pudding of semolina, ghee and sugar, of kuttu pakoras and potato curries during the fast, of sweet rice and of the Kanjak platter of halwa, puri and chana. At Jagratas the langar is simple and generous, and the dal and rice taste better at four in the morning than at any restaurant table.

5. Chhattisgarh and Madhya PradeshNavratrotsav and Ghatasthapana: the lamps of the tribal heartland

   In central India, Ghatasthapana is observed in homes and temples, and a green sprout called jawara is grown in the kalash. Tribal communities worship their own goddesses beside the Sanskrit pantheon, and the festival feels older and closer to the soil than anywhere else.

   Jas Geet: Songs for the Mother

   Chhattisgarh sings the goddess in a folk form called Jas Geet, devotional songs set to cymbals and the mandar drum, performed in the evenings of Navratri by village groups. The songs are slow at first, then climb into a trance like rhythm that sweeps through the whole courtyard.

   Thousands of Lamps

   At the Mahamaya temple in Ratanpur and the hill temple of Bamleshwari in Dongargarh, devotees light thousands of oil lamps, called manokamna jyoti, in the names of their families, and the temple grounds glow orange through the nine nights. In Madhya Pradesh, the Harsiddhi temple in Ujjain is famed for its pair of towering lamp pillars, whose hundreds of lamps are lit by hand at dusk in an unforgettable ritual. At Maihar, pilgrims climb more than a thousand steps to the Sharda Mata temple on a hilltop, and the stairway at dawn is a river of devotees.

   Bastar: The Seventy Five Day Dussehra

   Bastar Dussehra, among the longest festivals in the country, honours the local goddess Danteshwari over many weeks and centres on a massive wooden chariot. It has nothing to do with burning Ravana. Its rites begin in the rainy season and run for about seventy five days, and each has a name that villagers know by heart, from the Pata Jatra, when the sacred log for the chariot is brought from the forest, to the Rath Parikrama, when the huge chariot is pulled around the town by hundreds of tribal men.

   A rite called Kachan Gadi opens the festivities, in which a young girl from a particular family is seated on a swing of thorns and gives the permission to begin. She sways above the sharp branches in a trance, and the gathered crowd falls silent. In another, called Jogi Bithai, a man sits in a small pit for nine days, fasting, as a vow for the peace of the land. Tribal elders from across the district gather for a council called the Muria Darbar near the end, where grievances are aired in the open before the goddess and the descendants of the old rulers. The festival closes with a ceremony to bid the visiting village deities a respectful farewell.

   On the Plate: Vrat Chaat and the Indore Night Market

   Indore's night market at Sarafa turns into a fasting festival during Navratri, with stalls selling sabudana khichdi, vrat friendly chaat, kuttu pakoras and fruit rabri. Across both states, the Dussehra morning begins with poha and jalebi, a combination so beloved that queues form at the sweet shops before the sun is up.

6. GoaNavratrotsav: temple lamps and palanquins

   In Goa the nine nights are a temple festival first. Old village shrines of Shantadurga, Mahalasa and Mangueshi light up in the evenings, the deity is carried out in a silver palanquin in procession, and lanes that sleep the rest of the year fill with the sound of drums and brass. Families set up the kalash at home, and neighbours walk from temple to temple under strings of lamps.

   The folk dances of Goa belong to this season of festivals, and temple courtyards ring with forms like Ghodemodni, a spirited dance of warriors in colourful costume, and with the songs of the Konkani villages. On Vijayadashami, which Goans call Dasro, families wash and garland their tools and vehicles, and exchange the leaves of the apta tree as gold. Goan kitchens mark the season with a fasting plate of sabudana, potatoes and coconut preparations, and the final day ends with a feast in which the coconut, the jaggery and the rice of the coast take pride of place.

7. GujaratNavratri and Garba: a state that dances all night

   Garba and dandiya fill every open ground. Entire cities stay awake until dawn, and the circles of dancers in colourful chaniya choli are a sight in themselves. In Gujarat, Navratri is not simply a festival but a season, and the ground is booked, the costumes are stitched and the songs are rehearsed long before the first night.

