Navratri Vrat माँ दुर्गा
The nine-night fast of Maa Durga — Chaitra and Sharad Navratri, ending with kanya pujan.
Vrat mantra
ॐ दुं दुर्गायै नमः
Om Dum Durgayai Namah
What you can eat — and what to avoid
✓ You can have
- One phalahar meal a day (or fruits and milk only, per your sankalpa)
- Fruits and fresh fruit juices
- Milk, curd, paneer, butter, ghee
- Sabudana — khichdi, kheer or vada
- Kuttu (buckwheat) and singhara flour rotis / puris
- Samak (barnyard millet) rice
- Makhana, dry fruits and nuts
- Potato, sweet potato, arbi — cooked with sendha namak
- Sendha namak (rock salt) only
- Tea, coffee or coconut water in moderation
✗ Avoid
- Onion and garlic — strictly, for the whole household during Navratri
- Non-veg and alcohol — strictly
- All grains — wheat, rice, semolina (sooji), besan, oats
- Pulses and legumes — dal, chana, rajma, soy
- Regular table / sea salt (use only sendha namak)
- Onion and garlic
- Non-vegetarian food and eggs
- Alcohol and tobacco
- Heavy spices — keep to jeera, kali mirch, green chilli
Step-by-step vrat vidhi
Sankalpa — the vrat morning
Wake early, bathe and wear clean clothes. With water, akshat and a flower in the right palm, state your name, the vrat (Navratri Vrat), its count if it is a series, and your prayer — then release the water.
Morning puja
On Pratipada do Kalash Sthapana (Ghatasthapana) with jau sowing; daily, bathe and worship Maa Durga with red flowers, chunari, dhoop-deep and the day's Devi mantra.
Keep the fast through the day
Keep the fast as prescribed — nine-day phalahar (one phalahar meal a day, or fruit-milk only). Spend free moments in japa of "Om Dum Durgayai Namah", and keep the mind sattvik: no anger, gossip or harsh speech.
Katha & evening puja
Do the evening aarti "Jai Ambe Gauri" daily; recite Durga Saptashati, Argala-Kavacha or Durga Chalisa as per capacity; keep the akhand jyot fed if you have taken that sankalpa.
Kanya pujan (Ashtami / Navami)
Worship nine young girls as forms of the Devi — wash their feet, apply tilak, feed them (traditionally puri, chana, halwa) and give dakshina.
Paran — breaking the fast
After Ashtami or Navami kanya pujan (per family tradition) — feed nine kanyas, then break the fast.
Daan & prasad
Share the prasad with everyone present and give some daan (food, fruit or dakshina) as per capacity — the vrat is completed by giving.
Special rules for this vrat
- If you keep the akhand jyot, it must burn unbroken for all nine days.
- Keep the house sattvik for nine days — no onion, garlic, non-veg or alcohol.
- First and last day fasting (Pratipada + Ashtami/Navami) is an accepted lighter form.
Family and regional traditions (parampara) vary — where yours differs, follow your parampara. Children, the elderly, pregnant women, and anyone unwell or on medication should keep a softened vrat (fruit and milk) or skip it — a vrat is bhakti and restraint, never hardship to the body.
Choose another vrat
What is a Vrat Vidhi?
A vrat vidhi is the procedure for keeping a sacred fast — from the morning sankalpa (vow), the deity's puja, the discipline of the fast through the day, the katha (vrat story) and aarti, to the paran (breaking of the fast) at its proper time. Each vrat has its own food rules: most allow phalahar (fruits, milk, sabudana, kuttu and singhara flour, samak rice, with sendha namak only), some are kept nirjala (without even water, like Karwa Chauth), and a few carry one defining rule — no grains on Ekadashi, nothing sour on the Santoshi Mata vrat, no salt on the Ravivar vrat.
Pick a Dev or Devi to see the complete vidhi of their vrat — the day, the fast type, what you can eat and what to avoid, the paran rule, mantra, katha and aarti — and use the linked samagri checklist where one exists. A vrat is bhakti and self-restraint, never hardship: children, the elderly, pregnant women and the unwell should keep a softened form, and family traditions (parampara) always come first.