Jagaddhatri Puja 2026

About Jagaddhatri Puja

Jagaddhatri Puja is Bengal's worship of Jagaddhatri, a lion-riding form of Durga whose name means "she who holds the world", on Kartik Shukla Navami, about a month after Durga Puja. In 2026 the Navami falls on Thursday, 19 November 2026. Krishnanagar in Nadia packs the main rites into that one day, while Chandannagar in Hooghly keeps four days, Saptami to Dashami, and ends with an all-night procession of lit-up images.

Jagaddhatri comes a month after Durga Puja, on the ninth day of the bright half of Kartik, about ten days after Kali Puja. For many Bengalis she is Durga in another form: the same lion, the same red, but four arms instead of ten, and an elephant under the lion's paw instead of a buffalo demon. Outside Bengal the day passes almost unnoticed. In Krishnanagar in Nadia and Chandannagar in Hooghly, it is the town's signature puja.

Who is Jagaddhatri?

The name joins jagat, the world, and dhatri, the one who holds or nurses it. She sits on a lion, dressed in red, and holds a conch, a discus, a bow and arrows. A snake hangs across her body as a sacred thread. The lion stands on an elephant.

Bengali tradition ties her to a story from the Kena Upanishad. After a victory, the gods grew proud and believed the win was their own. A mysterious being set a blade of grass before them: Agni could not burn it and Vayu could not shift it. Then Uma Haimavati appeared and told them the strength had never been theirs. The Katyayani Tantra retells this with Parvati humbling the gods, and in the Bengali reading the elephant beneath the lion is that pride, held down.

Puranic tellings give the elephant a name, Karindrasura. In one, he is Indra's elephant Airavata under a curse; in another, a general of the demon Durgama; in a third, Mahishasura himself in elephant form. In Shakta teaching she stands for sattva, the clear and steady mind, keeping tamas, the heavy and proud one, under her feet.

How the date is set

The puja falls on Kartik Shukla Navami. Panchangs give the day to whichever date has Navami running at sunrise, so the puja can fall on the day after the tithi begins. The same tithi is kept elsewhere in India as Akshaya Navami, and the two can land on neighbouring dates because of that sunrise rule.

How long the puja lasts depends on where you are. Krishnanagar and many family pujas do the Saptami, Ashtami and Navami worship one after another on the single Navami day. Chandannagar and its neighbour Bhadreswar spread the same rites over four days, Saptami to Dashami, as Durga Puja does. Both are correct. If you are planning a visit or a wish, ask which pattern the family or town follows. A one-day puja at Krishnanagar runs roughly like this.

1. Before dawn on Navami
   The ghot is filled

   Water is brought from the river and set in the pot that holds the goddess's presence. At the Krishnanagar Rajbari it still arrives from the Jalangi in a palanquin.

2. Early morning
   Saptami puja

   The first of the three pujas, followed by pushpanjali, the flower offering.

3. Late morning
   Ashtami puja

   The second puja and a second round of anjali for those who missed the first.

4. Afternoon
   Navami puja

   The main worship, then arati and homa, the fire offering.

5. Night
   Bhog

   Cooked offering shared with everyone who has come, often late into the night.

6. Next day, Dashami
   Immersion

   The image is taken down and carried to the river.

Krishnanagar and Raja Krishnachandra

The story most Bengalis know begins with Maharaja Krishnachandra Roy of Nadia, who ruled from Krishnanagar in the 18th century. Nawab Alivardi Khan demanded a tribute of 12 lakh rupees, and when it was not paid the raja was held prisoner in Murshidabad or Monghyr, depending on the account. He was released only as Durga Puja ended. On the way home he heard the immersion drums and knew he had missed the goddess's visit. That night, the story says, Jagaddhatri came to him in a dream and asked to be worshipped on the coming Shukla Navami.