   Garba, Dandiya and Raas

   Garba is danced in circles around the lit earthen pot, the garbo, with claps and graceful steps, and women and men join in separate or mixed circles. Dandiya Raas takes up painted sticks and a quicker, more athletic rhythm, and partners strike their sticks together in time with the beat. As the night goes on, the circles break into fast spinning chains, and a crowd of thousands moves like a single creature.

   What They Wear

   The chaniya choli, a long skirt and blouse covered in mirror work, bright thread embroidery and patchwork called kutchi work, is worn with a dupatta and heavy oxidised silver jewellery. Men dress in kediyu, a short pleated jacket, and a turban or a colourful kurta, and many households keep the costumes as family heirlooms. Shops in the old city bazaars stay open past midnight for last minute fittings.

   Pol Garba in Old Ahmedabad

   The old walled quarters of Ahmedabad keep a quieter, older form alive. In the narrow lanes called pols, neighbours still dance in a small circle on the street, without a stage, in the glow of one lamp and one singer. Many Gujaratis will tell you this is where garba is still at its sweetest.

   Mata no Madh and the Hill Temples

   Away from the cities, the Ashapura Mata temple at Mata no Madh in Kutch draws huge crowds, and the hilltop shrine of Mahakali at Pavagadh sees lines of pilgrims during these nights. For a visitor, a night at a village garba in Kutch under a sky full of stars is an experience that no big city ground can quite equal.

   On the Plate: Farali Feasts and the Fafda Jalebi Morning

   Fasting Gujaratis eat farali food, with sabudana khichdi, sabudana vada, kuttu pakoda, potato chips fried in ghee, and sweet dishes of rajgira. And then comes Dussehra, which in Gujarat means fafda and jalebi. At dawn, shops across the state open to queues of families who buy crisp gram flour fafda and hot syrupy jalebi by the kilogram, and eat them on the road, on balconies and in office lobbies. The full moon five days later, Sharad Purnima, has its own custom, in which a bowl of milk and pauwa is left under the moonlight and eaten the next morning.

8. Himachal PradeshKullu Dussehra: when the gods come down the mountain

   Kullu: Where the Festival Begins on the Day Others End

   While the plains burn their effigies, the valley of Kullu in Himachal Pradesh does something entirely different. There is no Ravan Dahan here. The festival starts on Vijayadashami, when hundreds of village deities are carried down from the surrounding mountains in decorated palanquins, with trumpets, drums and horns echoing across the valley, and gather at the Dhalpur maidan around Lord Raghunath. For a week the meadow becomes a congregation of gods, a village fair and a mountain market in one, with the gods paying calls on one another amid a sea of colour. This year the chariot of Raghunath is drawn out on 20 October, and the gathering closes on 26 October.

   The Legend of Raghunath: A King's Curse and a Stolen Idol

   Local memory traces the festival to the seventeenth century. Raja Jagat Singh of Kullu, so the story goes, was cursed after a rash act of greed, and a holy man advised him that only the idol of Lord Raghunath from Ayodhya could cure him. A Brahmin named Damodar Das is said to have brought the idol secretly from Ayodhya. When the king drank the water in which the idol was bathed, the curse was lifted. In gratitude, the king declared Raghunath the true ruler of the kingdom and himself a mere servant, and ordered all the gods of the valley to come once a year to pay respects. The gathering has continued ever since.

   Hidimba Leads the Way

   The first deity to arrive is the goddess Hidimba of Manali, who, according to local belief, has the right to arrive before all others. She is carried in her palanquin down from her forest temple, and her coming signals that the great assembly can begin. The deities arrive with their musicians, with long copper horns, drums and cymbals, and each village stakes out its own corner of the meadow. In the evening a procession begins, and the chariot of Raghunath is pulled with thick ropes by hundreds of devotees through the cheering crowd.

   Mohalla and Lanka Dahan

   On the sixth night, the gods visit one another in a gathering called Mohalla, and the meadow becomes a lively scene of palanquins bowing to each other. On the last day, the chariot is taken down to the river Beas, where a pile of thorn bushes and dry grass is set alight to represent Lanka, in a ritual called Lanka Dahan. The festival finishes when the deities begin their long trek home. In the Kangra valley and in villages on the hills nearby, Navratri is also celebrated at the great temples of Naina Devi, Jwalamukhi and Chintpurni, where lines of devotees stretch for hours.

   On the Plate: Dham and the Hill Kitchen

   The festive meal of Himachal is the dham, a feast served on leaf plates in a long row, with rice, dal, sweet rice, rajma in a yogurt based sauce called madra and a tangy chutney. At Kullu, the fairground offers thick siddu, steamed breads stuffed with poppy seed or walnuts and eaten with ghee, and warm mugs of local tea against the mountain chill.

9. KarnatakaMysuru Dasara and Gombe Habba: a festival of kings

   Mysuru and the Golden Howdah

   In Mysuru, the tenth day belongs to the Jumboo Savari. Goddess Chamundeshwari rides in a golden howdah, heavy with gold and weighing around 750 kilograms, on the back of a trained lead elephant, with the rest of the procession following in a long, bright line through the lit up city. The ritual preserves old state protocol. The royal sword is worshipped, the elephants are honoured, and the procession begins, much as the Wadiyar kings once rode out to mark their kingdom's readiness for the season ahead. In 2026 the procession is on Wednesday, 21 October, after ten days of palace illumination that begin on 11 October.

   From Hampi to Mysuru: The Story of a Royal Festival

   Dasara in Karnataka has a royal pedigree. The kings of Vijayanagara celebrated it with huge pomp at Hampi, where a stone platform called the Mahanavami Dibba still stands. When the empire fell, the Wodeyars of Mysuru took up the tradition, and around the beginning of the seventeenth century, Raja Wodeyar began celebrating Dasara at Srirangapatna, and later the festival moved to Mysuru itself. For four hundred years, with a few interruptions, the Mysuru Dasara has been held every year, and today it is the state festival of Karnataka, called Nada Habba.

   Eleven Days in Mysuru

   In 2026 the festival runs from 11 to 21 October. It begins on Chamundi Hill with a ceremony to inaugurate the festival, and each night the palace is lit by tens of thousands of bulbs, glowing against the evening sky. Concerts, wrestling bouts, a flower show, a food fair and a youth festival fill the days, and the nights end with a walk through the lit streets. The finale is the procession of Vijayadashami on 21 October, with the floral tribute to the goddess in the late afternoon, followed by a torchlight parade in the evening.

   Gombe Habba: The Dolls of Karnataka

   In Karnataka homes the dolls are called gombe, and the display is called Gombe Habba. As in the south, the steps are laid in odd numbers, and a pair of wooden dolls called Pattada Gombe, the king and queen, are the heart of the arrangement. The best houses carry on the tradition with a theme every year, and neighbours move from house to house with their blessings and their bags of sweet and sundal.

   Madikeri and Mangaluru

   In Kodagu, Madikeri Dasara is known for its all night procession of decorated mantapas, little temple like floats lit with lamps, that move through the town until dawn. On the coast, Mangaluru Dasara at the Kudroli temple is famed for its tableaux and its tiger dancers, men with bodies painted in yellow and black stripes who dance to the beat of drums in the streets.

   On the Plate: Mysore Pak and the Dasara Feast

   The best known sweet of the region, Mysore pak, was born in the palace kitchen, and its recipe of gram flour, ghee and sugar is still a pride of the city. At Dasara, the household cooks holige, a sweet flatbread stuffed with jaggery and lentils, payasa, puliyogare and kosambari, a cool salad of soaked lentils and cucumber. The sweet shops of Mysuru stay open all night, and the smell of ghee hangs over the old city.