The dates do not sit neatly. Bengali newspapers give 1762 or 1766 for the Rajbari puja, though Alivardi died in 1756, and some local historians credit Krishnachandra's descendant Girishchandra. The goddess herself is older than any of these claims. The 15th-century Smarta scholar Shulapani mentions her Kartik worship in his Kalaviveka, and her figure is carved on Shantipur's Jaleshwar and Raghaveshwar temples, built in the 1660s.

By every account, Krishnanagar is where the puja moved out of the palace and into the neighbourhoods. The best-known image is Burima, the Old Mother, of Chashapara, a puja the organisers date to 1772. The earliest Krishnanagar pujas used only a ghot; a clay image is said to have come around 1790. On Navami evening Burima is dressed in several kilos of gold ornaments; reports range from seven to ten. Images are carried past the Rajbari before immersion, a custom from the days when the queen watched them from the palace. The Rajbari's own image enters the river first, and Burima goes last, carried on shoulders to the Jalangi. The town calls this immersion procession the Sang. The Rajbari itself opens to visitors on only three days a year, and this is one of them.

Chandannagar's four days and its lights

Chandannagar, upriver from Kolkata on the Hooghly, was a French settlement from 1688 and joined India only after 1950. Locals still call the old town Farasdanga. Its puja is usually traced to Indranarayan Chowdhury, diwan to the French, a friend of Krishnachandra and a lender to him, who is said to have admired the Krishnanagar worship. Indranarayan died in 1756, which again unsettles the dates. The Chaulpatti puja in the old Lakshmiganj rice market is described by historians as probably the town's oldest community puja.

Work on the images starts early. At the Shiva Mandir Tematha puja, home of the image called Rani Ma, the bamboo frame is worshipped on the day of Kojagari Lakshmi Puja, the full moon of Sharad Purnima. Under French rule most Chandannagar images wore white daaker saaj, the foil ornament also seen on Durga; Rani Ma got her name because she alone was dressed as a queen, in gold.

The lights are what draw the crowds. Chandannagar's lighting makers, whose craft is linked with the pioneer Sridhar Das, were building animated light panels that tell stories long before computers could programme such things, and their work now goes to festivals across Bengal and beyond. At Jagaddhatri Puja their best work is on show at home, from Panchami to Dashami. In 2024 the central committee looked after 133 pujas in Chandannagar and 44 in Bhadreswar, and 69 of them joined the Dashami procession on 245 lorries. The procession starts in the evening and runs until the next morning, and in 2024 the committee streamed it online for the first time.

Beyond the two towns

Rishra, Guptipara, Shantipur, Singur and Midnapore all keep notable pujas. Some Ramakrishna Mission centres, such as the TB sanatorium in Ranchi, list it among their yearly celebrations, and Sarada Devi, Ramakrishna's wife, is remembered for reviving the worship. West Bengal's 2026 government holiday list did not include the day, so for most office-goers outside the two towns it is a working day.

What to write

Ghot

The water pot in which the goddess is invoked; early pujas used it without an image

Pushpanjali

The flower offering made with folded hands, repeated in rounds

Bhog

Cooked food offered to the goddess and then served to everyone

Sang

Krishnanagar's name for its immersion procession

Daaker saaj

Silver or white foil ornament on the image, once sent by post

Para

Neighbourhood; a para puja is the local community puja

Pronam

Respectful greeting to elders, often by touching their feet

How to wish someone on Jagaddhatri Puja

The usual greeting is Shubho Jagaddhatri Pujo, with a pronam for elders. A good wish names the place that matters to the person: Chandannagar's lights, the Burima of Krishnanagar, the para puja near home, or a family puja kept for generations. For anyone who grew up in these towns and now lives away, missing the procession is the real feeling, so say it. Keep it warm and plain; this is a puja, not a party.

Write a few lines in your own words, pick a design and share it as one link on WhatsApp, Instagram or anywhere else. They open an animated card made just for them, with no app and no sign-up.

Language tip: English, Bengali.

When is Jagaddhatri Puja in each year?

Jagaddhatri Puja is set by the Hindu lunisolar calendar, so it falls on a different date each year. In 2027 it falls 12 days earlier than in 2026.

Frequently asked questions