10. KeralaNavratri and Vidyarambham: the festival of learning

    Books, pens and instruments are placed before the goddess on Ashtami evening in a rite called Pooja Vaypu and are left untouched until Vijayadashami morning. On that morning, children are guided to write their first letters in a tray of rice, a ceremony called Vidyarambham. In 2026 it falls on 21 October. In Kerala the last three days of Navratri belong to Saraswati, the goddess of learning, and the whole state seems to turn into a vast schoolroom.

    Pooja Vaypu: Letting the Books Rest

    On Ashtami evening, families clean the shelves of the house and carry their books, notebooks, musical instruments and tools to the prayer room. Everything is arranged before an image of Saraswati and garlanded with flowers. For two days, no one touches the books, and students are free of homework, a custom that every child in Kerala remembers fondly. On Vijayadashami morning, the books are taken up again with a prayer.

    Vidyarambham: The First Letter

    On the morning of Vijayadashami, a young child, usually about three years old, is seated on the lap of a teacher or an elder. The elder takes the child's finger and writes the first letters in a tray of raw rice, and in many families the first mantra is written lightly on the tongue with a gold ring. The temples of Saraswati, among them the great temple of Dakshina Mookambika at Panachikkad, are crowded from the early hours, and the line of children in new clothes, holding flowers, is one of the sweetest sights of the festival.

    The Procession from Padmanabhapuram

    In the south of Kerala, a royal tradition lives on in the Navaratri procession. The idol of Saraswati is carried from the old palace of Padmanabhapuram to Thiruvananthapuram, accompanied by the idol of Kumaraswamy and the goddess of Suchindram, and preceded by the royal sword of the former Travancore kings. For nine days the idols stay in the capital, where music and dance programmes fill the halls, and then they are carried back to their homes.

    On the Plate: Payasam, Aval and Sundal

    The offerings at Kerala's temples are sweet and simple, with aval, beaten rice, with jaggery and coconut, with rich rice payasam, banana fritters and nei appam. Homes serve a Navami meal of sundal, the same boiled legumes of the Tamil south, and a sadya like feast on Vijayadashami.

11. MaharashtraNavratrotsav: nine colours, one golden leaf

    Maharashtra begins the festival with Ghatasthapana at home, a clay pot of earth with sprouted grain and a garland of flowers that is added to every day. The festival here has also become a parade of colours, with women and families wearing the colour of each day as set out in the table of the nine forms, a custom that fills the offices, the trains and the markets with a single tone every morning.

    Kolhapur and Tuljapur

    In Kolhapur, the Mahalakshmi temple of Ambabai, one of the Shakti Peeths, hosts a splendid nine night festival. Each night the goddess is dressed in a different form, and a palanquin procession carries her around the temple in the evening. At Tuljapur, the Tulja Bhavani, the family goddess of countless Maharashtrian families, receives a steady stream of pilgrims walking from distant villages.

    Bhondla: Songs Around an Elephant

    In many villages, girls and women gather in the evenings for the Bhondla or Hadga, a folk game in which a picture of an elephant is drawn on a board or on the ground, and women walk in a circle around it, singing songs. Each night, a different song is sung, and at the end of the festival a simple feast is served with sweets. It is a gentle, communal custom of the countryside.

    Sone Ka Patta: Golden Leaves on Vijayadashami

    In Maharashtra and parts of Karnataka, people greet each other on Vijayadashami by handing over a leaf of the apta tree and calling it gold. The custom grows from an old tale. A young scholar named Kautsa asked the king for a fortune to pay his teacher's fee, and the king's treasury was empty. The god of wealth rained gold coins onto a tree in the king's garden, and Kautsa took only what his teacher had asked for, leaving the rest for the people. Every year since, families have exchanged the leaves with a blessing of prosperity, a gift that costs nothing and says everything. In some regions the shami tree plays the same role.

    A Day of Wheels and Marigolds

    Dussehra is a day of new beginnings in Maharashtra. Families buy new vehicles and gold, businesses open new account books and houses are decorated with garlands of marigold at the doors. Vehicles are washed, covered with flowers and driven to the temple, and in Nagpur, thousands of followers of Dr. Ambedkar gather at Deekshabhoomi on Vijayadashami to remember the day he embraced Buddhism in 1956, a gathering known as Dhammachakra Pravartan Din.

    On the Plate: Shrikhand, Puran Poli and the Fasting Thali

    During the fast, Maharashtrian kitchens serve sabudana khichdi, bhagar, the rice of the barnyard millet, and shengdana amti, a peanut curry that tastes comforting after a day of fasting. Dussehra brings out shrikhand with soft puris, puran poli and jalebi, and a family lunch is eaten with the apta leaf placed beside the plate.

12. OdishaDurga Puja and Gosani Yatra: silver, clay and folklore

    The city of Cuttack is known for its Durga Puja, where the decorative canopies and ornaments are fashioned from silver filigree by local artisans, and the immersion procession runs through the night. Alongside the clay idol worship found across the east, Odisha has its own festivals of the goddess, with temple rituals and village fairs.

    Cuttack: A City Dressed in Silver

    The pandals of Cuttack are known as medhas, and many of them are decorated in tarakasi, the delicate silver filigree work for which the city is celebrated. Entire canopies, arches and ornaments are made of thin silver wire, and they glow against the night like jewellery. On the night of Dashami the immersion procession winds through the streets and along the river banks, led by drummers and crowds with lamps.

    Puri: The Goddess Vimala

    In Puri, the temple of the goddess Vimala within the Jagannath temple complex observes a long sixteen day worship of the goddess that begins around Mahalaya, with ceremonial offerings made in the traditional way. The temple town fills with visitors, and the sea breeze carries the sounds of conch shells and temple bells.

    Paralakhemundi: The Gosani Yatra

    In Paralakhemundi, in the Gajapati district in the south of the state, the festival takes a form that is found nowhere else. The Gosani Yatra honours the local goddess Gosani, and the town is lined with beautiful clay figures of deities and folk characters made by local potters, arranged in tableaux that tell stories from the epics and from village life. The streets at night are a gallery of clay.

    On the Plate: Dahibara Aloo Dum Between Pandals

    No evening of pandal hopping in Cuttack ends without a stop at a street stall for dahibara aloo dum, soft lentil dumplings in a thin yogurt broth beside a spicy potato curry, a bowl that people carry out into the crowd on small leaf plates. In the temples, simple bhog of khichdi and kheer is offered to the goddess.

13. RajasthanNavratri Mela: forts, folk songs and the sprouting pot

    Kota holds a Dussehra fair that draws crowds from across the state, with towering effigies and long cultural evenings before the burning. Rajasthan's devotion is rooted in its historical fort temples, and the sound of folk music drifts through the sandstone lanes every evening during Navratri. Families sow barley in a Khetri pot on the first morning and watch it grow.

    Chamunda at Mehrangarh

    At the top of the great fort of Mehrangarh in Jodhpur, the Chamunda Mataji temple is one of the most devoted places of Navratri. At dawn, pilgrims climb the steep path through the fort gates, carrying flowers and coconuts, and the stone walls echo with bells. The city below turns blue gold in the morning light, and the view from the temple courtyard is, for many pilgrims, as moving as the darshan itself.

    Karni Mata at Deshnok

    At Deshnok near Bikaner, the Karni Mata temple holds a fair during Navratri. The temple is famous for the thousands of rats that live freely within, regarded as the reincarnated kin of the saint, and visitors are told that seeing a white rat brings luck. Pilgrims walk barefoot among them, bringing offerings of sweets.

    Mandore: Rites for a Scholar

    In Mandore, in Rajasthan, believed to be the home of his queen Mandodari, a temple to Ravana stands, and the local community does not burn his effigy on Dussehra. They perform rites for him instead, remembering him as a great scholar, a master of the Shiva Tandava Stotram and a tragic devotee of Shiva. The festival has room for both the victor and the vanquished.

    On the Plate: Kuttu Puri and the Festive Feast

    Fasting plates in Rajasthan are built of kuttu puri, sama rice kheer, potato curry and sabudana papad. When Vijayadashami arrives, many families choose a festive plate of dal baati churma, with its crumbled wheat sweet, the pride of the state, and the evening brings a walk to the effigy grounds.

14. SikkimDashain: tika, jamara and the walk to the elders

    Dashain brings family reunions, red tika on the forehead and bamboo swings in the courtyards. Elders place the tika of rice, curd and vermilion on the forehead of the young and tuck jamara, the yellow barley shoots grown in the kalash, behind the ear. Gorkha families in the hills of Darjeeling, Sikkim and the northeast keep the same custom, and the walk to an elder's house for blessings is the real heart of the festival.

    Fifteen Days of a Great Festival

    In the Nepali speaking world, Dashain is the greatest festival of the year, lasting fifteen days from Ghatasthapana to the full moon. The kalash is installed on the first day and the jamara begins to grow in the dark of a prayer room. By the seventh day, a bundle of leaves, flowers and grain called Phulpati is carried in procession. The eighth and ninth days are for the goddess and for sacrifice by tradition, and the tenth, Vijayadashami, is the day of tika, when the whole family gathers.

    The Bamboo Swing

    A week before Dashain, villagers cut tall bamboo poles and lash them into a giant swing, the ping, in the village square. Children, grandmothers and young couples take turns riding it, high enough that the whole village seems to sway beneath. In the hills of Sikkim and Darjeeling, a wooden or bamboo swing stands outside many homes through the season.

    On the Plate: Sel Roti and the Dashain Table

    The festival kitchen brings a feast. Sel roti, a ring shaped rice bread fried in oil, is made in huge batches, and goat curry, rice, lentils, pickles and seasonal fruit are laid out on the table. Elders give their blessings and a small gift of money, and every house in the hills hums with visitors for days.

15. TelanganaBathukamma: a tower of flowers for the goddess

    Bathukamma: Flowers Stacked Like a Temple

    In Telangana, the festival is not danced around a lamp but built from blossoms. Women gather seasonal flowers such as tangedu and gunugu and stack them in rising concentric rings until the heap stands like a miniature temple tower. In the evening the stacks are carried to an open ground, and women circle them in the glow of dusk, singing in a deep, clear call and response. On the last night the Bathukamma is carried to a pond or tank and set afloat. The flowers are chosen partly for their ability to clean the water, so each year the offering also purifies the tanks after the heavy rains.

    The Name and the Legend

    The name Bathukamma means mother, may you live. One tale tells of a king who lost his sons in battle and prayed for a child, and the goddess Lakshmi was born as his daughter, and the people sang the blessing that gave the festival its name. Others tell of a girl wronged by her family who gave up her life, and of villagers who stacked flowers in her memory. In every telling, the festival is a prayer for life and for the well being of women.

    Nine Days, Nine Offerings

    Day	Name	Offering
    1	Engili Pula	Sesame and jaggery
    2	Atkula	Beaten rice with jaggery
    3	Muddapappu	Soft lentils with milk and jaggery
    4	Nanabiyyam	Soaked rice with milk and jaggery
    5	Atla	Rice and lentil pancakes
    6	Aligina	A day of rest from the stack
    7	Vepakayala	Crisp rice flour pieces in the shape of neem fruits
    8	Venna Muddala	Butter and jaggery sweets
    9	Saddula Bathukamma	Five kinds of rice, such as tamarind, curd, lemon, coconut and sesame

    The festival begins at Mahalaya on 10 October and closes with Saddula Bathukamma around Durgashtami, so most households finish the cycle on 18 or 19 October. Offerings differ by household and by village, so treat the table as the usual pattern rather than a fixed rule.

    Uyyalo and the Evening Circle

    As the sun sets, women arrive in silk sarees and bring their finished stacks to an open ground. They place the stacks on the ground, form circles, and clap in rhythm while singing in a rolling, repetitive style, with a refrain of Uyyalo. In Hyderabad, thousands gather along the lakeside and the tank bund, and the evening ends with a long procession to the water. As night falls, the flowers float outward, a small garden of lights on the dark surface.

16. UttarakhandShardiya Navratra: the hills in prayer

    In Uttarakhand, the festival is deeply spiritual and quiet in character. Temples hold continuous recitations of the Chandi Path, the long hymn to the goddess, and the nights are filled with Jagratas, and the roads to the shrines are busy with pilgrims. The hill air at this time of year is crisp, and a sound of bells and chanting echoes from valley to valley.

    Temples on the Ridge

    Devotees travel to Chandi Devi and Mansa Devi above Haridwar, to Surkanda Devi on the ridge near Dhanaulti and to the hill shrine of Kunjapuri above Rishikesh, where the sunrise over the Himalayan range is the reward at the end of a climb. In the villages of Garhwal and Kumaon, families sow barley, observe the fast and gather for the Chandi Path.

    Almora: A Parade of Demons

    Almora is known for a very different Dussehra. In the days before Vijayadashami, local youth groups build enormous papier mache effigies, not only of Ravana and his family but of a whole gallery of demons and demonesses, with fierce faces and bright colours. On the night of Dussehra they are paraded through the town and burnt, and the whole hillside is lit by the glow.

    Kumaoni Ramlila: A Play Sung in Ragas

    The Ramlila of Kumaon is unlike any other, because its verses are sung, set in classical ragas, and its actors perform in the open, accompanied by harmonium and tabla. The performance lasts for many nights and draws entire villages, and it is a living tradition that has been honoured as a rich cultural treasure.

    On the Plate: Jhangora Kheer and the Hill Kitchen

    For the fast, Garhwali kitchens make jhangora kheer, a sweet porridge of barnyard millet, and spiced potatoes cooked in mustard oil with local herbs. After the fast, the villages celebrate with their own festival feasts, in which seasonal vegetables, mountain pulses and fresh ghee take the lead.

07Threads That Run Across the Country

Some customs refuse to stay inside a state. They appear in a village of the north and a city of the south, in different clothes and with different names, and they say something about the festival that no single region can say alone. These are the older layers, the threads that tie the whole cycle together.

08Fasting and the Vrat Kitchen

Many families fast through some or all of the nine days. The vrat kitchen runs on its own rules: rock salt in place of table salt, no onion or garlic, no grains such as wheat or rice. What takes their place is a delicious pantry of sabudana, kuttu flour, singhara flour, samak rice, potatoes, peanuts, yogurt and fruit. Crisp sabudana khichdi, kuttu puris with aloo sabzi and thick makhana kheer are the dishes the evenings remember. At the end of the fast, on Ashtami or Navami, the table fills with puri, halwa and black chana, the traditional meal for the kanya pujan.

Small Kitchen Wisdom for the Nine Days

• Soak sabudana for several hours, then drain it well and let it rest until each pearl is dry to the touch. Wet pearls turn into paste, and dry ones fry into separate, glossy grains.
• Kuttu flour turns bitter quickly, so buy it fresh and use it within a few weeks. Spoiled flour is a known cause of stomach trouble during the festival, so smell it before kneading.
• Keep a jar of rock salt only for the fast, and label it, so a hurried hand does not reach for the wrong one.
• Break the fast gently, with a glass of water, a fruit and something warm, rather than a heavy meal.

The Navratri Thali, Dish by Dish

The classic fasting plate is a small, balanced world. At its centre sits sabudana khichdi, soaked pearls tossed with roasted peanuts, cumin, green chilli and boiled potato, and finished with lemon juice. Beside it come kuttu puris, puffed in hot ghee and served with a spiced potato curry flavoured with rock salt and fresh coriander. A bowl of cool curd, a plate of sliced fruit and a spoon of singhare ka halwa, made from water chestnut flour roasted slowly in ghee until it smells of the harvest, round it off. For dessert, makhana kheer simmers for an hour in thick milk with cardamom and saffron, and rajgira laddus, made of amaranth puffed in jaggery syrup, are tucked into every festival tin.

Bhog of the Nine Days

Many households offer a different food to the goddess on each day of the nine, and then share it as prasad.

Kanya Pujan Bhojan: The Girls' Table

The meal served to the little girls is cooked with extra care. The halwa is made of semolina roasted in ghee until golden, with sugar syrup poured in slowly and a pinch of cardamom. The puris are small and crisp, and the black chana is cooked soft with ginger and cumin, with no onion or garlic. The girls eat first, and only when they have been served a second helping and sent off with their gifts does the family sit down.

The Tenth Day Feast

When Vijayadashami arrives, the fast is over and every region brings out its own festive table. Gujarat has fafda and jalebi at dawn, Maharashtra shrikhand and puran poli, Bengal the khichuri and sweets of Bijoya, the south its tamarind rice and payasam, and the hills their feasts of rice and goat curry. Whatever the dish, the meal is eaten in company, because on this one day of the year the whole country sits down to a table of victory.

09Insider Notes for the Road

The festival rewards those who know where to stand, when to arrive and what to carry. A few small things make the difference between a crowded evening and a memorable one.

10Frequently Asked Questions

When is Dussehra in 2026?

Dussehra (Vijayadashami) falls on Tuesday, 20 October 2026, the day after Maha Navami. Mysuru and a few other places that follow their own panchang mark the day on 21 October.

When does Navratri 2026 start and end?

Sharad Navratri 2026 begins on Sunday, 11 October with Ghatasthapana and ends on Monday, 19 October with Maha Navami.

What is the Ghatasthapana muhurat in 2026?

On 11 October 2026 the morning window runs roughly from 6:20 AM to 10:15 AM, with the Abhijit muhurat around 11:45 AM to 12:30 PM. Exact times shift by city.

What is the Vijay Muhurat on Dussehra 2026?

In Delhi the Vijay Muhurat falls at about 2:00 PM to 2:45 PM inside the Aparahna window of roughly 1:14 PM to 3:30 PM on 20 October 2026. Ravan Dahan follows after sunset. Timings shift by city.

Why is Navratri 2026 later than usual?

The lunar calendar carried an extra month this year, which pushed the autumn festivals about a month later than in recent years.

Is Dussehra the same as Vijayadashami?

Yes. Dussehra and Vijayadashami are two names for the tenth day of the bright fortnight of Ashwin.

Which colour is worn on each day of Navratri 2026?

Orange, white, red, royal blue, yellow, green, grey, purple and peacock green, from Day 1 to Day 9.

Why is Mysuru Dasara a day later than Dussehra elsewhere in 2026?

Mysuru follows its own local panchang, so the Vijayadashami procession, the Jamboo Savari, is held on Wednesday, 21 October 2026, even though most national calendars list Dussehra on 20 October.

When does Kullu Dussehra 2026 begin?

Kullu Dussehra begins on 20 October 2026 with the Rath Yatra at Dhalpur maidan and runs for about a week, ending with Lankadahan on 26 October.

What are the Durga Puja dates in West Bengal in 2026?

In Bengal, Maha Shashthi is on 17 October, Maha Saptami on 18 October, Maha Ashtami on 19 October, Maha Navami on 20 October and Bijoya Dashami on 21 October 2026, with Mahalaya on 10 October.

On which mount does Goddess Durga arrive and depart in 2026?

According to tradition she arrives on an elephant because Navratri begins on a Sunday, and departs on a horse because the festival closes on a Tuesday.

When is Navratri Parana in 2026?

Those who fast for all nine days break the fast on Tuesday, 20 October 2026, after the Navami havan and the morning puja.

What is offered to the goddess on each day of Navratri?

Many households offer ghee on Day 1, sugar on Day 2, kheer or milk sweets on Day 3, malpua on Day 4, bananas on Day 5, honey on Day 6, jaggery on Day 7, coconut on Day 8 and sesame seeds on Day 9.

When the last lamp goes down on Vijayadashami and the smoke clears from the fields, what stays is the sound: the dhol, the dhak, the bells, the verses sung by thousands in voices that have heard them since childhood. May the lamp you lit on the first morning keep burning long after the tenth night. Shubh Navratri and Happy Dussehra.